Tag: Agatha Christie

In Venice the whole world meets: New mystery titles

Neil

In Venice the whole world meets,

― Daphne du Maurier, Don’t Look Now and Other Stories

In this week’s newly acquired detective and mystery titles we have not one, but two books which feature the world-famous Italian city of Venice.

The first comes in the form of the queen of crime Agatha Christie’s A Haunting in Venice, a film tie-in to celebrate the release of the new movie. Interestingly, A Haunting in Venice the novel was originally published as Hallowe’en Party and the book’s plot actually takes place in a small English town, not Italy. It is only the film, which heavily relies on the plot of the original novel, that moves the action to the more dramatic and striking location of a villa by a canal in Venice. The other Venice mystery novel is more directly location driven. The Borgia Portrait by David Hewson is a gripping crime thriller about the theft of a painting that quickly turns into a murder investigation.

The atmospheric and beautiful, slowly decaying, canals and buildings of Venice have long proved irresistible to crime and thriller writers. Just a few novels that have used the spectacular city of Venice as the backdrop for dastardly deeds include Donna Leon’s Death at La Fenice, first in the hugely popular series which revolves around the death of a conductor at the world famous La Fenice opera house; Georges Simenon’s The Venice Train, a classic crime novel featuring a train journey; and Don’t Look Now by Daphne du Maurier, a superb gothic and spine-chilling thriller horror short story that perfectly  describes the eerier side of the city. The Nicolas Roeg film adaptation of Don’t Look Now is highly recommended too.  Other highly recommended mystery and thriller novels that use Venice as a backdrop include Dead Lagoon by Michael Dibdin and Alibi by Joseph Kanon.

Below are our other selected titles from this month’s newly acquired detective and mystery titles.

A haunting in Venice / Christie, Agatha
“The inspiration for A Haunting in Venice – now a major motion picture. When a Hallowe’en party turns deadly, it falls to Hercule Poirot to unmask a murderer…” (Adapted from Catalogue)

 

 

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Would That Be Funny? New Biographies and Memoirs in the Collection

Kath
Silhouettes of biography book covers against a sunlit backdrop with a person reading a book with a cup of tea

A new month means new items in the collection, and we’ve got a great batch of biographies and memoirs coming your way right now.  Here are some of them to explore:

Would that be funny? : growing up with John Clarke / Clarke, Lorin
“In this fascinating memoir, Lorin Clarke tells the story of growing up with her famous father, her art historian mother Helen, and her little sister Lucia. Much has been written about John Clarke, but this is the insider’s view-of his childhood, his relationship with his parents, his decision to leave New Zealand and live in Australia, and the choices he and Helen made to create a family life that is right out of the box. Would That Be Funny? is a story about the almost imperceptible things that make a family what it is, from long-told folklore, in-jokes, and archetypes, to calamities like world wars, deep-seated traumas, and sudden loss.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Jackie : public, private, secret / Taraborrelli, J. Randy
“From New York Times bestselling author of Jackie, Janet & Lee comes a fresh and often startling look at the life of the legendary former first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Twenty-nine years after her death and sixty years after the assassination of President Kennedy, Jackie delivers the last word on one of the most famous women in the world.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

 

Everything / nothing / someone / Carrière, Alice
“Alice Carrière tells the story of her unconventional upbringing in Greenwich Village as the daughter of a remote mother, the renowned artist Jennifer Bartlett, and a charismatic father, European actor Mathieu Carrière. With gallows humor and brutal honesty, Everything/Nothing/Someone explores what it means for our body and mind to belong to us wholly, irrevocably, and on our own terms. In pulsing, energetic prose that is both precise and probing, Alice manages to untangle the stories told to her by her parents, the American psychiatric complex, and her own broken mind to craft a unique and mesmerizing narrative of emergence and, finally, cure.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Mortification : eight deaths and life after them / Watson, Mark
“Mark Watson is generally accepted to be alive. And yet he’s died. In fact, he’s died loads of times. On stage. It’s embarrassing. Excruciating. But dying on stage isn’t the only death Mark’s suffered. There’s also been the death of his innocence. The death of that absolutely brilliant project that everyone told him was really amazing. And that time he died inside. In this memoir, he takes you behind the scenes of a life in comedy and beyond.” (Catalogue)

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The Enduring Popularity, and Many Faces and Films, of Agatha Christie

Neil

“Everything must be taken into account. If the fact will not fit the theory—let the theory go.”
― Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

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Agatha Christie’s books have for a long time been amongst the most popular books borrowed in libraries throughout the world and continue to be so even to this day, with book sales to match. She is the best-selling novelist of all time, selling a staggering 300 million books during her lifetime and a mind boggling estimated two billion to date. With such huge popularity it is no surprise that film makers rushed to her door looking for novels to adapt into scripts, though Agatha Christie herself famously said “My chief dislikes are crowds, loud noises, gramophones and cinemas.”

