agathachristieclubR3

1920s Omnibus | Agatha Christie

A #shelfie of my Agatha Christie collection.
I love vintage paperbacks. I‘m always on the lookout for more.
The #christiescapers #AgathaChristieClubR3 should help me work through my collection ( I also have a ton on my kindle).

Librarybelle

Ruthiella I love it! I also try to pick up used copies of Agatha Christie books when I see them. 4d

mcipher I do the same with Mary Stewart and Dorothy Gilman! 3d

Librarybelle That is awesome! So lovely! 3d

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LitsyEvents

The Secret Adversary | Agatha Christie

Repost for @Librarybelle

In February, the #ChristiesCapers group will read Christie‘s second mystery, and the first featuring the duo Tommy and Tuppence. Originally published in 1922, this introduces the couple from their first meet cute to their adventures in mystery.

Discussion will take place on February 23rd. If you would like to be added or removed from the tag list, please let me know! #AgathaChristieClubR3

OutsmartYourShelf I‘m already partway through the Marple & Poirot series for #192025 but I might dip in & out of the other series with you if that‘s ok @Librarybelle (edited) 4d

Librarybelle Thanks for reposting! 4d

Librarybelle That‘s great, @OutsmartYourShelf ! Would you like me to tag you in the group? There are others who are tagged but are also dipping in and out of the books. 4d

OutsmartYourShelf @Librarybelle Yes please. 4d

Librarybelle Will do, @OutsmartYourShelf ! 😁 4d

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MaleficentBookDragon

The Secret Adversary | Agatha Christie

Check out this crazy weird cover from 1981 for next month‘s book.
It kind of creeps me out with that giant fly.

1981 printing of the 1967 paperback edition.

#christiescapers
#agathachristieclubR3

Librarybelle

Librarybelle Oh my! That is so strange! 5d

kspenmoll Whoa! 5d

Deblovestoread That is a weird one! 5d

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RamsFan1963 It looks like that episode of Doctor Who, where the 10th Doctor met Agatha Christie and there was a giant wasp creature terrorizing them. 4d

bumpinthenight I love vintage books like this! 4d

MaleficentBookDragon @bumpinthenight I do too. I‘m always looking for old Christies and old Nancy Drews. 4d

Gissy Unique cover😍👌 3d

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Librarybelle

The Secret Adversary | Agatha Christie

In February, the #ChristiesCapers group will read Christie‘s second mystery, and the first featuring the duo Tommy and Tuppence. Originally published in 1922, this introduces the couple from their first meet cute to their adventures in mystery.

Discussion will take place on February 23rd. If you would like to be added or removed from the tag list, please let me know! #AgathaChristieClubR3

janeycanuck, Aims42, MallenNC, kspenmoll, BarbaraJean, JenlovesJT47, Lizpixie, MariaW, elkeOriginal, AnneCecilie, Gissy, mrp27, Larkken, Suet624, Cailey_Mac, Deblovestoread, ferskner, Marmie7, MaleficentBookDragon, majkia, Bookwormjillk, StayCurious, Laughterhp, Sace, RainyDayReading, Skygoddess1, PathfinderNicole, dabbe, tdrosebud, TheAromaofBooks, Tineke, PageShifter, willaful, AnishaInkspill

Librarybelle @LitsyEvents 5d

TheAromaofBooks This is one of my favorites!! I love Tommy and Tuppence so much!! 5d

Bookwormjillk Another new one to me. Looking forward to it! 5d

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Librarybelle Yay, @TheAromaofBooks @Bookwormjillk ! 5d

Deblovestoread It will be a first for me as well. Should be fun! 5d

Librarybelle Yay, @Deblovestoread ! 5d

Aims42 My copy is ‘in transist‘ to my library 🙌 Can‘t wait! 5d

Librarybelle Yay, @Aims42 ! 5d

kspenmoll I think I have it in some stack! 5d

Librarybelle Yay, @kspenmoll ! 5d

Morr_Books This is one I haven't read before! ♥️ 4d

Soscha I need to get signed up for is # 4d

Librarybelle @Morr_Books You‘re more than welcome to join if you would like! I can add you to the tag list too if you would like. Just let me know! 4d

