poirot investigates - agatha christie

I enjoy a good mystery book. I love collecting all the puzzle pieces as the story progresses, and getting the satisfying "thunk" as everything falls into place and is revealed at the end. Not everything needs to be tied off at the end of every book, but it's very satisfying when it is.

Most of my Agatha Christie books come from my Uncle John's collection, after he passed away. After his funeral, we drove up to my grandparent's house and spent a couple of days sorting through his belongings. He lived in an annex in my grandparents' beautiful old house (Cobb Court, which I will come to soon). The annex had always been a place of mystery to me as a child. When we visited, I had free rein of most of the rest of the house, but the annex was separate, private, his.

My uncle still lived with his parents as he was involved in a car crash when he was younger. The crash occurred when he was in the car with some friends, had some sort of accident or collision, and, as he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, he went straight through the windshield. The story is burned into my mind: my mother used to tell it to me whenever I got into a car with someone she didn't know or trust. The incident left him with (at least) memory issues and epilepsy, which meant my grandparents still had to take care of him somewhat.

Nevertheless, he still had a large amount of independence, and his annex was rather spacious. Entering into it for the first time was strange: it was as if an old friend had suddenly grown a new arm overnight. One positive of the situation was that there was now space for the whole family (my mother's sister, her husband and their two children) to stay at my grandparents at the same time we did. We didn't see my cousins much as they lived up north, so time with them was enjoyable and, looking back, fairly precious. I have a vivid memory of sitting on a camp bed in John's old living room, being introduced to The Mighty Boosh by my cousin.

My parents told me I was allowed to ask for a few things Uncle John had owned, if I wanted any. I had wanted my own computer for years, so I put in my bid for his computer. I don't believe I had really read any Agatha Christie before, but Uncle John had a few, and I asked for them as well. For some reason, I've always been drawn to things that make nice collections - and seeing the set of books, all matching, with enticing titles was probably enough for me to think I wanted them. I got the computer and the books. The computer was great, but I quickly forgot about the Agatha Christies.

I eventually picked them up during university, where they were great for bus and tube rides. During the summer of my second year, I was doing an internship at King. For a while, I was living at home, and commuting into London everyday. I tore through books like there was no tomorrow that summer, including a large number of Christies. I would spend my lunchtimes visiting the numerous second hand book stores in Central London, picking up more books, and hoping they had one by Christie I hadn't read yet.

Still to this day, I find them enjoyable, easy reading. I haven't been reading much lately, but this holiday is finally making me chill out. That means I'm in the mood to read again, so I got around to finishing off this collection of Poirot's short stories.

Most of the Christies I've read so far have been longer form; this is the first set of short stories I've read. I really enjoyed most of them! The fact they're so short and dense means Chekov's Gun applies quite heavily: if it's mentioned, it usually means it's important (or a red herring!). There are also usually not that many characters. This is great for me, as too many characters often confuses me and dashes my attempts to solve the mystery (I do not have a good memory for names). The small amount of characters and details turns each of the stories into some kind of dense puzzle box: you can easily see all the pieces in front of you, it's just a matter of sliding them all into place.

The settings and people are varied and interesting as usual. They're obviously fairly dated now, but I find it adds another layer of interest: it feels like seeing a glimpse into the past. It does sometimes frustrate my ability to solve the mysteries, as I sometimes lack the base level of understanding of how things work that is assumed (such as how transatlantic ships worked, or how common married couples not sleeping in the same bed was). In general, it was a good read, and left me wanting more, which I think is as much as you can ask for in a book.

I believe this book came from my Uncle. Due to his memory issues, he had a lot of methods and ways of keeping organised. Notes written on everything, wires and plugs labelled, and often, dated reviews written in the front of books. This book is missing any kind of note or review from him. I wonder what he thought of it.

tags: books, family, past, christie

permalink | posted by nathan on Saturday, the 12th of June, 2021, during the productive hours of the afternoon