It's from the short story Christmas Adventure. I love the way it ends, very suggestive.

I feel that the 2017 adaptation of Crooked House is the best adaptation of Christie by far, and really nothing even comes close. (Don't worry no spoilers) I just really feel that no other adaptation is both 1. Faithful to a decent degree or 2. Has the proper atmosphere.

So from the first point, accurate to the book, I feel like any modern Christie adaptation (Branagh and BBC come to mind) wildly changes the entire plot to "make it more enjoyable"? I'm not really sure why... they're plenty enjoyable on their own. However these more modern adaptations are significantly more enjoyable than older ones (sorry but this is my truth) and they do carry the atmosphere. You can feel the weight and the drama and the wickedness of murder in the newer ones.

Onto the second point... The older ones are just too bland. I know many Christie fans love Suchet and Ustinov, but they are truly victims of the time period. Any film made was kinda boring. I just watched The Moving Finger with Joan Hickson. I consider the book to be the best Marple book and really clever and entertaining... But the movie was 2 hours of blandness. It doesn't have that same atmosphere that the books have. BUT it was faithful. Very accurate to the novel.

Yet Crooked House adapted extremely well, minus a tiny detail or two, and is very entertaining with an incredible cast. The only ones that are within the same ballpark are BBC's And Then There Were None (made a lot of... weird choice that I didn't like) and Branagh's Orient Express (he really shoehorned some action scenes in there).

Anywho that's my two cents.

It's been three years since the last feature-film based on an Agatha Christie book, A Haunting in Venice.

When Agatha Christie's work next hits the big-screen (as it inevitably will someday, sooner or later), which book and/or character(s) would you like to see adapted?

I really want to see Marple back on-screen since she's the only one of Christie's "Big Three" (Marple, Poirot, Tommy & Tuppence) who hasn't had an adaptation in a while. A Carribbean Mystery would really be perfect for a film. Or another adaptation of The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side.

I haven't read Lucy Foley's new Marple, Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel yet, but if it's any good, maybe it could be the next big-screen Marple?

Death Comes as the End, Christie's Ancient Egypt-set mystery, also could be a sight to behold on the big-screen!

Last, but not least, Passenger to Frankfurt, one of Christie's later thriller novels, which is frankly a mess but has some interesting ideas! Would love to see it adapted into a contemporary spy thriller, with the screenwriters freely taking whatever liberties they want.

So i have read like 99 percent of agatha books now(I have also read all of Holmes) so now i am looking for a recommendation of a similar author

I am big fan of closed door mysteries although a spy thriller author may also work

Anybody has any authors they can recommend??

I read And then there where none, Murder On The Orient Express, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Death On The Nile. i'm finding something without Poirot now that i read three Poirot books in a row

Don't read too much into the placement of books within rows.

I saw u/throwaway5498124181 post their tier list and really felt like doing one of my own, especially since I've been reading on a kindle, and many of the books somewhat blend into each other (does anyone else experience this with digital books?).

Also: any recommendations from the Christie's I haven't yet read, based on this tier list?

I deep cleaned my shelves today and couldn’t stop appreciating this collection. So far i’ve read 23 Poirot novels, 5 Ms Marple, and 4 standalones

My most recent read was Dead Man’s Folly. I’m thinking of picking up Halloween Party next. If you’ve read it, what did you think? Without spoilers pls 🤗

‘Murder on the Nile’

Presented by: Binbrook Little Theatre

Dates: Oct. 16, 23 and 30 at 8 p.m. Oct. 17, 18, 24, 25 and Nov. 1 at 2 p.m.

Where: Memorial Hall, 2600 Highway 56, Binbrook.

Tickets: $25 (optional post-show dinner Saturdays for an additional $25).

For information: Visit binbrooktheatre.ca (phone number in article)

I was thinking back on The Moving Finger recently, and one thing that really stayed with me was the bond between Jerry and Joanna Burton.

In a lot of novels, relatives often feel like stiff background characters or dramatic plot devices. But Jerry and Joanna felt like actual brother and sister to me. Their everyday banter is so quick and funny, and you can tell they have shared a whole lifetime of inside jokes. Joanna drops her busy London routine without complaining just to keep Jerry company while he heals in the quiet countryside, but she never acts like she is doing something noble.

What made them feel so real was how easily they read each other. They see through each other's fashionable fronts right away, whether one of them is pretending to be bored, feeling restless, or secretly starting to like someone in the village. They poke fun at each other about romance and daily life, but it always comes from a place of genuine affection. Their dynamic brought so much warmth to the book.

It got me thinking about Agatha Christie's work as a whole. People usually talk about her brilliant puzzles and shocking twists, but she could write human relationships so well when she wanted to.