Librarybelle @Soscha I‘m happy to include you in the group! 4d

Morr_Books @Librarybelle Great! Yes..please add me. 😀 4d

Librarybelle Will do, Sarah! @Morr_Books 😁 4d

BarbaraJean Yay! Looking forward to reading this one—I haven‘t read any of the Tommy & Tuppence books yet! 3d

Librarybelle Yay, @BarbaraJean ! 3d

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Librarybelle

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Poirot) | Agatha Christie

It‘s time for our first #AgathaChristieClubR3 #ChristiesCapers discussion! I posted 9 questions as spoilers; they can be found on my feed, the book‘s feed, or by searching the group‘s hashtags. Feel free to answer whenever!

February‘s book is The Secret Adversary, which is the first Tommy and Tuppence book. More details will be posted tomorrow!

janeycanuck, Aims42, MallenNC, kspenmoll, BarbaraJean, JenlovesJT47, Lizpixie, MariaW, elkeOriginal, AnneCecilie, Gissy, mrp27, Suet624, Cailey_Mac, Deblovestoread, ferskner, Marmie7, MaleficentBookDragon, majkia, Bookwormjillk, StayCurious, Laughterhp, Sace, RainyDayReading, Skygoddess1, PathfinderNicole, dabbe, tdrosebud, TheAromaofBooks, Tineke, PageShifter, willaful, AnishaInkspill

Sace Thanks for tagging. I‘ve made a note in my reading journal for May-July, but enjoy lurking until then. 😁 6d

Aims42 I‘m excited for the February read! This will be my first Tommy and Tuppence book 😁 6d

Larkken I always forget about Tommy and Tuppence! Looking forward to the read. 6d

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Librarybelle @Larkken Great! Would you like me to add you to the tag list? 6d

Librarybelle Wonderful, @Aims42 ! 😁 6d

Librarybelle @Sace Lurk away! 6d

Larkken @Librarybelle ha. Forgot I was only lurking. Sure! 6d

Librarybelle No worries, @Larkken ! You‘re also welcome to lurk. 😁 6d

Cailey_Mac Yay a list🫶🏼 6d

56 likes9 comments

Librarybelle

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Poirot) | Agatha Christie

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9. In Lucy Worsley's 3-part documentary, she interviews a professor about Christie's racist and anti-Semitic epithets in her novels (the interview is wonderful).

As we progress in the novels, we'll notice this (there were a couple of instances in my addition of this novel that stood out to me).

But yet, we love Christie, and her works have endured for over 100 years. Why do you think this is the case? #AgathaChristieClubR3 #ChristiesCapers

Aims42 This is another great question!! I can‘t wait to see what other readers think. I have to let this marinate 🤔 6d

Bookwormjillk I‘m not sure how to answer that. I‘ll have to find that documentary. Worsley‘s book about Christie is really good too. Maybe I‘ll have a chance to re-read it before next month‘s discussion and then I can answer more questions 😂 6d

dabbe To address the racist/anti-Sematic slurs in her novels and why these novels still endure is a hard question for me. Perhaps at the heart of many of Christie's novels is a deep understanding of human nature and the frequent exploration of themes of greed, jealousy, betrayal, and the darker sides of human behavior. These themes transcend cultural and temporal boundaries, making her stories relevant to successive generations of readers. 6d

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MallenNC I agree that this is a question to wrestle with. In someways I think readers accept those parts of the books as reflective of the time they were written and that it‘s excused because the stories are so good. I read Lucy‘s book but I think I need to rewatch that part of the documentary. 6d

