March, 2018 - Read about the lions and the lambs

Wow where's Cliff? Usually he has a thread up by now. Anyhow I am reading Kids these days and it is really good but also super depressing. I am also starting book 2 of the Dunnett series, Queen's Play and reading Tana French's In the Woods with Chris as bedtime reading. Continuing my read of my friend's book. No touchstone. Here's the Amazon link. It's a very good read! Get it! Isn't it a great cover?
https://www.amazon.com/Restraint-Anne-Hawley/dp/0692911863/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?...

Starting a read/re-read of the classic spy novels, Le Carre, Fleming and Deighton. I'm waiting for the first Deighton to be delivered since it's out of print (The IPCRESS file) but have started on Le Carre and Fleming. Amazing how poor Casino Royale is compared to Call for the Dead.

I am reading Astrid Lindgren's War Diaries and Under the Udala Trees.

>2 justifiedsinner: I always understood that Le Carré started writing novels because he read Fleming and fumed. Both were in the intelligence community, but Fleming was apparently something of a loose cannon and a buccaneer.

>4 RobertDay: there is no contest as to who is the better writer. I think the only reason Fleming books are still in print is people's nostalgia about the movies.

Indeed. Much of the iconography of the books draws heavily on the films across multiple publishers and editions.

>4 RobertDay: Fleming was also a snob and a social climber. When he told some dowager duchess he was thinking of writing a novel, she replied, "Oh don't do it, Ian! You're not clever enough!"

I'm interested in comparing both to Deighton. I read a couple of his years ago but can't remember anything about them. I just have an image of Michael Caine and his cockney accent.

>8 justifiedsinner: I've read all the 007 books and all the Harry Palmer ones (although he's not named in the novels, IIRC). The Deighton ones are much better.

>9 iansales: I suspected as much.

I've made a start on Tariq Ali's The Dilemmas of Lenin.

Finished a tight, literate crime novel, Denis Johnson's NOBODY MOVE.

Suspenseful and vividly told; recommended.

Finished Kids These Days. Here is a thoughtful review that I agree with. I recommend it to non-millenials so that we can have more empathy for this generation.
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/wont-get-fooled-again-malcolm-harriss-kids-t...

The Silver Linings Playbook – Matthew Quick
Digital audiobook narrated by Ray Porter.
4****

Pat Peoples is at home again, living with his parents, after spending an indeterminate amount of time “in the bad place” – a mental hospital. He knows that if he can just improve himself a bit, his wife Nikki will come back to him. Problem is, no one will talk about Nikki or tell him the truth. His old friends have wives and children that he doesn’t remember. The Philadelphia Eagles keep losing. His father barely speaks to him. And now he’s got a girl, Tiffany, who is following him around. At least his therapist is an Eagles fan…

What a delightfully quirky and touching story. I never saw the movie, but knew it was very popular. I put the book on my tbr knowing basically nothing about it and was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it.

Pat is a wonderful character and narrator. His constant repetition of his mantra, his reminders to himself that he is trying “to be kind, not right” and his unfailing belief that he will be able to succeed just endear him to me. Tiffany is so confused and hurt and hopeful, that she, too, just pulls me in. I loved Pat’s mother and his therapist (and fellow Eagles’ fan) as well. The only character I could never quite figure out – and could have done without – was Pat’s father. But that’s a small quibble, really.

Ray Porter does a marvelous job of performing the audio book. He really brought these characters to life for me.

Finished THE THING ITSELF, a smart blend of Kantian philosophy and near future science fiction.

Adam Roberts presents the reader with a book that will bend their brain and introduce some spookily plausible ideas.

Recommended.

3rd Degree – James Patterson and Andrew Gross
Digital audiobook narrated by Carolyn McCormick
2**

From the book jacket: Detective Lindsay Boxer is jogging along a beautiful San Francisco street when a fiery explosion rips through the neighborhood. A town house owned by an internet millionaire is immediately engulfed in flames, and when Lindsay plunges inside to search for survivors, she finds three people dead. An infant who lived in the house cannot be found – and a mysterious message at the scene leaves Lindsay and the San Francisco Police Department completely baffled.

