Tag: Miss Marple

Agatha Christie – Surprise! Surprise! | Review

Title: Surprise! Surprise!

Author: Agatha Christie

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 224

Rating: 3.5/5

This book is something of an oddity, and in fact I hadn’t even heard of it until I spotted it going as part of an Agatha Christie job lot on eBay. Essentially, because different publishers released different books in different regions, there are some unique USA titles that never came out in the UK, and vice versa.

That mostly applies to short story collections, of which this is the perfect example. In fact, to say that I read this is almost cheating because I only bothered to read the stories that I hadn’t read before, and so there were only four of the twelve or thirteen in here that I actually read. I remember the ones that I skipped, though.

In fact, this is actually a pretty decent little read, if only because it features a bunch of Christie’s most well-known characters, from Parker Pyne to Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. It also includes the title story of The Witness for the Prosecution, which I’ve seen performed as a play before. I think the play was a little better than the short story, but both of them are very much worth consuming. All in all then, I’d have to say that this one is worth reading.

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Agatha Christie – The Murder at the Vicarage| Review

Title: The Murder at the Vicarage

Author: Agatha Christie

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 192

Rating: 4/5

I was automatically a little bit biased in favour towards this one because it’s a Miss Marple book and I’ve always preferred Marple over Poirot. In fact, I think it’s the only Marple book that I’d never read, although I couldn’t swear to that, and indeed I thought I’d already read them all. Because of that, it was like going back to meet up with an old friend.

But on top of that, it’s just a cracking little murder mystery with a lot to offer the reader. In particular, I loved the vicarage as the setting, and I loved Jane Marple being a badass and poking her nose into places where she risked it being chopped off. It’s what she’s best at, and it was delightfully entertaining here.

So would I recommend it? Yeah, for sure, even if you just happen to spot a copy of it going spare in a second hand shop. If you want to, feel free to track it down, ‘cause it’s worth it.

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