#the body in the library

[jupitermelichios]

here's a fun fact for you:

most of agatha christie's murder mysteries exist in a shared universe. Inspector Battle, Colonel Race, Hercule Poirot, and Tommy and Tuppence share a universe (i'm 99% sure about tommy and tuppence, but I may be wrong, they may exist in their own universe. the others are indisputable though)

Miss Marple does not, becuase Miss Marple is a fictional character in the HPSU (hercule poirot shared universe)

In 'cards on the table', ariadne oliver, agatha christie's self-depricating self-insert detective novelist character, is confirmed to have written the book 'the body in the library', which in reality was a miss marple mystery written by agatha christie.

that's mildly interesting, but here's where it gets really fun:

agatha christie exists in the Miss Marple universe.

in the irl cards on the table, a character mentions having autographs from several famous detective novelist, and specifically names dorothy l sayers and agatha christie.

which means that agatha christie is the fictional self-insert of her fictional self-insert.

and also begs the question: did the agatha christie who exists in Miss Marple's unverse write a novel called cards on the table in which she introduced an author self insert called ariadne oliver?

is this a case of infinite agatha christie recursion?

[leer-reading-lire]

JOMP Book Photo Challenge || June || 17 || Female Author

Agatha Christie

[cinematic-literature]

You S04E02 (Portrait of the Artist)

Book title

The Body in the Library (1942) by Agatha Christie

The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) by Agatha Christie

[gameraboy2]

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie Atlas Mystery 4 Cover by Rein van Looij

[s-tarplatinum]

UM CORPO NA BIBLIOTECA | Agatha Christie, 1942

— Hmm, é... talvez. Então, como eu dizia lá no começo, aonde já chegamos com o caso? — A lugar nenhum, senhor — respondeu o superintendente Harper.

Sobre o enredo:

A Sra. e o Sr. Bantry acordam um belo dia para a notícia de que o corpo de uma jovem de outro condado amanheceu misteriosamente em sua biblioteca. A colaboração entre as duas polícias para desvendar o caso tenta, contudo, não chega perto das ideias de Miss Marple, uma senhora conhecedora de tudo sobre o vilarejo onde o crime se apresenta. Os paralelos traçados amadoramente pela experiência encontram o motivo pelo qual a moça fora assassinada.

Terceiro livro da autora e segundo livro que conta com a personagem da Miss Jane Marple, uma detetive muito mais sábia do que os investigadores locais (opinião própria). Também é o segundo livro da autora que tenho contato, vejo bem como ela chegou a escrita de "Noite Sem Fim" e muito suspense!

Sobre a leitura:

Novamente, mais uma leitura de ônibus. Consegui finalizar hoje, com muita dedicação e consideravelmente rápido. Eu costumo devorar meus interesses de uma só vez, mas admito que essa prática me deixe um pouco entediada com o assunto ao chegar praticamente na metade... Mas não me arrependo! Recomendo a leitura também!

Considerações:

Temos muito suspense e distração por parte da autora, vários pontos são ligados (religados, desligados...) e repetidos em diversos momentos pelos personagens durante a trama. Lição que tiro da obra: nunca confiar plenamente no que as pessoas dizem, principalmente quando estão envolvidas em um crime.

O mais interessante, para mim, é como a Miss Marple tem aç��es baseadas na sua investigação amadora e muitas vezes nós mesmos não vamos ter conhecimento do que ela sabe. Mas é garantido - ela sabe. É uma personagem que eu gostei muito, que identificou o oculto em detalhes nada óbvios e que existe muito bem com os outros personagens.

Por fim, é bastante satisfatório para mim chegar as últimas páginas, finalmente, para descobrir o que aconteceu de fato. Josie e Mark são as duas personalidades que eu menos gostava, certo. Mas jamais imaginaria que o X da questão estaria no fato de que o corpo na biblioteca não era o de Ruby Keene e sim da colegial Pamela Reeves! Simplesmente muito fascinante a forma como todo o crime fora arquitetado, os detalhes e motivos, a devida inocência de Adelaide Jefferson e do Hugo McLean - que até certo ponto pareciam os autores dos crimes. Ah! e a inocência de Basil Blake! Esse detalhe tornaria o livro "Um corpo no tapete"... Muito bom!

Retomarei a leitura das obras da autora em breve! Os próximos dois livros contarão com o famoso - e desconhecido por mim, ainda - Hercule Poirot.

[my-52-weeks-with-christie]

Cooking with Christie: Banana Bread

(BTW: The Banana’s in the above pic are frozen not moldy!) Inspiration: As it’s the time of year when family comes into the foreground, I’ve been missing my great-grandmother, who we lost forty years ago. Whilst I never saw her cook/bake as a kid (as her arthritis made it difficult), my mom told me how she ran the cafeteria for the phone company for thirty years. So when I want to feel close to…

[j-august]

"My nephew Raymond tells me (in fun, of course, and quite affectionately) that I have a mind like a sink. He says that most Victorians have. All I can say is that the Victorians knew a good deal about human nature."