My reactions:
This is book three in the Women’s Murder Club series with Patterson’s name getting top billing on the cover, but I suspect mostly written by Andrew Gross. The formula must not have been working well because there’s a significant change among the club members.

I’ll say this for the team of writers – they keep things moving quickly. There’s a killing every few chapters, and the women have a personal reason to make sure the perpetrator(s) is/are stopped. Vietnam era politics enter into the equation to further confound and confuse.

Carolyn McCormick does a reasonably good job voicing the audio. However, the producers felt compelled to add cheesy “suspense” music and sound effects. I guess they didn’t have faith in the writers’ ability to build suspense with words alone.

Lockdown – Laurie R King
4****

King is probably best known for her Mary Russell series, but this is a stand-alone psychological thriller. As the title implies, it focuses on an incident at a school – Guadalupe Middle School in San Felipe, California. The action follows the characters on one particular day, “Career Day,” when Principal Linda McDonald will bring in a variety of adults to talk to the students about various career options. King gives us a timeline for each chapter, taking us from just after midnight to shortly after 1:00 p.m. The narration moves from character to character by chapter as well.

In addition to Linda, the reader learns something about her husband Gordon, Police Detective Olivia Mendez, the coach, the school janitor, a couple of the parents, and several of the students. In the back of everyone’s mind is the recent disappearance of Bee Cuomo, a sixth grader, and the previous year’s shooting death of Gloria Rivas. One child, in particular, is planning a large and important gesture on Career Day, and with all these threads of tension, King keeps the reader guessing as to what might happen.

I thought a couple of the elements of the plot’s ending were just too conveniently pat, but I was still entertained throughout. My F2F book club will be discussing this book in March, and I’m eager to hear what others thought of it.

Finished The Ipcress File which took me a while to get into. The writing was rather uneven and had the occasional embarrassing pastiche that made you want to go, oh dear:

'She came into Led's old broken doorway and into my life like the Royal Scot, but without all the steam and noise. She was dark, calm and dangerous looking'

Oh, dear.

Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures – Emma Straub
Digital audiobook narrated by Molly Ringwold
3***

From the book jacket: An enchanting debut novel about a small-town midwestern girl who finds fame as a sensational movie star during Holllywood’s golden age, this work is also a story of family, ambition, and sacrifice.

My reactions
I get a certain little kick out of reading a book set in my backyard, and this one begins in idyllic Door County Wisconsin. Add a family tradition of theatre – Elsa, is the youngest of three daughters born to the owner/operators of the Cherry County Playhouse – and the romance of Hollywood’s golden age, and I was captured by the book jacket’s promise.

I wasn’t expecting great literature, and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s a rags-to-riches, poor-girl-marries-powerful-executive, money-can’t-buy-happiness story that would have easily been produced by the studio-system of Hollywood in the 1930s and ‘40s. Other than Elsa/Laura, I thought the characters lacked development. Still, it was a quick read and although I found the plot somewhat predictable, I was content to go along for the ride.

Molly Ringwold does a find job narrating the audiobook. She has good pacing, and she’s sufficiently accomplished as an actress to breath life into the characters.

Snow Falling on Cedars – David Guterson
4****

At once a courtroom drama, a love story, a war story and a coming-of-age story, Guterson’s debut novel is a marvelous work depicting one man’s struggle against his baser instincts.

Kabuo Miyamoto grew up on his family’s strawberry farm, land that his parents, born in Japan, were prohibited by law from owning. They leased the land from Carl Heine Sr, with an agreement that when their son turned 21, he (an American born citizen) would own the land. Natsue Imada also grew up on a strawberry farm, at the opposite end of San Piedro Island from the Miyamoto’s farm. Her near neighbor and childhood friend was Ishmael Chambers, son of the local newspaper owner/editor. Natsue and Ishmael form an attachment as children and teenagers, but their plans are interrupted by World War II, and the internment of all Japanese. Twelve years later, Hatsue is married to Kabuo, who is on trial for murdering Carl Heine, Jr, a local fisherman, and son of the woman who “stole his family’s land” while they were in the internment camps.

