Christie's "Hercule Poirot" series revived--

Agatha Christie
(photo from Google.com)

To gain new life, an agreeable family estate may give permission for a new author to write new books about a character created by a deceased family member.  Apparently in the world of fiction, it makes no sense to permanently kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.  And that is the case for crime legend writer Agatha Christie.  Her brilliant retired detective Hercule Poirot is resurrected from the 1970's to return in print last year in The Monogram Murders.   The book is the March book club selection.

The new writer of the detective series is now Sophie Hannah and our library's online catalog features the following under Author Notes & Sketches (about her): Sophie Hannah was born in 1971 in Manchester, England. She is a bestselling, award-winning poet. Hannah went to the University of Manchester and published her first book of poems, The Hero and the Girl Next Door, at the age of 24. In 2004 she won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition for her psychological suspense story, The Octopus Nest. Hannah was recently chosen by Agatha Christie's estate to resurrect her beloved detective, Hercule Poirot. Her subsequent novel, The Monogram Murders, was published in 2014. (Bowker Author Biography)

Sophie Hannah
(photo from Google.com)

Now, clearly the name recognition has to go the writer that the greater public knows so Agatha Christie's name covers the new mystery book cover in the same font you'd find on the official website of Ms. Christie.  Ms. Hannah is the new work horse for series and she'll be bound to be quite busy--with her writings and about "Poirot" for the foreseeable future.   

P.D. James dies at 94--

On Thanksgiving Day it was announced that English mystery writer great P.D. James had died.  She was 94.  Her actual name (and title) was Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park.
Although I hadn't read any of her work, I seem to recall a fondness   when others talked about James' Adam Dalgliesh in book club discussions about various book characters.  Dalgliesh, identified as   a police commander and poet, is a fixture with police procedural mysteries with novels published for numerous years beginning from  1962 (Cover Her Face) and television appearances. 

  Her writing spanned to a private investigator series with Cordelia  Gray (who I did see in a TV adaptation) and most recently with a  mystery set in 1803 featuring characters from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice novel  in Death Comes to Pemberley published in 2011.  Examining her beloved writing genre in print, she wrote Talking About Detective Fiction (2009) about the history and appeal of mysteries and an autobiography, Time to be in Earnest (1999).

P,.D. James (photo from Google.com)

Dubbed the 'queen of crime' James enjoyed a rich recognition in writing circles for a long, successful career. To find any P.D. James books at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library click here, go to "advanced search."  Do an author search for "james, p.d." to find her books and books on CD.   

A Gem of a Writer

Yesterday a patron stopped at the library desk to ask for a copy of the Agatha Christie standout title The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.  He commented that it is said to be one of the best mysteries ever as he had his finger placed in a book of his possession (I guess that book mentions Roger Ackroyd.)  and the Library Journal description (as shown on Amazon) mostly agrees. 


Agatha Christie
photo from Google

It says, "written in 1927, [it] is considered the best and most successful of the early mysteries.  It met with no small outrage when it appeared, as it uses a plot device many readers thought 'unfair.' There is a full complement of characters populating the cozy English village of King's Abbot: Major Blunt, Colonel Carter, Miss Gannett, the butler, the housekeeper, the narrator, Dr. Sheppard, and his know-it-all sister (the precursor of Miss Marple, according to Christie), and, of course, the redoubtable Hercule Poirot and his little grey cells. There are clues with a capital C to mislead us, and the listener gets so involved with these red herrings (or not) that the very simple truth eludes the puzzler."

That book request reminded me how Christie received nationwide acknowledgement earlier in the month at the Democratic National Convention.  Key note speaker San Antonio mayor Julian Castro spoke of his grandmother learning English by "reading her Agatha Christie novels late into the night."  

All and all, Christie has been a gem as a writing treasure in more ways than one.

Book club discusses "The Janus Stone"

In April, the book club selection was the second of the "Ruth Galloway" British mystery series The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths.  Ruth is a forensic archaeologist and college educator.  She is called upon to assist the police when a child's headless skeleton is unearthed while an old mansion is razed.  Located beneath a doorway, the skeleton rested in a building that served as a Catholic orphanage years ago.  

Elly Griffiths
(googled photo)

The detective in charge of the investigation is a gruff Harry Nelson working with the horizontally challenged Ruth again for a second time.  Despite his demeanor, the two develop a bond of respect and even friendship

This case may have several possibilities as the body might be very old from the Roman-era times--related to a nearby archaeological dig--or much more recent with a story of two missing children 40 years ago.

Ruth pursues the matter with a firm determination but is hampered along the way: she is encountering credible threats to her life and she is mum about her being newly-pregnant.

Comments from the book club members included:

• bones in good preservation can offer many layers of investigation in the field of archaeology 
• the novel covers periods of British history with its archaeological digs
• although the second in the series, a recap would be helpful (and in general for series) 
• Ruth is a non-traditional lead character of a series being an over-weight person
• has the writer decided and planned well ahead for the series how to handle the implications of Ruth's unplanned pregnancy (?)
• a few read the first book of the series The Crossing Places and one read the third book of the series The House at Seas End
• good mystery book.

  

Getting into the nuts and bolts of the mystery novel--

I checked out a book recently and read about another just released one in USAToday which both tackle the craft of mystery writing--from different angles. The newer book is Talking About Detective Fiction by long-time mystery writer P.D. James. It gives an illuminating, big-picture approach to mysteries with information about the history of the genre in certain literature titles (i.e., Charles Dickins's Bleak House) to present day works with writers like Colin Dexter as shared in Amazon's product description of the book.

Click here to read additional information including a Publisher's Weekly review about this book which says it does cover British writers to a major although not exlusively degree. Look for attention focused on Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh and more. The book is 198 pages.

James has a great expertise to lend to her book while the other book The Lineup: the world's greatest crime writers tell the inside story of their greatest detectives gives a multiple voice approach. Edited by Otto Penzler, the book features 21 authors talking about the characters that they have created--the inspirations and what makes up the characteristics of the detectives. I skipped around and read the entries about writer John Harvey's Charlie Resnick and Laura Lippman's Tess Monaghan. The book is 406 pages.

True crime story credited for British mysteries--

Two weeks ago, NPR's "Fresh Air" the book critic Maureen Corrigan offered up a glowing review for a book credited with inspiring British mystery fiction we know it today. More specifically, though, the book tells of one true crime story in 1860 with the murder of a once missing three-year-old boy snatched from his family. The book, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: a shocking murder and the undoing of a great Victorian detective, is written by Kate Summerscale. Here's a pix of Summerscale from Google.

Briefly, this true crime story involved the work of the newly-formed Scotland Yard detective force with Detective Inspector Jonathan Whicher in charge of the case. Regretfully, almost all in household of the murder victim became suspects--the Kent household--which included a nursemaid. In time, a suspect is charged and tried but despite all the police's effort--found not guilty because of a weak case. Afterwards, Whicher--a revered figure before--is demoralized and suffers professionally. And years later, the actual murderer is revealed.

Although during the actual investigation, the British are spellbound by the crime and fastinated with a crime story which invites their guesses.

Summerscale appears to have mined gold in telling the true story of a crime which served as a blueprint for fiction writers interested in developing murder mysteries.