Agatha Christie, The Body in the Library

[hanitje]

The Body In The Library by Agatha Christie

[thatwritererinoriordan]

[frimleyblogger]

The Body In The Library

The Body In The Library #AgathaChristie #CrimeFiction #BookReview

A review of The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie – 230610 As Agatha Christie says in the introduction to her second Miss Marple novel, originally published in 1942, the discovery of a body in a library is one of the greatest clichés in detective fiction. Nevertheless, she set out to produce a variation on the theme where “the library in question must be a highly orthodox and conventional…

[spaceorphanssecondbreakfastclub]

Reading Agatha Christie: The Body in the Library

After And Then There Were None - I spent the rest of my teen years devouring Agatha Christie. I believe this was the second book I picked up. Why? Because the premise is so fascinating. An older couple find a strange, dead body in their study. Why is she there? Who killed her? It does seem like the quintessential cozy mystery setting. But to be honest, I don't really remember anything from my first time reading it.

What I can say is that despite often been labeled as such - Agatha Christie really isn't that cozy of a mystery writer. Despite the intriguing premise and the light nature of the book - there is a very dark underbelly to this rather short novel.

Now that I'm more familiar with the canon - I can see that we're back in St. Mary Mead -- the home of Miss Marple, and along with her we get a lot of the same characters who've cropped up in Murder at the Vicarage and The Thirteen Problems. And they are, easily, the most fun part of the book. The Bantrys are back - and they're the couple who find the body in the library. Fascinatingly - Mrs. Bantry treats the whole thing like her own personal detective novel, and instead of calling the police first - she calls her old friend Miss Marple to try to figure out what happen.

Even though the book is a Miss Marple classic, she - unfortunately - is not in it all that much. Instead, we have a parade of other inspectors trying to figure it out until Miss Marple, always one step ahead, can prove her case at the end.

The murder victim, we find out, is a dancer named Ruby Keene - who was going to be adopted by an older gentleman. And the mystery begins to unfold from there. The darkness of the novel lies in just how far the murderer goes to accomplish their goals.

As usual - there are a couple of key elements at the end that have the whole plot straining credulity, but the book is clever and enjoyable enough, that it's easy enough to suspend disbelief.

I enjoyed the novel, but despite the hook of a premise, find it overall to be one of Christie's middle-of-the-road novels. Still - the characters, especially the ones we've met before, are an utter joy to visit again, and the novel is short and whimsical enough that it can easily be read in one sitting.

[kattahj]

My Agatha Christie Re-Reading Project, #31: The Body in the Library

I actually read this book back in October, but didn't finish my review, nor did I proceed with the next title. Well, better late than never.

Miss Marple is back! And with her, she brings the enthusiasm that I lost during N or M. This book is much more to my taste.

I particularly like the beginning, which starts with:

Mrs. Bantry was dreaming. Her sweet peas had just taken a First at the flower show. The vicar, dressed in cassock and surplice, was giving out the prizes in church. His wife wandered past, dressed in a bathing suit, but, as is the blessed habit of dreams, this fact did not arouse the disapproval of the parish in the way it would assuredly have done in real life. Mrs. Bantry was enjoying her dream a good deal.

This pleasant dream is interrupted when the maid comes in to declare that there's a body in the library. Mrs. Bantry then has to determine whether or not she was dreaming (she wasn't), and – with much more difficulty – convince her husband that she wasn't dreaming.

"I did not dream it," said Mrs. Bantry firmly. "Get up at once, Arthur, and go downstairs and see about it."

"You want me to go downstairs and ask if there's a body in the library? I shall look a fool."

"You needn't ask anything," said Mrs. Bantry. "If there is a body – and of course it's just possible that Mary's gone mad and thinks she sees things that aren't there – well, somebody will tell you soon enough. You won't have to say a word."

It's all very charming, the kind of first class Christie banter you'd expect from people called Bantry. :-)

All the bits with Miss Marple and the Bantrys are pretty good, and I also enjoyed the two red herring bad boys of the story, Basil Blake and Raymond Starr. All of that was pretty entertaining.

But the center of the story is the Jefferson/Gaskell family, and there I feel my interest wane a bit. They're a typical Christie family, waiting for the patriarch's money – a bit too typical. We've seen it all before, and usually better. It's hard to muster up much interest for their circumstances, and harder still to find any sympathy when the inlaws living off the old man's money are vexed that Ruby Keene dared to make the move to try to live off the old man's money.

(Sidenote; while there are a bunch of Christies wrapped into the two Knives Out movies, I wonder if this one is the main inspiration for Knives Out, the way A Murder is Announced is the main one for Glass Onion.)

The plot itself is pretty well handled; I like the way clues are dropped in casual conversation.

Solid Christie with a fantastic opening. Verdict: 3/5

[leer-reading-lire]

JOMP Book Photo Challenge

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Begonnen

The Body in the Library - Agatha Christie

Gezien

Wednesday

Episode 03 - Friend or Woe

Eternal Yesterday

Episode 04

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Serie Miss Marple de Agatha Christie

Una de mis metas de lectura este año es leer/releer la serie completa de Miss Marple de Agatha Christie en orden. Y estoy hablando de los doce libros principales de la serie. He mencionado antes que soy muy fan de Agatha Christie. En el caso de la serie Miss Marple, yo he leído algunos de los libros antes. De hecho, Miss Marple es uno de mis personajes favoritos de Agatha Christie. Pero no he…

[olliecows]

Starting off my Agatha Christie binge with The Body in the Library!!!