Tag Archives: classic mystery

Audiobook Review: Mrs. McGinty’s Dead

19 Jun

UnknownMrs. McGinty died from a brutal blow to the back of her head. Suspicion falls immediately on her shifty lodger, James Bentley, whose clothes reveal traces of the victim’s blood and hair. Yet something is amiss: Bentley just doesn’t seem like a murderer.

Could the answer lie in an article clipped from a newspaper two days before the death? With a desperate killer still free, Hercule Poirot will have to stay alive long enough to find out . . . .

 

 

 

mv5bmtu3otyzmzy4nv5bml5banbnxkftztcwmdixotiyoa-_v1_sy317_cr80214317_al_Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She died in 1976.

 

My Impressions:

Another car trip called for another Agatha Christie audiobook. This time Hercule Poirot has a lot of suspects for the murder of a charwoman. Mrs. McGinty’s Dead was the perfect book to make the miles fly by.

Mrs. McGinty’s Dead is classic Poirot. The fussy and fastidious little detective is endearing as he suffers in a small English village in the hopes of uncovering whodunit. My husband, son and I had a good time trying to figure out the villain, but in true Christie fashion, the actual solution was a bit obscured. We never would have figured it out on our own. And while I like to think that my powers of detection are sharp from the many hours of mystery reading, this particular mystery was just too hard.

The audio version was very entertaining. Hugh Fraser does a great job of bringing Christie’s characters to life. His timing is impeccable too — we enjoyed a a great many laughs with this novel.

If you are looking for an entertaining and challenging mystery, then consider Mrs. McGinty’s Dead.

Recommended.

Audience: late teens to adults.

To purchase this book, click HERE. 

(I purchased the audiobook from Audible. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

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Audiobook Review: Hallowe’en Party

13 Nov

UnknownAt a Hallowe’en party, Joyce—a hostile thirteen-year-old—boasts that she once witnessed a murder. When no one believes her, she storms off home. But within hours her body is found, still in the house, drowned in an apple-bobbing tub.

That night, Hercule Poirot is called in to find the “evil presence.” But first he must establish whether he is looking for a murderer or a double murderer.…

 

 

 

MV5BMTU3OTYzMzY4NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDIxOTIyOA@@._V1_SY317_CR8,0,214,317_AL_Born on September 15, 1890, in Torquay, England, Agatha Christie published her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in 1920, and went on to become one of the most famous writers in history, with mysteries like Murder at the Vicarage, Partners in Crime and Sad Cypress. She sold billions of copies of her work, and was also a noted playwright and romance author. She died on January 12, 1976. Read more HERE.

 

My Impressions:

A few weeks ago my husband and I took a weekend road trip. Over the course of 4 days we traveled a total of 14 hours. I thought a good way to make the time go faster was to listen to an audiobook. Like a lot of things in our life together, our book likes are not always the same. But we both like a good mystery, so I chose Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie. In this novel, Hercule Poirot, now retired, is the sleuth.

The story opens in a small English village. A group of ladies, teenagers and children are gathered to decorate for a Halloween party to be held the next night. During the course of the activity, a young girl boasts that she has witnessed a murder. A famous mystery novelist is present, and Joyce is eager to impress her. But although Joyce is known to be a liar, often making up stories to make herself seem more important, a killer takes her assertion to heart. After a real murder occurs, Hercule Poirot is called in to get to the bottom of the case.

My husband and I had fun gathering clues right along with Poirot. We figured out just whodunit early on in the narration, but that didn’t spoil our enjoyment of the book. Motives were hard to decipher, so we needed Poirot’s help as well. The reader for this book did an outstanding job bringing all the characters to life. He did great voices for both the men and the women.

Perfect for our car trip, Hallowe’en Party is a good choice for those who like mysteries and need a little escape into the English countryside as well as the workings of the mind of Hercule Poirot.

Recommended.

Audience: teens to adults.

(I purchased the audiobook version from Audible. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

To purchase this book, click on the image below.

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