MariaW I‘ve read Worsley‘s book as well, but did not watch the documentary. I definitely have to find it. Again, I agree with @dabbe. And I am adding another point: Christie‘s novels have become such huge part of our modern day pop culture, they are considered as classics due to all the different famous adaptions. Nowadays we have more authors and books, there is an overflow of information. This was not the case yet at the beginning of the last century. (edited) 6d

MariaW I am not sure there will be found classics of our time in a hundred years or so. (edited) 6d

mrp27 It‘s definitely something I wrestle with, with many authors, artists etc. I don‘t know that there will ever be a clear cut answer of how to deal with this. We just learn and do better, be better. 4d

Librarybelle I think the particular segment is in episode 3, and I keep searching for a clip online—if I find it, I‘ll post. It‘s a question I wrestle with, and I think as modern day readers we see these instances in the books as flawed and degrading ( @dabbe in your response to the first question, you alluded to the troubling phrases). I‘ve yet to read Worsley‘s book, so I cannot speak to that personally. There may be no right way to respond to this. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ 2d

Librarybelle ⬆️⬆️⬆️ I think, though, it is good to acknowledge that there are flaws. Incidentally, in 2023 Christie‘s works were one of the classics changed to remove the derogatory and racist comments by Harper publishing. I personally love Christie for her plotlines and the twists. She‘s one of my favorite authors. Somewhat related to this, I attended a webinar last night that the presenter was discussing myths in how history is presented…⬇️⬇️⬇️ 2d

Librarybelle ⬆️⬆️⬆️ …and bringing the full truth to light. In this particular instance, a town in Massachusetts that has citizens fighting to remove inappropriate signs regarding the Indigenous community and properly recognizing the contributions of the non-WASP citizens. Someone called him out on his “impartial view” and his response was that it is not a condemnation of how people portrayed history in the past. Rather, it‘s up to us today to acknowledge…⬇️⬇️ 2d

Librarybelle ⬆️⬆️⬆️…that portrayal as flawed and add more to the story. As he said, people 50 years from now may find fault with our interpretation of history and find a better way to convey how everyone in the community contributed to the overall town story. It‘s hard to explain on a post, but I found that seemed to fit well with this. We see these phrases, know they are bad, and it‘s a teachable moment for us to personally do better. @Aims42 @Bookwormjillk 2d

Librarybelle ⬆️⬆️⬆️ @MallenNC @MariaW @mrp27 2d

RainyDayReading It‘s hard to come up with an answer for this. I agree with everyone above. Perhaps another reason why people seem okay with the remarks is because they‘re aware that these are classics and therefore contain things that are a product of their time and with that as context we can take the work as a whole and still enjoy it while disagreeing with the remarks? I don‘t know that there‘s a good answer for this. It‘s difficult to put thoughts into words. 2d

Librarybelle @RainyDayReading So true. It‘s hard for to put thoughts into words. 1d

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Librarybelle

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Poirot) | Agatha Christie

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8. According to Brewer‘s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, a red herring is “a hint or statement in the early part of the story to put the reader on the wrong scent” (derived from the practice of dragging a smelly red herring across a path to confuse hunting dogs). How many red herrings can you find in this mystery? ~from Penguin Random House Reading Group Guide #AgathaChristieClubR3 #ChristiesCapers

dabbe 1. John Cavendish seemed to be highly suspect--until we find out that his suspicious behavior was mostly due to his anxiety about his financial situation.
2. There are letters that appear to suggest a romantic relationship between Evelyn and Dr. Bauerstein, which gives the impression that there might be a love triangle and a motive for murder, but this too is misleading and part of the complex relations to mask the real culprits. 6d

MariaW @dabbe Letters between Evie and Dr Bauerstein? I completely missed that. 🙈 Got definitely not thrown off by this one. 😂😂😂 The were so many: Inglethorp habing the affair instead of John. Lawrence insisting on the murder being a natural death, … 6d

MaleficentBookDragon The Doctor is the biggest one. The whole farmer‘s wife affair is another. I never saw where it was implied that it was John having the affair. That seemed to be pulled out of the blue at the end. Cynthia working at the pharmacy made her a suspect and red herring for me. 6d

