#hercule poirot or murder she wrote

[detectivejay]

Time for a new poll! I'm curious to see the spread of answers on this one (and hear any other series not on the list.) Tried to go for a range of older and newer series on here, more on the older end of the spectrum, but I can't cover everything with the limited poll options here, so I hope you'll share your answers! :)

Please reblog for a larger sample size, thank you!

[ratatattouille]

old people falling in love and solving mysteries > whatever angst the young ones in edgy, unnecessarily explicit shows are going through

[shiplessoceans]

If you like Murder She Wrote, Columbo, Hercule Poirot mysteries and Knives Out/Glass onion?

Go watch Poker Face.

Natasha Lyonne as a human lie detector stumbling into random murders and calling bullshit til she catches the killer.

It's just so much damn fun!

[papenniesandbentoboxes]

Inspired by a recent poll I saw, I have a question for y'all

[collinsportmaine]

The World’s Greatest Detectives

[funnygirlthatbelle]

If You Like Benoit Blanc...

Ever since Glass Onion came out, it seems like everyone’s obsessed with Benoit Blanc and these types of mysteries! Which is great; as someone who loves them, I’m thrilled to have more people interested in the genre. So, if you’re looking for more murder mystery stuff, might I offer some recommendations?

Hercule Poirot

Agatha Christie’s delightful Belgian detective might be the most similar to Blanc of any of the big detectives out there. And with countless novels, short stories, the tv show, and the recent movies, there’s plenty of Poirot content out there for you to enjoy! I personally recommend buying a collection of the short stories and starting from there, but really, there’s no wrong way to get into one of the world’s most famous detectives!

(Note: Agatha Christie was a wealthy British woman who began being published in the 1920′s, and this shows in some of her stories. Most of what I’ve read I’d construe as not meaning badly but definitely of the times, but it’s worth noting!)

Columbo

If you like the parts of Glass Onion where Blanc plays up the old fashioned, Southern charm and acts like a simpleton, Columbo is the detective for you. The whole conceit of this show is that we actually know whodunnit and the question is how is Columbo going to figure it out. Usually the answer is looking shabby, rambling, talking about his wife, and trapping people in their own lies. It’s incredibly satisfying to watch, and Columbo himself is very memeable.

Murder, She Wrote

The late, great Dame Angela Lansbury and her hit show Murder, She Wrote have actually been referenced in both Knives Out movies and it’s no wonder why. Jessica Fletcher is an acclaimed murder mystery author who uses her keen observation skills, knowledge from researching her books, and grandmotherly demeanor to solve murder mysteries. It’s a delightful show filled with tons of guest stars you’re bound to recognize, and J.B. Fletcher really is one of the great fictional detectives.

Pushing Daisies

Okay, admittedly I’m mostly including this one because I think everyone should watch Pushing Daisies at some point. It’s part murder mystery, part romcom, part musical, part absurdist comedy with an absolutely enchanting style. Our leads are a piemaker with necromantic powers, a dead girl walking, a jockey turned waitress, a private investigator who also knits and writes pop-up books, and two retired mermaid entertainers. It’s whimsical and wild in all the best ways while still having really creative, engaging mysteries.

There are so many incredible, unique murder mysteries out there- the genre really spans so many wonderful stories. These are just a few that I think are really fun and fans of Beniot Blanc will enjoy! For my fellow murder mystery fans, I’d love to hear what you’d recommend to folks just starting to get familiar with the genre as well!

[zeldamacgregor]

Favorite Character Tag!

Thanks @tina-mairin-goldstein for the tag!

Put 4 of your favorite characters from 4 different medias to see who's the favorite of your favorites, and tag 4 people.

