“You confess that you read detective stories, Miss Grey. You must know that anyone who has a perfect alibi is always open to grave suspicion.” “Do you“You confess that you read detective stories, Miss Grey. You must know that anyone who has a perfect alibi is always open to grave suspicion.” “Do you think that real life is like that?” asked Katherine, smiling. “Why not? Fiction is founded on fact.” “But is rather superior to it,” suggested Katherine.
This series has become my comfort read. I adore Hercule Poirot. When his peculiar Egg-shaped head makes its appearance on the page I smile and sip my tea.
I've taken to reading these novels before bed, so i frequently find myself having to back track a few pages the next time I open them. As such I usually have my kindle, or a physical copy of a Christie work on my nightstand. For the last week, The Mystery of the Blue Train has been my after-work-wind-down companion.
Christie adapted this story from a short story titled "The Plymouth Express". I actually read that short story last year when I read Midwinter Murder: Fireside Tales from the Queen of Mystery and I was less than impressed. So I was impressed to see how Christie subverted all my expectations. Where the short story was flat, the novel is fleshed out, the characters interesting. The murderer(s) are the same as in the short story, so that is something to keep in mind if you decide to read the Hercule Poirot series out of order like I have been.
While the murder and the mystery does take place on a train, the majority of this novel jumps back and forth between England and France. The train journeys from London, passing Dover, Calais, Lyons, and finally Nice. The brilliance and romance of the French Riviera! Of the Provence region! As with such a romantic location, romance is afoot and intermingles with the murder mystery!
This novel jumps back and forth between multiple perspectives. The murder doesn't occur until around 25%, and the beginning is probably the slowest because Christie introduces many different characters including:
Mr. Van Aldin, who has recently purchased a very expensive set of rubies called "Heart of Fire" because of their reputation for passionate misfortunes. He gifts these to his daughter Ruth.
Ruth Kettering, who is unhappily married and has some secrets of her own.
Derek Kettering, who has his own secrets, and has extremely good or bad luck (depending on how you think about it).
Lady Katherine Grey , who has recently come into a fortune, and crosses paths with the Ketterings on the blue train.
While Katherine is reading a detective novel, she runs into Poirot, and as he says, they begin their own roman policier (detective story).
I have to say one of the things I really do appreciate is Christies use of french and other languages. I really enjoy looking up and learning new words! I'm teaching myself french at the moment so this is always a treat.
"From far behind them there came a long-drawn-out scream of an engine’s whistle. “That is that damned Blue Train,” said Lenox. “Trains are relentless things, aren’t they, Monsieur Poirot? People are murdered and die, but they go on just the same. I am talking nonsense, but you know what I mean.” “Yes, yes, I know. Life is like a train, Mademoiselle. It goes on. And it is a good thing that that is so.” “Why?” “Because the train gets to its journey’s end at last, and there is a proverb about that in your language, Mademoiselle.” “ ‘Journeys end in lovers meeting.’ ” Lenox laughed. “That is not going to be true for me.”
*added to the list of books that quote my favorite phrase in all of Shakespeare: Journeys end in lovers meeting*
This book is a part of my goal to read all the Hercule Poirot stories.
I hate to write negative reviews, but Age of Vice is a book I wish I had never read. Age of Vice is deceptive –– the cover is eye catching, the openingI hate to write negative reviews, but Age of Vice is a book I wish I had never read. Age of Vice is deceptive –– the cover is eye catching, the opening is stimulating, mysterious, filled with all those Dickensian hard times we can appreciate!
But the story deteriorates shortly after it begins.
Age of Vice is a convoluted story centered around three characters: Ajay, Sunny Wadia, and Neda. The way this story is told is part of the problem, and I have to fault Kapoor's editors for not making her fix this.
The novel is split between these three perspectives, but the chunks of each narrative are HUGE. We spend the first part of the novel with Ajay. And as soon as I am truly invested in his story, his voice, his PAIN, we are pulled away and thrusted into the head of someone else. It was completely jarring. Add to this the fact this new character is not Ajay, Sunny, or Neda, but is someone heretofore unknown, and it is disorienting. From here we spend a lot of nothing time with Neda, focusing on how she falls in love with Sunny, which is neither convincing nor interesting. It reads disingenuous and toxic. Once we get to Sunny's chapters, things fall apart. There is no semblance of pacing from here on. It is completely disjointed. Add to this the fact Sonny is completely unlikeable and it becomes unbearable. There is a very incoherent hours long chapter voiced by yet ANOTHER heretofore unknown character that is both agonizingly brutal and boring! Then we have the ending, that focuses back on the only character I liked, Ajay, but the resolution is not exciting and did not validate my experience of spending nearly TWENTY hours listening to the audiobook.