Guterson uses the trial as the framework for telling the story of these three people, whose lives are intertwined and bound by local history, prejudice, regret and grudges. The men, in particular, harbor resentments from past injuries, and seem trapped in holding on to their feelings of having been wronged and/or done wrong.

Island life is unique in that the residents have few opportunities to truly isolate themselves from one another. Separated from the rest of world by an expanse of water, they must form a community to help one another. There is one hardware store, one post office, one grocer, one mechanic, one school. They may have squabbles, but if you make an enemy you will not be able to avoid that person. So, in general, they set aside their differences and get along – at least on the surface. But all that is unsaid is kept inside one’s soul, festering and shaping thoughts and behaviors.

This is the quandry for Ishmael and Kabuo, and to some extent Carl Jr. The attack on Pearl Harbor unites the American citizens against “the Japs” and results in tensions between families that have peacefully coexisted for years. Guterson masterfully pits a German family against a Japanese family – at one point even having a character comment on the irony of the Japanese being viewed as the enemy, while the Germans are NOT automatically labeled as Nazis.

Ishmael’s quandry is more complex. He loses his heart to Hatsue, only to have it broken, and then loses an arm in the Pacific theater – “blown off by a Jap.” Covering the trial, he cannot bear to look at her, he cannot bear to look away. He longs for her and yet blames her for his current state. His moral dilemma is made more difficult by the latent prejudice rife among island residents, to which he is also falling prey.

I love this paragraph near the end of the book (no spoiler):
Islanders were required by the very nature of their landscape, to watch their step moment by moment. No one trod easily upon the emotions of another where the sea licked everywhere against an endless shoreline. And this was excellent and poor at the same time – excellent because it meant most people took care, poor because it meant an inbreeding of the spirit, too much held in, regret and silent brooding, a world whose inhabitants walked in trepidation, in fear of opening up. Considered and considerate, formal at every turn, they were shut out and shut off from the deep interplay of their minds. They could not speak freely because they were cornered: everywhere they turned there was water and more water, a limitless expanse of it in which to drown. They held their breath and walked with care, and this made them who there were inside, constricted and small, good neighbors.

Just finished a weird, sometimes funny satire mystery, The Cat who killed Lilian Jackson Braun, mostly on the strength of WTF blurbs on the back such as “kaplow writes with the ear of a Van Gogh” and “Dazzlingly postmodern! Also dizzyingly post-funny!”

Also finished a really fun Islamic themed fantasy, The Throne of the Crescent Moon. Highly recommended.

Plaid and Plagiarism – Molly MacRae
Digital audiobook performed by Elaine Claxton
3***

Four women take possession of their new bookshop, Yon Bonnie Books, in the Highlands of Scotland. They are: Janet Marsh, a newly divorced woman; her good friend Christine, a retired social worker; Janet’s daughter Tallie, who’s given up her career to move to Scotland with her mother; and Summer Jacobs, Tallie’s good friend. Unfortunately, the move to Inversgail has hit a snag. Before she can move in, Janet discovers her house has been vandalized, and learns that it isn’t the first time. The real estate agent suspects Una Graham, an advice columnist for the local paper. When the four women decide to look for clues to the vandal’s identity, they find a body in the garden shed – Una, stabbed in the neck.

I like these characters. They’re a little obsessive about recording and keeping notes, but what can you expect from a social worker, attorney, journalist and librarian? As amateur sleuths go, they make a pretty good team. Add the various local residents, an annual Literary Festival, a constable who’s never had a murder case before, plenty of suspects, and references to books, books, books, and more books, and you have a recipe for an enjoyable cozy mystery.

Elaine Claxton does a fine job performing the audio. With her skills as a voice artist she was able to give each woman a distinct voice, which helped in keeping characters straight.