No pressure tagging: @sarcasticsciencefictionwriter, @celestialcrowley, @mattatouile, @itslemonfluff, @jedimastergoat

[casperolivervo]

I might need a bookshelf for my mystery / whodunnit books and dvds. I wanna show off my multi-year long collection efforts. I'm so proud of it 😭😭😭

[poirott]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AGATHA CHRISTIE! (b. September 15 1890)

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime"—a moniker which is now trademarked by her estate—or the "Queen of Mystery". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

[doyouknowthischaracter]

You've been asked before about 2 weeks ago, but I'm wondering if, with the new submissions, there's any new characters who've been sent in more than once (Hopefully by multiple people). Are there any who've been submitted more than twice now

For reference, I'm not going to list the ones that were repeated in previous submission batches, unless they show up again with the latest one, in which case they'll be added to the overall count. Previous list here if anyone's interested.

Let's see:

Ronan Lynch, The Raven Cycle x3

Monkey D. Luffy, One Piece x3

Sans, Undertale x3

Jessica Fletcher, Murder, She Wrote x3

Five Pebbles, Rain World x3

Crowley, Good Omens x3

Granny Weatherwax, Discworld x3

G'raha Tia, Final Fantasy XIV x3

Sam Vimes, Discworld x3

Haruhi Suzumiya, The Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumiya x3

Murderbot, Murderbot Diaries x3

Captain Jack Harkness, Doctor Who / Torchwood x2

Data, Star Trek x2

Link, The Legend of Zelda x2

Tsukino Usagi, Sailor Moon x2

Eileen the Crow, Bloodborne x2

Zagreus, Hades x2

Olivia Dunham, Fringe x2

Jane Doe, Ride the Cyclone x2

Sylvain Jose Gautier, Fire Emblem: Three Houses x2

Mollymauk Tealeaf, Critical Role x2

Wallace Wells, Scott Pilgrim x2

Daan, Fear and Hunger: Termina x2

Alphinaud Leveilleur, Final Fantasy XIV x2

Nanami Kiryuu, Revolutionary Girl Utena x2

Gladion, Pokemon x2

Sylvanas Windrunner, World of Warcraft x2

Leo Fitz, Agents of Shield x2

Francis Crozier, The Terror x2

Maedhros, The Silmarillion x2

Vergil, Devil May Cry x2

Alex, Oxenfree x2

Tsume, Wolf's Rain x2

Niko, OneShot x2

Halt O'Carrick, Ranger's Apprentice x2

Dirk Gently, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency x2

Qifrey, Witch Hat Atelier x2

Schmendrick, The Last Unicorn x2

Pamitha Theyn, Pyre x2

Dracula, Dracula x2

Gideon Nav, The Locked Tomb x2

The Audio Tour Guide, The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity, and Mortality x2

N, Pokemon x2

Ginko, Mushishi x2

Hawkeye Pierce, M*A*S*H x2

Merlin, BBC Merlin x2

Vislor Turlough, Doctor Who x2

Roronoa Zoro, One Piece x2

Ishigami Senku, Dr. Stone x2

The Little Prince, The Little Prince x2

Soren, Fire Emblem x2

Blindspot, Marvel Comics x2

Tahu, Bionicle x2

Luo Binghe, The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System x2

Hercule Poirot, books by Agatha Christie x2

Sakura Kinomoto, Cardcaptor Sakura x2

Beatrice, Umineko x2

Jerome Valeska, Gotham x2

Klaus Hargreeves, The Umbrella Academy x2

Abed Nadir, Community x2

Dick Grayson, DC Comics x2

Dante Sparda, Devil May Cry x2

Utena Tenjou, Revolutionary Girl Utena x2

Johan Liebert, Monster x2

Siffrin, In Stars and Time x2

Foo Fighters, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure x2

Snufkin, Moomins x2

Mae Borowski, Night in the Woods x2

Haruhi Fujioka, Ouran High School Host Club x2

Anders, Dragon Age x2

Wen Kexing, Faraway Wanderers x2

Hopefully, I didn't miss any! You'll see some of these sooner rather than later as they're already in the queue, and a couple have already been posted before.

[detectivejay]

Detective/Mystery Media List

Open to more recommendations if I’m missing any favorites I should check out, let me know! Particularly any other good Sherlock adaptations, but also interested in finding more female, PoC and/or queer-led detective media.