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mrp27 Evelyn hatred was a big red herring. One does protest too much. 4d

Librarybelle I agree about Cynthia, @MaleficentBookDragon . The doctor was another one, and those letters! @dabbe @MariaW @mrp27 2d

RainyDayReading I agree with everyone above. Cynthia and the doctor being the biggest red herrings for me. Also how thoroughly everyone suspected Alfred and were insisting it was him until Poirot “cleared” him. Then after that it‘s like “well Poirot cleared him so it can‘t be him.” Oh but it can!! 2d

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Librarybelle

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Poirot) | Agatha Christie

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7. According to the critic Anthony Lejeune, “The real secret of Agatha Christie . . . lies not in the carpentering of her plots. . .but in . . . [her] ability to buttonhole a reader, to make, as Raymond Chandler put it, ‘each page throw the hook for the next.‘ ” How does Christie build suspense in this novel? Were you surprised when the murderer was revealed? ~from Penguin Random House Reading Group Guide #AgathaChristieClubR3 #ChristiesCapers

Bookwormjillk I thought I knew who did it, and was thrown off when we learned who the real murderer was. 6d

dabbe The problem I find with detective novels sometimes is that in order for them to supply the element of fair play for the reader, we have to be given all of the clues during the story. When everything is explained to us at the end, we literally feel stupid (a la Watson) and maybe even jaded that we, in fact, weren't given all the clues until the end. I saw that in this book and quite a few others (talking to you, Conan Doyle!) 6d

MariaW I agree with @dabbe. After most of Christie‘s nocels I felt like „How was is supposed to know?“. She gives the glues most of the times, but the reader is almost unable to grasp them, at least not during the first reading. For me it is more about reading about the different relationships, encounters and the changes in ther characters that make the books interesting. I already gave up guessing the murder. 🙈 (edited) 6d

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MaleficentBookDragon I know that we are supposed to have all the clues, Poirot even told Hastings a few times that he knew everything that Poirot did. But Hastings (meaning us) cannot piece them together. I suppose that is to show us how agile and different Poirot‘s mind is, but I do sometimes wish we could see the book from Poirot‘s viewpoint. I‘d love to see how he made the mental leaps he (Christie) made to get to the end of the mystery. 6d

Librarybelle Oh yes, I‘d love to see it from Poirot‘s perspective, @MaleficentBookDragon ! I‘m terrible at finding clues to begin with in a story—hence why it took me 4 times to find some of the clues Poirot mentions—but like @dabbe said, sometimes we the reader just don‘t have everything. @Bookwormjillk @MariaW 2d

RainyDayReading At this point I have just accepted the fact that I will never be able to figure out mystery novels particularly Christie mysteries so I just sit back and enjoy the story. I theorize but I don‘t obsess over whether I‘ve got it right or not. I know the point is to perhaps try to solve it before Poirot, but I don‘t wanna 🤣 I‘m rarely right anyway. 2d

Librarybelle Love it, @RainyDayReading ! I‘m always shocked when I figure out something! 😂 1d

RainyDayReading @Librarybelle It‘s a good feeling when you do though! 21h

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Librarybelle

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Poirot) | Agatha Christie

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6. What role do outsiders play in The Mysterious Affair at Styles? Consider, in particular, the characters of Alfred Inglethorp, Dr. Bauerstein, and Hercule Poirot. ~from Penguin Random House Reading Group Guide #AgathaChristieClubR3 #ChristiesCapers

dabbe Alfred fits the “nobody“ role who marries the rich ol' lady. Poirot is the detective who is “outside“ the realm of the regular police force--you have to have that in a detective novel, I think. Not sure about Dr. B. 6d

MallenNC I like the double meaning of outsider for Poirot. He‘s Belgian so he‘s outside of this British culture but that status doesn‘t stop him from seeing everyone as they really are. And he‘s outside of the case as a civilian (edited) 6d