She grew up in an upper middle-class family in Torquay, a quiet, self-contained but happy child. Her first attempts at getting published were initially unsuccessful, however her luck changed in 1920 with the publication of The Mysterious Affair at Styles, the first book to feature one of her most successful detective creations Hercule Poirot. And from that point on her books just grew and grew in popularity.

The first film adaptation of her work was The Passing of Mr. Quinn in 1928 and many film adaptations throughout the years followed, with a new version of Death on the Nile scheduled to be released in 2022.

Most of the films feature one or other of Christie’s two big name detectives, Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple who have both been played by a wide variety of actors and actresses who have of course all brought their own style and approach to the characters. And it goes almost without saying that these films and television programmes have all reflected the times they were made (even if they had a historical backdrop).  From the cosy black and white, very British comic Miss Marple films of the 1960’s, starring Dame Margaret Rutherford, to the star-studded mega block buster Peter Ustinov films of the late 70’s and early 80’s. And then there is the highly unlikely (you have to see it to believe it) Arnold Schwarzenegger action thriller Sabotage, based on her And Then There Were None novel.  Not to mention the recent slickly-produced modern movies by Kenneth Branagh and the often more nuanced and measured television adaptations, such as the superb Joan Bogle Hickson BBC series.

Below is just a small selection of the Agatha Christie books, films and television series we have on offer.

Death on the Nile / Christie, Agatha
” The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful, a girl who had everything – until she lost her life. Hercule Poirot recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: ‘I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.’ Yet in this exotic setting’ nothing is ever quite what it seems…” (Adapted from Catalogue) Click  here for the 1978 star studded  Peter Ustinov film.

Murder on the Orient Express / Christie, Agatha
” Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train is surprisingly full for the time of the year, but by the morning it is one passenger fewer. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. Isolated and with a killer in their midst, detective Hercule Poirot must identify the murderer – in case he or she decides to strike again.” (Adapted from Catalogue) Click here for the 1976 version starring Albert Finney and here for the 2017 Kenneth Branagh version.

And then there were none / Christie, Agatha
” Ten strangers, apparently with little in common, are lured to an island mansion off the coast of Devon by the mysterious U.N.Owen. Over dinner, a record begins to play, and the voice of an unseen host accuses each person of hiding a guilty secret. That evening, former reckless driver Tony Marston is found murdered by a deadly dose of cyanide. The tension escalates as the survivors realise the killer is not only among them but is preparing to strike again… and again…” (Adapted from Catalogue). Click here for the availability of Sabotage, the Arnold Schwarzenegger action thriller based on And Then There Were None.

Evil under the sun / Christie, Agatha
” It was not unusual to find the beautiful bronzed body of the sun-loving Arlena Stuart stretched out on a beach, face down. Only, on this occasion, there was no sun… she had been strangled. Ever since Arlena’s arrival at the resort, Hercule Poirot had detected sexual tension in the seaside air. But could this apparent ‘crime of passion’ have been something more evil and premeditated altogether?” (Adapted from Catalogue). Click here forthe film starring Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith, Jane Birkin, James Mason and Diana Rigg amongst others.

Why didn’t they ask Evans? / Christie, Agatha
“During a round of golf on a cliff-top course in Wales, Bobby Jones discovers a man lying gravely injured on the rocks below. His last words, “Why didn’t they ask Evans?,” two adventurous friends decide to find his killer…” (Adapted from Catalogue) Click here for the availability of the 1980 film which coincidently has Joan Hickson as  Mrs. Rivington before her time playing Miss Marple.

 

The body in the library / Christie, Agatha
“When the Bantrys wake to find the body of a beautiful young stranger in their library, Dolly Bantry knows there’s only one person to call: her old friend Miss Marple.” (Catalogue) Click here for the first series of Miss Marple Starring Joan Hickson, here for the second, here for the third  and here for the fourth.

 

The adventure of the Christmas pudding : and a selection of entrees / Christie, Agatha
“First came a sinister warning to Poirot not to eat any plum pudding … then the discovery of a corpse in a chest … next, an overheard quarrel that led to murder … the strange case of the dead man who altered his eating habits … and the puzzle of the victim who dreamt his own suicide. What links these five baffling cases? The little grey cells of Monsieur Hercule Poirot!” (Adapted from Catalogue) Click here for the availability of  first series of Hercule Poirot starring David Suchet, here for the second, here for the third and here for all our other numerous David Suchet,  Hercule Poirot items.

An autobiography / Christie, Agatha
“Agatha Christie’s ‘most absorbing mystery’ – her own autobiography, with new exclusive CD containing newly discovered priceless recordings of Agatha dictating excerpts from more than 40 years ago.” (Adapted from Catalogue) Click here for the availability of Agatha Christie’s garden : murder & mystery in Devon. A fascinating documentary about Agatha Christie’s personal Devon retreat Greenway which she described as   “the loveliest place in the world”