Watched/read/played/etc:

Sherlock Holmes (ACD canon)

Sherlock - Basil Rathbone adaptation film series

Sherlock - Granada, Jeremy Brett adaptation TV series (some episodes, need to rewatch) - shoutout to @thegreatandlovablespacedorito for reminding me to revisit this one

BBC Sherlock TV series

Sherlock - Robert Downey Jr movies

Enola Holmes (movies)

Moriarty the Patriot/Yuumori (manga and anime)

Ron Kamanohashi: Deranged Detective/Forbidden Deductions aka RKDD (anime, need to read the manga)

Hercule Poirot novels (not all but a large portion) - need to watch more of the TV show Spenser novels by Robert B Parker (not all but a large portion)

Auguste C Dupin - The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe (short story)

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (book)

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (book)

Case Closed / Detective Conan (anime, some episodes/seasons)

Knives Out movies

Psych TV series

Only Murders in the Building TV series

The Dresden Files books

Brookyln 99 TV series

House MD TV series

Monk TV series (watched some episodes)

Murder She Wrote (a few scattered episodes)

The Clue movie

Anita Blake book series (up to book 10)

Some Nancy Drew books

Ace Attorney video games

Professor Layton video games (not all but I believe at least the first 3)

Sherlock Hound

The Great Mouse Detective

Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century

Inspector Gadget cartoon

Scooby Doo cartoons

The Boxcar Children

Detective Pikachu movie

The Case Study of Vanitas (anime/manga)

The Millionaire Detective - Balance: Unlimited (anime) - @prapo237 got me into this one x3 so silly

Currently watching/reading/playing/etc:

Sherlock - Elementary TV series (on 2nd season)

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (video game series, includes Herlock Sholmes)

Persona 5 recommended by friends on the JR Discord

To watch/read/play/etc:

Detective L - Chinese Sherlock-inspired TV series on Youtube recommended by @meg-pond

Miss Sherlock - Japanese series also suggested by @meg-pond

Bodkin TV series on Netflix - Irish, female-led, recommended by @rubycountess

Sherlock Holmes and Co - podcast (seen a lot of posts about this, but I’m terrible at following podcasts so TBD, going to try some suggestions from @wasabitheweirdo to help with this)

Columbo tv series

Murder on the Orient Express movie

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes film

Bonnie MacBird Sherlock Holmes books recommended by @romanathree

Soviet made Sherlock Holmes film recommended by @imlostatau on Youtube

Baskerville play by Ken Ludwig suggested by @wolfyraged

Without a Clue suggested by @helloliriels

Young Sherlock suggested by @helloliriels

Charlotte Holmes books by Sherry Thomas suggested by @lej418

Sherlock Holmes stories by Anthony Horowitz ("House Of Silk" and "Moriarty") recommended by @bringerofworlds

Miss Marple novels by Agatha Christie

Any other Agatha Christie novels I haven’t read (Sad Cypress recommended by @romanathree )

AJ Raffles books by William Hornung recommended by @romanathree

Dead Boy Detectives on Netflix

Elemental Masters by Mercedes Lackey

Holmes, Marple and Poe by James Patterson - curious to see how this book treats these original characters inspired by the greats, the new characters are Brendan Holmes, Margaret Marple (maybe related to Jane Marple?) and Auguste Poe (takes his first name from Poe’s detective, Auguste Dupin)

The rest of the Dupin stories

The rest of the Raymond Chandler books

More Arsene Lupin stories (including ones vs Herlock Sholmes)

Nero Wolfe novels by Rex Stout

Pet Shop of Horrors anime/manga recommended by @eden-falls

Otherside Picnic recommended by @eden-falls

Lonely Castle in the Mirror recommended by @eden-falls

Phryne Fisher's murder mysteries books and TV show recommended by @milenathebrave

The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison, saw this one posted recently by @seeingteacupsindragons and I'm curious so added it to the list

Magnus Archives horror/thriller mystery podcast recommended by @writingandwritten

[door]

Knives Out Reference Guide

hello it’s your friendly neighborhood obsessive murder mystery fan here. the knives out films are delightful for a number of reasons, one of which is that rian johnson is a huuuuuge movie nerd and loves to include references and hat tips in his films. i have had great fun recognizing those references, so here is a little guide! some of this is based on things johnson has said and some of it on my own observations. i’ll indicate which is which for the purists.

first off, if you’re not interested in having these pointed out to you but want a viewing list, here it is! i’ll put everything else under a cut (which will have glass onion spoilers, so beware). these are great movies for knives out reasons but also for normal film reasons, and i highly recommend them.