MariaW There are more outsiders somehow: Hastings has been to Styles for years, Emily is the stepmother of the boys, Evie, Mary and Cynthia as well. It seems like a lot of outsiders were thrown into a salad bowl and mixed together. Dr Bauerstein is the red herring Agatha Christie needed to make the story more interesting. Poirot and Inglethorp are the antagonists - with Poirot circling Inglethorp like a cat lying in wait. 6d

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MaleficentBookDragon I agree with @MariaW that there were more outsiders than insiders. Johnathon & Lawrence were the only true family. Their stepmother was never close to them emotionally. Mary just came to Styles to escape her boring life. Cynthia was the poor relation with no prospects. Emily infiltrated Styles with an evil plan. Mr. Inglethorpe, the doctor, the policemen, the farmer‘s wife; they were all a bit of window dressing to keep us confused. 6d

mrp27 Felt like they were all outsiders in one way or another, even John and Lawerence who were only step sons. 4d

Librarybelle I like the idea that they were all outsiders to a degree, and good point @MallenNC that there is a double meaning to “outsider” with Poirot. And yes, @dabbe , Alfred fits that “nobody” role by marrying the matriarch. @MariaW @MaleficentBookDragon @mrp27 2d

RainyDayReading I agree with many of the comments here. There did seem to be a plethora of outsiders more than there was insiders. Which meant that the suspect pool could be bigger since suspicion typically falls on the “outsider” but if most of the characters fit the “outsider” definition that makes it harder to figure out “whodunnit” since you‘ve got more than just 1 or 2 characters to pick from. 2d

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Librarybelle

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Poirot) | Agatha Christie

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5. How would you describe the Edwardian social hierarchy that Christie establishes in the novel? Who is on the top of the ladder, and who is on the bottom? Does anyone break the rules of this well-defined social order? ~from Penguin Random House Reading Group Guide #AgathaChristieClubR3 #ChristiesCapers

dabbe It seemed to me that the Edwardian society was at the end of its run in the novel--mostly evident by Emily marrying basically a nobody. The idea of a remote country house also seemed to me to be an end-of-an-era feeling. 6d

MariaW Changes can be seen at the horizon for sure. Less personnel around, the ladies have to work… only the men still seem to do nothing (except being in the war). That Inglethorpe was penniless made the shock for the family even more terrible. 6d

MaleficentBookDragon It was interesting to see how there was a wistful nostalgia about the old ways from both Mrs. Inglethorpe (to be expected of the “lady of the house”) but also by a few of the servants like Dorcus. Fear of change perhaps? 6d

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Librarybelle I like that description, @MaleficentBookDragon , “wistful nostalgia.” It‘s definitely the end of the era. I love reading about the grand houses of England, and it‘s at this time that families can no longer afford these homes. So many economic reforms and, with heavy casualties from the war and a patriarchal society, no one to carry on the upkeep. @dabbe @MariaW 2d

RainyDayReading This definitely comes across as an “end of an era” sort of thing. Especially given the time period of the war and money being tight and not allowing things like paper to go to waste. The war was a time of change for a lot of people when it comes to society and class and I think this book did a good job of capturing that atmosphere. 2d

RainyDayReading I do think that Dorcus was an interesting character as a servant that didn‘t seem to like the shrinking of the household staff and what that implied moving forward in the future. The general assumption is that people didn‘t like being servants but perhaps there were some that were afraid of change and preferred the structure they were currently in. 2d

Librarybelle Agreed, @RainyDayReading ! Your comments make me think of Ishiguro‘s The Remains of the Day. 1d

RainyDayReading @Librarybelle I‘ll have to go look that up! I know Ishiguro but I‘m not familiar with The Remains of the Day. 21h

Librarybelle It‘s an excellent book! It‘s also a movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, though I‘ve not seen it. @RainyDayReading (edited) 17h

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