This book is 500 pages long. This is a trilogy! I cannot listen or read two more books of comparable length about these characters in the style Kapoor writes in.
I believe Kapoor needed to completely rework this story. It has promise, but the construction is flawed, to the point that the entire narrative collapses and is for me, not salvageable.
Another big problem is that most of the novel is TELLING, and not SHOWING. most of it focuses on the same event from different perspectives. This gets tedious fast.
Be aware if you do try to read this: The violence is horrific. There are rape scenes.
Odious characters, odious writing, what I can only assume is performative violence for shock value, and I just can't rate this higher than two stars.
I will not be continuing with the series.
Stephen King said that aspiring novelists should read this... That sounds promising, right? Prepare for disappointment. If anything, this has shown me many things not to do....more
Blacktop Wasteland is about desperation and intoxication all at once. It is adrenaline, unadulterated, unlimited and riddled with life changing conseqBlacktop Wasteland is about desperation and intoxication all at once. It is adrenaline, unadulterated, unlimited and riddled with life changing consequence. Beauregard "Bug"Montage is a family man with a criminal past. As his financial burdens grow insurmountable, Bug decides that he can be both a stable father and a ruthless getaway driver. One last job, and then he can provide his family with the life they deserve. Blacktop Wasteland is a story of binarys: Good and bad, shadow and light, life and death. Bug feels more at peace behind the wheel of a car, going 100 mph, than he does in the normalcy of family life. He thinks he can be both, that the two worlds won't collide. His delusion is the fallacy that upends the story —turning it from something clean cut to something jagged and messy.
S.A. Cosby is a skilled writer, but amidst the great writing are sentences and descriptions that were uninspiring. Despite these sprinkled mediocrities, I do think that other readers would love Blacktop Wasteland. It's fast paced, action packed, and practically dripping with rural noir. I loved the setting and the main character, Beauregard Montage felt real and gritty. Even if you strip away all the heist drama, the story is a compelling character study. However, the women in this story were lacking, in my opinion (making me worry Cosby can't write women, but this story wasn't really about the women, so I'll let that slide)
The final third of the novel was my favorite, and yet it still left me wanting more. It was like Cosby didn't know which direction he wanted to take the story in, and so he left it ambiguous. In a story like this, I wanted hard finality, I wanted the follow through. If we were going to walk into the dark, I wanted Cosby to lead the way. As it stands, I felt like I was left in a grey room, with two exits, one leading to the light and one to the dark. No satisfaction, no resolution, no growth or annihilation....more
Things I loved about this: Pacing kept me reading, lots of bombshells dispersed to keep me gasping and clutching my proverbial pearls
The family drama wThings I loved about this: Pacing kept me reading, lots of bombshells dispersed to keep me gasping and clutching my proverbial pearls
The family drama was so compelling and I was not anticipating enjoying that story line more than the murder plot.
Addiction, police corruption, motherhood & grooming themes were heart wrenching but honest
Also small but I realized with this work I didn’t mind the absence of quotation marks - I typically despise this
Things I didn’t like:
The ending was a smidge too neat and wrapped up for me. Very rushed ending, ruined the climax for me. I found myself thinking, really? It’s this easy?...more
If you only read one Agatha Christie book in your lifetime, let it be this one.
I went into this with a healthy dose of skepticism. At this point I've If you only read one Agatha Christie book in your lifetime, let it be this one.
I went into this with a healthy dose of skepticism. At this point I've read 10 Christie works, most of them good, some of them bad.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the best book by Christie I've read so far, and I do not know if any of her other work will be able to surpass this one.
I'd put off reading this one because a few years ago a friend was reading this and let it slip who the murderer was, and despite my best efforts to purge this information from my brain, it remained stuck in my memory. So I really was not sure if i would enjoy reading a mystery where the mystery was already revealed to me: but it didn't matter. Christie lays the story out in such a masterful way that reading it becomes a delight; seeing all the clues laid out before Poirot and the steps he takes to solve the crime are exciting.
In terms of Christies writing, she was at her best with this novel. The way that she inserted red herrings, clues, and foreshadowing were so delicately done as to not be overhanded or obvious. I could tell that she must have rewritten and restructured this many times to have it flawless and foolproof, no ends left undone.
