I was cleaning out a cupboard with lots of forgotten things stashed in it, and I came across this CD collection of Agatha Christie stories. I have a dim glimmer of memory that I bought it for a Christmas present or something for somebody. But somehow it got shoved to the back of our icebox cabinet (my favorite piece of furniture!)and forgotten. So when I found it, I thought, hey I'll listen to these in the car. You must understand that for many, many years I drove around listening to children's music like Raffi in the car. Then I drove around listening to my teens's favorite playlists. But now with all my kids older, I do a lot of driving around alone or with children who are plugged into their own ipods or with children who don't mind if I listen to something of my own. I have been using this time to self-educate mostly. I love those Modern Scholar audios. They have a bunch at my library. I've listened to several now doing all my driving errands. So when I came across the Agatha Christie collection, I pounced on it! I hadn't done any fiction listening yet.
I actually started listening about a week before we left for Europe. I found the stories charming, well crafted, and well read. They were really soothing to me in my pre-trip jitters. So I was very much looking forward to resuming listening when I got back. Since I've been driving kids to and from camp I've been able to finish them up fairly quickly. There are twenty-two stories in all and it takes a while to get through them all. They are narrated by well known British actors including David Suchet who plays Inspector Poirot in the BBC series. He has got the most sonorous voice and of course, when he speaks as Inspector Poirot, he IS Inspector Poirot. I have only watched a few of the Inspector Poirot shows, as well as the movie Murder on the Orient Express. I'm late coming to appreciate mysteries as a genre of literature. I first enjoyed the Lord Peter Wimsey stories and that kind of opened me up to trying other mystery writers.
These short stories are impeccably written. Christie really was a wordsmith. In just a few lines she sets the stage for an intriguing plot, paints a very vivid picture of what is going on and develops characters deftly. She hooks you into the mystery right away. This collection of stories really made me appreciate the art of the short story as well as the intrigue of a well constructed mystery. I enjoyed every one of the stories, but much to my surprise my favorite ones were not Inspector Poirot's. I really most heartily enjoyed the ones that don't contain any well known detective: A Fruitful Sunday, The Girl on the Train, and The Red Signal - all were just great stories. I loved the Miss Marple mystery, The Thumb Mark of St. Peter. My favorite Poirot story (and most of the stories are Poirot) was The Listerdale Mystery.
These stories are a joy. I plan to give them to my daughter to enjoy when she's driving back to Dallas in August.
Two enthusiastic thumbs up!
For more reviews please go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
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