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Agatha Christie – Double Sin and Other Studies | Review

Title: Double Sin and Other Studies

Author: Agatha Christie

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 214

Rating 3.75/5

This collection was fun, but at the same time it was confusing because I’d already read at least two of the stories, and possibly more like five or six of them. That’s a problem when there’s only eight stories inside there, but at least they’re good stories, which is why I remembered them in the first place.

It’s because I’ve been collecting every Agatha Christie book that was ever published, and there’s some crossover between books that were published in the UK and in the USA. It confused me, though, because some of the stories also had different names, but then I checked this book against a few others that I own and I saw that even though the names were different, the opening paragraphs were the same.

I still enjoyed reading it though, and I would recommend this to other Agatha Christie fans. It’s also cool because it includes stories about both Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, which gives you a nice healthy little dose of both of them. All in all then, there’s a lot to like here and not much to dislike. Read it.

British writer of crime and detective fiction, Dame Agatha Christie (1891 – 1976). (Photo by Walter Bird/Getty Images)

Click here to buy Double Sin and Other Stories.

Ben Sanders – Robert Michals: The Demon in the Trees | Review

Title: Robert Michals: The Demon in the Trees

Author: Ben Sanders

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 280

Rating: 3.5*/5

Ben Sanders – Robert Michals: The Demon in the Trees

I have mixed feelings about this book because there’s stuff to both like and dislike about it. Which I suppose is pretty standard for an indie book.

We have some of the common problems here like spelling/grammar mistakes dotted throughout and a non-standard layout (it’s not justified and there are blank spaces between every paragraph). But really, that’s about it. The only other thing that I’d flag is that for what’s essentially a sort of police procedural novel, there was only one real suspect and they turned out to be the culprit. And they could have stopped him way earlier by just putting a tail on him instead of waiting to get warrants and stuff. When the big reveal came, it was kind of an anticlimax. It was too easy.

But other than that, there’s a lot to enjoy. I liked the way that Sanders tapped into mythology and also how the ending of the book sets him up to write many more of them. And actually, for a debut novel, it’s pretty impressive. There are ways it could be improved, of course, but that’s true of almost everything. And what I will say is that the actual police procedural part of the story felt well-researched and authentic, even when it was mixed with the mythical elements.

And of course, I quite liked the bit with the jerky strips. I mean, sure, it was kind of gross, but I like that from time to time. Like The Silence of the Lambs.