Plot The Murder of Roger Ackroyd begins with the death of Mrs. Ferrars, Roger Ackroyds neighbor and presumed girlfriend. Dr. Sheppard (our narrator) examines Mrs. Ferrars and thinks the death is suspicious, but no suicide note is found so he moves on with his life. Dr. Sheppard lives with his nosey gossipy sister, and she is convinced that Mrs. Ferrars killed herself because of guilt. What does she think Mrs. Ferrars is guilty of, you might ask? She believes her guilty of murdering her first husband, Mr. Ferrars! This story begins with a lot of murder, suicide and intrigue and it isn't even the title murder!
Dr. Sheppard continues to mind his own business, but Roger Ackroyd confides in him that Mrs. Ferrars admitted to killing her husband, and claimed she was being blackmailed. When Ackroyd found out his love interest was a murderer, he did a really bad job of hiding his disgust, and as such Mrs. Ferrars offs herself, but not before mailing him a letter with her blackmailers name! Not long after this revelation. Ackroyd finds himself murdered, and Dr. Sheppard finds himself engrossed in the town scandal. Who killed who? and Why?
Meanwhile, Poirot is minding his own business: He's retired, and growing vegetable marrows. One days he gets exceedingly frustrated with the unruliness of his vegetable marrows and he throws one over the garden wall, striking his neighbor accidentally. Who is his poor neighbor? Dr. Sheppard!
An aside: (If you're like me and had no idea what exactly a vegetable marrow is, a quick google search revealed that Poirot himself is quite murderous! Vegetable marrows are squash that are from the same family as melons, cucumbers and courgettes. You're telling me Poirot could have killed Dr. Sheppard by head trauma related to being struck with an overly zealous squash?)
Poirot's apology is the stuff of legend:
"I demand of you a thousand pardons, monsieur. I am without defense. For some months now I cultivate the marrows. This morning suddenly I enrage myself with the marrows. I send them to promenade themselves - alas! not only mentally but physically. I seize the biggest. I hurl him over the wall. Monsieur, I am ashamed. I prostrate myself."
After this violent meeting, the two become intertwined, and investigate the murder together.
This novel has everything going for it, it's Poirot at his best, Christie perhaps at her best as well. It is as close to perfection as a mystery thriller can hope to come, and arguably the twist shaped detective and mystery fiction from its inception on. Christie broke the mold, the wheel, whatever you want to call it.
There is a reason that Christie is the most sold author in the world next to Shakespeare: Maybe it is because of the sheer quantity of work she has put out; or maybe its because in the stacks of stories there are a few (like this one) that shine bright like rare treasures.
This book is a part of my goal to read all the Hercule Poirot stories.
"he thinks writing is also a kind of war, one you fight with yourself. The story is what you carry and every time you add to it, it gets heavier."
When"he thinks writing is also a kind of war, one you fight with yourself. The story is what you carry and every time you add to it, it gets heavier."
When I heard the announcement for this book I was excited, but I was also cautious. Billy Summers is a killer for hire, a "garbage man with a gun", and this work is described as noir crime fiction of the "one last job" subgenre (No really, Billy even goes out of his way to think this himself). I prefer more of King’s works like Pet Sematary, rich works with deep themes. So when I heard this description of Billy Summers, I wasn't really impressed. But a new King novel, is a new King novel. If he writes it, I will read it.
For those that haven't read Billy Summers yet, but are considering reading it: I would recommend NOT reading any in depth reviews until after you have completed it. Stick to synopses.
Structure Structurally, Billy Summers is a strange one. This is a journey. It shouldn't work, but it does. The beginning of the novel is focused on Billy and his "last" job, a job he takes because the payoff is 1.5 mil, and the guy he's tasked with cleaning is "very" bad. What's one last job? The set up for this is reminiscent of 11/22/63, where Jake spends time adapting to life in Jodie, Texas while he waits for time to catch up with Lee Harvey Oswald. Billy Summers is almost an inversion of 11/22/63; In this work, Billy Summers IS essentially Oswald, and we're following him as he waits for his opportunity to strike. This is one of my favorite parts of the novel. I love the picturesque descriptions of small town life, the way Summers integrates into the small microcosm he's placed in, the way he sets down real roots, develops real relationships, all while he knows he will have to hurt these people soon, when they discover his deception.