Sleuth (1972) Death on the Nile (1978) The Last of Sheila (1973) Evil Under the Sun (1982)

First off: Benoit Blanc himself.

Blanc is very clearly meant to be an homage to gentlemen sleuths of the past, and Johnson even gives us a clue as to which gentleman sleuth he was thinking of with Blanc, with his Southern gentleman amidst the Northerners aping Hercule Poirot’s Belgian-amongst-the-Brits. Johnson has also said that Peter Ustinov is his favourite portrayer of Poirot (fun fact: he was also Agatha Christie’s!--not that she lived to see David Suchet take on the role), and personally I think having Blanc direct the questioning from the piano in Knives Out was an echo of Poirot at the piano in a similar scene in Death on the Nile.

That said, I think there’s a lot of Miss Marple (and Jessica Fletcher, who is herself a modern Miss Marple) in Blanc. The way he has a tendency to observe while deputizing a younger assistant to do the actual snooping for him is very Jane Marple. And he weaponizes the lil-ol’-me Southern gentleman act in much the way Marple made use of the assumptions people in her day and age had about retiring spinsters.

now let’s get into the FILMS. the first one is easy, because it’s really just Sleuth. (1972. i cannot stress this enough--Sleuth 1972.) it does not share a plot, but Knives Out is clearly paying a lot of tribute. Sleuth is a film in which two men, one older and richer and laurence olivier and the other younger and poorer and michael caine, attempt to outwit one another in order to win the woman they both love but who we never see (and yes it’s very very homoerotic). (fun fact: Sleuth was originally a play by Anthony Schaffer--who also wrote the screenplay for Death on the Nile!--who based the elder character in part on Stephen Sondheim, who loved to play games.) it’s set entirely inside the rambling manor house belonging to olivier’s character, a mystery writer, and it’s full of figurines and automatons, and otherwise weird old shit. you seeing how this lines up?

there’s even a very direct tribute in the form of the sailor you see almost immediately in the film.

however, aside from the setting and the blueprint for harlan’s character, there aren’t a lot of similarities between Knives Out and Sleuth. Knives Out is much more a play on general mystery tropes than it is a specific mystery movie.

Glass Onion is very much the opposite.

(FROM THIS POINT ON, GLASS ONION SPOILERS ABOUND)

Glass Onion is playing very deliberately on The Last of Sheila. The Last of Sheila (written by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim name a more iconic duo i’ll wait) is about a wealthy and powerful man who invites a group of old friends onto his yacht (”Sheila”) in order to play a series of games (i see u Stephen) and perhaps solve a mystery? (the mystery is who killed his wife, Sheila.) The friends all come in spite of misgivings because they all need something from their host.

Glass Onion is about a wealthy and powerful man who invites a group of old friends onto his private island in order to play a game and solve a mystery (the mystery is who “killed” him). the friends all come in spite of misgivings because they all need something from their host.

so you see what’s he’s done there.

it’s a very loving tribute, and johnson has put his own distinctive spin on it, both with the addition of a detective who nobody expected to be there, as well as the inexperienced assistant whom he’s deputized. but unlike your typical watson and very like marta’s character in Knives Out, helen in Glass Onion has a huge personal stake in solving the mystery. also, of course, Miles is a very specific, recognizable piece of shit.

but door, you might be saying, because you have very closely read this post for some reason, what about Evil Under the Sun? oh, i am so glad you asked!

Evil Under the Sun is another Ustinov Poirot mystery, set in a resort on a private island. The trappings of Glass Onion owe much to it, from the luxury getaway setting (complete with swim fits), to the opportunity to have your characters dress for cocktails, to the “hourly dong” (based on Evil’s “hourly gun”). oh, and i know this was deliberate:

so! that’s what i’ve got! if you noticed other things i missed (i’ve only seen Glass Onion once at this point), please let me know! 