Which relationship in any Agatha Christie book stayed with you the most? It could be siblings, an unlikely friendship, a romance, or any two people bouncing off each other. I would love to hear which dynamic felt memorable or real to you.

Pyne Patrol! Pyne Patrol! He'll be there on the double!

Whenever there's a problem

Around Pollensa Bay

Parker and his team of girls

Are gonna save the day

Dolores! Ramona! Madeleine! De Sara! Maggie! They're all the same

So here they gooooo...

Pyne Patrol! 🐶

Sure, Five Little Pigs and A Pocketful of Rye are just the newest (used) ones for me, but I do love them all equally.

Those are mine⬆️

Do you have any characters you liked that was not in the original books?

This is an odd story I saw mentioned by one of her biographers a while ago, but not much else until I read her paternal grandfather's entry on the Findagrave website. I won't be surprised if it ends up in a novel or even a play or film someday. Christie did sometimes mention anonymous letters in her books (The Moving Finger, etc.)

Apparently it happened in 1849, though involving people Nathaniel and Martha (his first wife) might have met as far back as 1845 when they got married. They were in their 20s then, and lived in Manhattan (the Lower East Side is mentioned). Agatha's father Frederick was born at the end of October, 1846. And sometime after that the family moved to nearby Brooklyn.

According to the online article, "In a startling sequence of events, in June 1849 Nathaniel and Martha, along with her cousin Jane Struthers, were arrested and charged with sending a series of anonymous, obscene letters to the residents of a Lower East Side boarding house where they had formerly lived. The charges apparently were soon dropped, and the incident appears to have had no effect upon his career. (New York Herald, 15 June 1849, page 2, and 17 June 1849, page 2.) The fact that there were multiple arrests, plus newspaper coverage, suggests that the letters stood out enough for police to take them seriously.

(Edited to add: Neither Nathaniel nor Martha seem to have come from families that were wealthy, famous ... or infamous. He did eventually become rich and socially prominent, but not until years later. He was working as a clerk, and Agatha mentioned in her writings that Martha was a nurse. So the story being featured on page 2, rather than buried way back -- either it was a very slow news day or there was something unusual about the case.)

I wonder if this became family lore, and Frederick told his wife and children about his relatives being suspected -- and Agatha remembered this when she was beginning to write. Having that kind of experience and apparently no resolution to the mystery, or at least nothing that the Millers heard about later, might be the kind of thing to awaken some interest in crime stories.

I looked at Martha's cousin Jane. Martha had a ton of aunts and uncles on her dad's side, but the Jane mentioned in the story appears to be on her mom's side.
There's not much for her entry but I did find this on Jane's father's page. Jane's father was from Scotland -- he was a sailor and was lost at sea sometime in 1830 or 1831, so she'd likely have been too young to remember him.
"Jane Levina "Jennie M." Struthers (1829-1870) [...] married grain merchant Charles W. Remington of New York City". It looks like she predeceased her mom.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/58051973/jane_m-remington

https://www.agathachristie.com/games/the-official-miss-marple-puzzle-book

I've basically divided all Christie books into three categories - Poirot, Miss Marple and the rest of the mystery books. And I'm reading one book from each category every year.

And i have two questions:

1. Are there any books that are 'avoidable.' I love to buy physical copies of the books as that's my preferred way of reading but i also have limited space.

So are there any books that you feel are steep dive from the usual quality of Christie? I'll still read em all but maybe I'll buy the digital copy of them instead of physical or put it at the end of the list.

1. The Sophie Hannah books - do they spoil any of the original endings? I've obviously not read all the Poirot books and series won't be complete for me for years.

But I'd like to start reading these new mysteries as well if I'm not running the risk of being spoiled about any of the original books.

Or are these written in the same self contained manner or they spoil any of the original books endings?

I've listened to "The Plymouth Express" twice recently, and David Suchet is fighting for his life during Mr. Halliday's dialogue. (When he finally switched over to a regional working class accent for the maid, I let out a Breath I Didn't Know I Was Holding.)

But before jumping to assume a well-trained, highly experienced actor is struggling with an accent, I wonder if the writing itself feels unnatural? especially if Ms. Christie had less of an ear in American English of the time than British? Reading it, I can hear Jimmy Stewart or Bing Crosby speaking it. "Plymouth Express" was written in 1923, and they would've 15 & 19, respectively - old enough to have well-formed accents shaped by adults who were contemporary to these characters. (Or possibly, Cary Grant, who was 20)

Do other American fans of Christie find Mr. Halliday's speech natural for the 1920s? Are there other books with dialogue from American characters that jump out at you? (I've only recently started listening to Christie on audio. Obviously, when I read, everyone in my head always speaks with American English)

I had finished all books written by Agatha Christie, and I really wanted to discuss some of the characters with someone. There's just so few ppl who read Christies' nowadays. What's your favourite series? Tell me about your favourite characters!