Initially I thought that the entire novel would be this set up, the waiting game and everything that comes while he's biding his time to make his kill. But it isn't. Around the one hundred page mark, things come to a head and the assassination turns out to be only the start, not the conclusion of the work.
It felt almost like we were on a train with a set course, and then the driver decided to take a different path on a whim, derailing everything that should have happened and heading for the unknown. I found myself asking, where is this leading? Will we still end up in the same place?
This structure felt different from everything else I've read by King, and I was both impressed and surprised to see this interruption in plot (because that is initially what I thought it was, a side quest, before diverting back to the main track).
After this shift in the narrative, the pace speeds up, the tone darkens, and King goes down a path that leads to a conclusion that felt like it was the only outcome from the start.
Another interesting structural choice king made was to include the manuscript for the ~not quite fictional~ novel that Billy was working on as part of his Dave Lockridge life. I love stories within stories (I discovered this is called embedded narration, or frame stories).
Characters There are many characters in this work, but the main three are Billy, Alice and Bucky. All of these characters are moral shades of grey, they aren't all good or all bad and that is one of things I like about Kings work and one of the things that made me so uncomfortable while reading this. The other characters are less defined -- the people Billy interacts with in his Dave Lockridge life are defined by there domesticity and good will. They are often anachronistic -- it comes across cheesy at times and even out of touch, but I would rather read about small town american kids playing monopoly and riding bikes then I would like to read about ipad games.
Billy Summers: A war veteran and sniper turned assassin, Billy has demons of his own but he follows a strict code: only kill those that are guilty, never kill those who are innocent. Of course he's also a reader, and as it turns out a novice writer with talent and a story to tell. A deadly combination.
Alice Maxwell: Alice is the heart of this story, her arrival is when the plot really sets itself in motion. Alice's arrival seals Billy's fate. Alice is a strong young woman, who is saved by a man in the beginning, but later saves herself. This is a story of redemption, but not really Billy Summers redemption. It turns out to be Alice's. I wouldn't be surprised if we see her again, but I would put more money on a Bucky Hanson cameo.
Bucky Hanson: Bucky is a side character that feels like he could have his own story, somewhere down the line, and the fact that King leaves him in Sidewinder, CO, overlooking the ruins of the Overlook Hotel, living next to a haunted cabin with a painting of those terrifying topiary animals, makes me think that maybe King isn't done with Bucky quite yet. The name Bucky even screams main character. a girl can hope.
The Bad Guys: The bad guys are the exception to the morally grey rule, they are just plain evil. Nothing good is here, they are bad men, pretending on the surface to be good, but hiding evil behind their perfect teeth and reputations.
Themes redemption/revenge friendship/love- a large part of this novel is about Alice & Billy's friendship, and the development of love on both their parts. Billy loves her in a paternal way, but Alice's love is a bit less familial and a little more sexual. I could have done without this part. I understand that it is part of Alice's recovery to take back her choice, and so that's why she makes repeated. REPEATED. sexual advances towards Billy, but I could have done without it. sexual assault/PTSD recovery identity issues morality/moral ambiguity gender roles writing/the writing process
Conclusions After finishing this I have mixed feelings, but they skew good. Parts of this book made me uncomfortable, as the monsters in this work are very human and very evil, and unfortunately these monsters could walk off the page and exist in our reality, a-lah Harvey Weinstein.
This story is more about sexual assault and recovery from that than it is about a simple assassination. Billy Summers is a work about PTSD, about the wounds that trauma leave.
Connections The big connection to this work is The Shining, and I for one was thrilled to see King come back to the Overlook. I've always felt that this is a setting that needed an encore, and perhaps we will see it again, but if not, this glimpse into the lasting power of the overlook is enough for me. Alice Maxwell is also a character in Cell Billy thinks "maybe si, maybe no" a recurring line from Duma Key Hemingford Home -- The Stand
This is a great beach read, or if you're feeling really atmospheric, take this one to a deserted island or a secluded cabin on a lake. Read this in thThis is a great beach read, or if you're feeling really atmospheric, take this one to a deserted island or a secluded cabin on a lake. Read this in the midnight hours with all the windows open, prepare to be suitably creeped out and expect to peer over your shoulder at every turn. Was that the wind blowing? or was that someone creep, creep, creeping around?
Did I think that this was a good mystery? Yes! Do I think it would be a five star read if the characters had more depth, if we were made to care for at least some of them, before their demises? Probably!
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