[murderessdominatrix]

Low-key (high-key) hoping they turn Benoit blanc into a movie series along the lines of sherlock Holmes, Hercule poirot, murder she wrote, etc. It's been a while since the world has had an original non-cop detective series

[justforbooks]

Regarded as one of Agatha Christie’s greatest achievements, Murder on the Orient Express was first published as a novel in 1934.

The very first publication of the story was in a six-instalment serialisation in the Saturday Evening Post in 1933 in the US, under the title, Murder on the Calais Coach.

The book is dedicated "To M.E.L.M. Arpachiyah, 1933" – Agatha Christie’s second husband, Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan.

It’s likely that the story was drafted when Christie was on an archaeological dig with Max in Arpachiyah, Iraq, although The Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul has an Agatha Christie Room where, it claims, she wrote Murder on the Orient Express.

The story was partly inspired by the Lindbergh case; a shocking real-life case following the kidnapping of international hero, Charles Lindbergh’s, 20-month old son who was held for a $50,000 ransom. The ransom was paid, but unfortunately Lindbergh’s son was never returned.

The story was also inspired partly by an incident in 1929 when the Orient Express was trapped in a blizzard in Çerkezköy, Turkey, where it was marooned for six days! Two years later Christie was involved in a similar scenario when she was travelling on the Orient Express and the train got stuck for a period of time due to heavy rainfall and flooding, which washed part of the track away!

Christie first travelled on the Orient Express in 1928 which also happened to be her first solo trip abroad. This was to become the first of many trips on the train.

Agatha Christie’s notable attention to detail is evident throughout the novel. While writing it, she checked cabin layouts, door handles and light switches, noting down their positions. These crucial details would lead Poirot to solve the case.

The dust jacket blurb on the first edition reads: ‘Murder on the Orient Express must rank as one of the most ingenious stories ever devised.’

In 1974 the book was adapted for the big screen. Directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, the film was the 11th highest grossing film of the year.

At the age of 84, Agatha Christie made her last public appearance at the royal premiere of the film in London.

In 2015 Murder on the Orient Express was ranked as the second World’s Favourite Christie, which ranked And Then There Were None in the top spot and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd in third place.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[o-uncle-newt]

I guess the only person who can really be trusted to describe the greatness of Agatha Christie is Dorothy L Sayers...?

A while back, the always-sharp @thesarahshay sent me an ask that caught me up on something that I'd carelessly written in some tags- I said that Agatha Christie was good at writing romance into her detective fiction, without really elaborating. I then spent multiple paragraphs attempting to elaborate, I'm not sure with how much success. Essentially, and you can click above to see for yourself, my thesis was that while Sayers was a much better literary stylist (and certainly better at writing romance) than Christie, when writing a detective novel, her seams show; Christie had a natural talent for knowing exactly what belongs in a detective story and creating and fitting all the right pieces together that create a seamless detective story, including motivations drawn by romance (though I think the actual romances are among the weaker elements- still MUCH better than those written by most of her peers, for the record).

I'd had trouble putting into words what I wanted to say (there was a convoluted metaphor about Barbies and Lego in there), and I'm not sure I was too convincing; but turns out that the person who said what I wanted to say the best was, in fact the great DLS herself.

There's a fabulous book that I 100% recommend called Taking Detective Stories Seriously, which is a compilation of about two years' worth of detective story reviews that Sayers wrote. I hadn't heard of most of the authors, and even when I had heard of the authors I'd rarely read the books, but it didn't matter, frankly. She's just such a great writer, so thoughtful and incisive and passionate about both the genre and good craftsmanship (not to mention good English), that everything she has to say including on novels that haven't been in print since the 30s is worth reading. She has generally great taste, though she has a much higher opinion of Margery Allingham than I do and doesn't like Ellery Queen's The Siamese Twin Mystery as much as I'd thought she might (though the fact that a character in it insulted Unnatural Death may not have helped lol); but she also likes, to pick two very different writers who I too enjoy, HC Bailey and Mignon G Eberhart, and so she clearly has a good eye. (It's also entertaining to see her slowly force herself to admit that she likes Perry Mason...)

