Repost – Art of Whodunit – Delicious Death

On April 27, 2020April 26, 2020 By MaddieIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Reposting another one of my old blog posts. With all the time over the weekend, I struggled to choose a book to read. I have over a hundred books on my Kindle yet nothing hooked me on. I did what I usually do in situations like these. I turned to my bookshelf and chose a Christie book.

There is no thrill quite like what I experience after reading a whodunit. I love this genre with a passion. Why do I love whodunits so, you ask? Simple as Hercule Poirot says they gives you the illusion of living an exciting life.

This brings me to what is going to be the focus of this post – my abiding love for Agatha Christie and her unusual and idiosyncratic detectives – Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. I have read my fair share of Sherlock Holmes – who’s intent on impressing Watson all the time. I honestly don’t think you can deduce that someone’s wife has left him because his hat is dirty and not brushed often – god! Or probably he can possibly categorise 350 different types of tobacco ashes. No monsieur, that’s doesn’t impress me at all.

No doubt Christie’s mysteries are thrilling, one better than the other, but what charms me most is her detectives – a little old lady with a twinkle in her eyes and a Belgian ex-police detective with an egg-shaped head. They are witty, funny, kind but firm and so brainy. The cerebral appeal that they have is what is lacking in modern detectives. Today’s detectives do not have ‘the little grey cells” and cannot solve a mystery by “simply arranging the facts in order” and hence resort to sex appeal and dirtying their hands and all the action. I am more impressed with Poirot sitting in his chair, sipping a cup of hot chocolate and using his grey cells to solve the crime. That’s a true detective.

Miss Marple’s method are different though. Her little village of St. Mary Meads has given her ample opportunity to peep into the psyche of people and learn their nature and every new crime reminds her of someone who has done the something similar. Her study of human psychology and human nature is simply outstanding and perhaps that is the reason why I tend to enjoy her stories a bit more than Poirot’s.

Somewhere along some books, I have also taken an immense liking to Captain Hastings who’s Poirot’s closest friend and the narrator of most of his stories. He is loyal to Poirot, has a dry, witty sense of humour, is charming in his own way and never leaves a chance to point out Poirot’s pompousness.

I have read almost all of her books but still after reading a few other authors I need to read one Christie just to make the blood rush.

Some of my favourites:

A Caribbean Mystery
Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Murder on the Orient Express
Murder is Announced
The Witness for the Prosecution
Mirror cracked from side to side
The thirteen problems
Murder in three acts
Holiday for Murder
4:50 from Paddington
Why didn’t they ask Evans?
At Bertram’s Hotel

Book Review: The Fourth Monkey

On August 2, 2017 By MaddieIn books, reviewLeave a comment

Source: Review copy from Netgalley
Release Date: Available now from HQ

See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil… Do No Evil

For over five years, the Four Monkey Killer has terrorised the residents of Chicago. When his body is found, the police quickly realise he was on his way to deliver one final message, one which proves he has taken another victim who may still be alive.

As the lead investigator Detective Sam Porter knows even in death, the killer is far from finished. When he discovers a personal diary in the jacket pocket of the body, Porter finds himself caught up in the mind of a psychopath, unraveling a twisted history in hopes of finding one last girl, all while struggling with personal demons of his own.

With only a handful of clues, the elusive killer’s identity remains a mystery. Time is running out and the Four Monkey Killer taunts from beyond the grave in this masterfully written fast-paced thriller.

Review:

Detective Sam Porter has hunted for this killer for five years. The Four Monkey Killer or 4MK has sent box after box of grisly trinkets carved from the victim’s body to detective Sam Porter. Now, Porter has learnt the killer’s twisted past and has to race against time to save the 4MK’s latest victim before it is too late.

This is a brilliantly twisted book. I read it in a couple if sittings. This is an exquisitely clever thriller which keeps your guessing. The characters have depth and insight. Sam Porter, the detective has his own past and his story unfolds during the course of the book and makes for an absorbing read.

The psychology of the killer is very immersive. The killer’s diary entries are some of the most interesting parts of the book. And what an ending!

The book is graphic and violent and not for the nervous. Those scenes add up to the psychology of the killer. This is one of those books where you want the killer to be punished yet secretly wish for him to get away with it.

Highly recommended!

Book Review: Murder as a Fine Art

On May 11, 2013May 10, 2013 By MaddieIn books, reviewLeave a comment

Title: Murder as a Fine Art
Author: David Morrell
ISBN: 9780316216791
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Release Date: May 7, 2013
Rating: 4 out of 5

Synopsis:

Thomas De Quincey, infamous for his memoir Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, is the major suspect in a series of ferocious mass murders identical to ones that terrorized London forty-three years earlier. The blueprint for the killings seems to be De Quincey’s essay “On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts.” Desperate to clear his name but crippled by opium addiction, De Quincey is aided by his devoted daughter Emily and a pair of determined Scotland Yard detectives.

My Review:

Historical crime fiction is a genre I seem to be enjoying these days. Murder as a Fine Art is set in 1854 London and is inspired from the works of Thomas De Quincey. De Quincey’s essay are autobiographical and the plot is heavily inspired from them. In the essay “On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts” De Quincey detailed the horrific series of murders that terrorized London in 1811. Morrell has weaved an intricate tale from those murders and De Quincey’s essays in Murder as a Fine Art.

A shop keeper and his family are brutally murdered in the manner that is exact with the 1811 Ratcliff murders, which are described in De Quincey’s essay. These murders coincide with De Quincey’s and his daughter Emily’s visit to London. Detective Inspector Ryan suspects De Quincey as the murders are committed exactly as mentioned in his essay. However we soon learn that this is all a trap to incriminate De Quincey himself. Now Detective Inspector Ryan and his constable Becker must work hard with De Quincey and Emily to find the real murderer. It is not easy with De Quincey’s addiction to Laudanum.

The book is humorous and witty and at times brutal in its descriptions of murders. De Quincey and his daughters’ characters are way ahead of their times and this is evident in their dialogues with each other and their prudent practical nature. It is interesting to read about the police procedures during that period and the politics and pressures that are present between ranks and class. The plot is interesting and the characters are complex. I enjoyed reading how De Quincey put himself in the murderer’s shoes and tried to get inside his character to find out his next move. It was a bit of a let-down that it was De Quincey who did most of the work and the inspector and constable acted mostly as his sidekicks. I am not curious to read De Quincey’s essays and his thoughts on psychoanalysis and the way the mind works; a long way before Freud! It was a compelling and engrossing read especially the psychoanalysis of the murderer as I was already reading Freud for my course on philosophy and this book nicely complemented it.