BUT ANYWAY.

She has three reviews of Agatha Christie books in the volume: Murder on the Orient Express, Why Didn't They Ask Evans, and Three Act Tragedy. She reviews all of them very positively, but it's her review of Three Act Tragedy (in my opinion, funnily enough, the weakest of the three) that she really gets to the core of Christie's genius. And it's actually fitting that it's for a book of hers that's on the more meh end of the scale- because it just shows how even meh Christie has an element of genius that other authors have to work hard for even in their best works.

She says:

Some time ago this column contained the statement that Hercule Poirot was "one of the few real detectives." It was a well-sounding phrase, and I have no quarrel with it, except that I am not quite clear what it meant. What I meant to write and what I thought I had written and what I now propose to write clearly with no mistake about it was and is this: Hercule Poirot is one of the few detectives with real charm. Plenty of authors assure us that their detectives are charming, but that is quite another thing. I don't know that Mrs Christie has ever said a word about the matter. She merely puts Poirot there, with all his little oddities and weaknesses, and there he is- a really charming person. And it is true, too, that he is "real," in the sense that we never stop to enquire whether his words and actions are suited to his character; they are his character, and we accept them as we accept the words and actions of any living person because they are a part of himself. Le style c'est l'homme. Indeed, when Mrs Christie is writing at the top of her form, as she is in Three Act Tragedy, all her characters have this reality. She does not postulate a character- retired actor, West End mannequin, family retainer- and put into its mouth sentiments appropriate to its station in life. She shows us character and behavior all of a piece. However surprising or enigmatic the behavior, we believe that everything took place just as she says it did, because we believe in the reality of the people. Poirot is charming, not because anybody says so, but because is is, and all her other people exist for us in the same objective manner. This is the great gift that distinguishes the novelist from the manufacturer of plots. Mrs Christie has given us an excellent plot, a clever mystery, and an exciting story, but her chief strength lies in this power to compel belief in these characters. [emphasis mine]

Sayers then proceeds to compare another author (or rather authors, the husband and wife pair GDH and M Cole) to Christie in this regard, moving on to another review. But in these three paragraphs she has, I think, said it better than anyone- that Christie's skill is in her naturalness, and how that naturalness compels us to believe in and immerse ourselves in her world. She is effortless and seamless.

To be clear, Sayers praises a lot of people in this book, and a lot of people's writing; but mostly she is praising their skill and ability to create what they have created. Here, she isn't quite praising that- she's praising the fact that the final product is so good that you can't even see the craftsmanship behind it, and that's, I think, what separates Christie from her peers. It's a power, and not one that can be broken down by a critic. She just has it.

I've said before that I don't think Sayers had this as a mystery writer, and I think she'd probably be the first to agree with that assessment; she certainly had a seemingly effortless skill as a prose writer (as these reviews show), but as a novelist she took construction seriously and wanted us to know this. That said, another person who I don't think has this, who I mention because he's someone who a lot of people compare Christie to (often negatively), is John Dickson Carr.

I've seen plenty of people say that Carr is a more sophisticated version of Christie, not just in mystery construction but in writing style, and equally prolific, creative, and versatile. I don't agree with this on most counts, but I think, honestly, that Carr is fine- but you can see the seams easily. He might have been prolific but his formulae are visible and his writing required intentionality on his part. By which I mean- Carr when he's trying to be funny is generally hilarious. Carr when he's trying to be scary is generally spine-tingling. But Carr when he's just trying to get to the next good bit is dull and mechanical. He needs to be paying attention and making an effort in order to be good, and we notice him doing this. Christie never has this problem; even when the actual stuff she's writing isn't high quality, she's never dull. Everything feels purposeful and organic, somehow.

Obviously, all of this is fundamentally subjective, and if there's one redeeming element it's that an incredibly smart lady agrees with me (by my interpretation, at least) and says it extremely well. But I'll be holding on to this one, if nothing else.