My Name is Red – Orhan Pamuk
Book on CD performed by John Lee
3***

Set in 16th-century Instanbul, this is a murder mystery, an art history lesson, and a love story all in one. The Sultan has commissioned a new book and directs Enishte Effendi to appoint a group of acclaimed miniaturists to illuminate the manuscript “in the style of the Franks.” But figurative art can be seen as an affront to Islam, so it’s a dangerous commission that must remain secret, and no one in the group knows the full scope of the project. When one of the artists disappears, the Sultan demands answers within three days. Was this the work of a devout follower of Islam, or is this a case of jealous rivalry for the hand of Enishte’s beautiful daughter Shekure?

I’ve had this on my tbr for a long time. I really enjoy reading international literature, and this one puts me smack dab into the world of historic Istanbul. But I found it difficult to follow because of Pamuk’s unusual style. Each chapter has a different narrator – including not only the major characters (Black, Shekure, Esther, Butterfly, etc), but a corpse, a tree, a dog, an ancient coin, and even death. Each chapter is written in first person giving the reader only that narrator’s perspective.

When he focuses on the murder and the investigation, the story is quite compelling. However, Pamuk also includes long passages on art, the history of Turkey, and the teachings of Islam. Some of these helped me to understand the culture and the references, but mostly they interrupted the story arc and sometimes had me scratching my head wondering what I had just missed.

The audio book is masterfully performed by John Lee, whose voice reminds me of Jeremy Irons. He really had his job cut out for him, given the style of writing and the many characters. There were times when I had to read the text to be sure I hadn’t missed something. Still, Lee was definitely up to the task. I would rate his narration at 5 stars. Bravo.

Night At the Fiestas – Kristin Valdez Quade
4****

Ever since I studied O Henry and Edgar Allan Poe in junior high, I have loved short stories. With this collection, Kristin Valdez Quade is added to my list of authors who have perfected this format.

It’s difficult to rate a collection, because some of the stories resonate more with me than others. Quade gives us ten beautifully written stories in this collection.

In The Five Wounds Amadeo tries to atone for past (and current) failures by playing the part of Jesus in the annual Good Friday re-enactment of the crucifixion, while his pregnant teen-aged daughter looks on. Andrea struggles between hating the wealthy land owner who employs her father, and desperately wishing she could be more like his daughter, Parker in Jubilee. In Mojave Rats Monica is feeling trapped with her two daughters, seven-year-old Cordelia and the infant Beatrice, in a sparsely populated trailer park, while her husband is off doing fieldwork for his Ph.D. Pregnant Crystal has found work and maybe a little hope as a secretary for the local parish priest in Original Sins. When the reader meets Frances in Night at the Fiestas, “she is pretending to be someone else, someone whose father is not the bus driver.”

What Quade’s characters share is that desire to “be someone else” and/or somewhere else, but no real means of achieving that. They dream, but are somehow powerless to change their circumstances, falling back on old patterns of behavior, afraid to let go of their past to head into the future.

Quade’s short story collection won the National Book Critics Circle Award for John Leonard Prize in 2015, and Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction (2016). She was named a National Book Foundation “Five Under Thirty-Five” Author.

Finished The Map and the Territory. Parts are quite brilliant and the whole is full of mordant humor.

March: Book Two – John Lewis and Andrew Aydin
Illustrations by Nate Powell
4****

This is the second in a trilogy of graphic memoirs detailing the Civil Rights Movement and early career of U.S. Representative John Lewis.

Lewis gives the reader a good chronology of the movement in 1961, focusing on the Freedom Riders and culminating in Dr Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington. Interspersed with this historical storyline, is the inauguration of Barack Obama as the USA’s first black President.

I lived through this era. I remember hearing about the Freedom Riders, the marches, the brutally violent responses by police forces against peaceful protestors, etc, but I was nine years old when John F Kennedy was elected; I didn’t live in any of the states where the protests were being held, and like most 4th-graders I wasn’t too focused on national news.

I’m glad to have read this now, however. Lewis’s experiences really bring the message home. I was near tears towards the end.

I applaud Lewis and his collaborators, co-author Andrew Aydin and illustrator Nate Powell, for bringing this era in America’s history to the attention of young readers. Providing this information in this format makes it more accessible to a young audience, and it’s important that they learn about this episode in our nation’s history. However, for me (and my old eyes), the format is somewhat problematic. Dark illustrations are not friendly to my eyes.

Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi
Digital audiobook performed by Dominic Hoffman
4****

A sweeping historical fiction and debut novel that follows the descendants of two half-sisters over three hundred years. Effia and Esi are the half-sisters – born into different villages in 18th century Ghana. Effia is “married” to an Englishman (who has an English wife back in Britain), and lives in relative comfort in the “Cape Coast Castle.” Esi is sold into slavery and transported to the American colonies.

I am reminded of the phrase “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” Both sisters are imprisoned, but in very different ways. And their descendants’ opportunities and views on the world are shaped by their histories. Some persevere and succeed, others succumb to feelings of hopelessness and despair. Some make great use of their gifts, others fall prey to drugs or greed. All are imprisoned in one fashion or another.

Trying to cover 300 years of history, on two continents, is an ambitious undertaking. Doing it in just over 300 pages is just about impossible. But Gyasi does a credible job. Each chapter focuses on a different character, moving the action forward generation by generation. She also alternates between each sister’s descendants, one chapter following Esi’s lineage, the next focusing on Effia’s children, grandchildren, etc.

There is a family tree in the front of the book, which is helpful, but I was listening to the audiobook and didn’t have that readily available. Dominic Hoffman’s performance of the audio was excellent, however. And once I got used to the format, I did not feel confused by the constantly changing narrators and timelines.

Been a busy month, I've been editing my next poetry collection...and in the past week caught a nasty flu bug. Fun, fun.

But I did manage to finish BLITZED, an account of the drugged out Nazi nation. Impressive, even enthralling.

Oh I had forgotten about that book. Sounded very interesting in the reviews.

It's smashing. And enlightening. And depressing.

What more could a reader want?

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – Barbara Kingsolver, Steven L Hopp, Camille Kingsolver
Digital audiobook read by the three authors.
3.5***

Kingsolver, her husband and two daughters moved from their Tucson Arizona home back to southern Appalachia and her husband’s family farmstead. As a family they vowed to get back to their roots – literally – growing much of their own food and buying what they couldn’t grow themselves locally. They pledged to a year of this experiment, allowing each family member one “luxury” – coffee for Steven, dried fruit for Camille, hot chocolate for 9-year-old Lily. They also accepted that they would need olive oil and flour, as well as spices. But they made a commitment to find the best possible sources for organic ingredients they needed to buy. This memoir is a record of their family’s journey.

The book includes essays / asides from Kingsolver’s husband, Steven Holt and eldest daughter Camille. Holt focuses on the global carbon footprint and economics of agriculture. Talk about preachy; I really felt I was being scolded for not paying closer attention to how my eating habits affect the world! Camille’s essays give a perspective from a teenager / young adult and include seasonal meal plans and some recipes.

I was surprised that I liked this as much as I did. Kingsolver is a talented writer and the humor of their situation shone through, making this very readable. I loved the episode describing young entrepreneur Lily’s egg business, or that chapter on turkey sex. That said, she can (and does) get preachy and while she states that she understands that not everyone has a family farm to move to, she doesn’t seem to really take into account that not everyone is actually able to grow so much of their own food, or to spend the time at home to prepare such delicious and seasonal meals for their family. And no, Ms Kingsolver, most of us do NOT have a chest freezer.

Still, she gave me much to think about. My husband and I have developed a more European style of marketing over the last few years. We go to the store every day, buying just what we need for that day’s meals and, with the exception of some staples (chiefly coffee, sugar, olive oil, oatmeal, canned tomatoes, and chicken stock), we wheel our grocery cart almost exclusively on the outer parameters of the store: dairy, eggs, meats, poultry, fish, and produce. (Thank heavens the wine is also on the “outside” … LOL) Come spring (yes, the calendar says we’re already there, but I live in Wisconsin – we still have snow on the ground), I plan to hit the local farmers’ market more often.

The authors narrate the audio book themselves, which lends a sort of personal touch. The recipes, however, are not included in the audio version; rather, the listener is referred to their website where the recipes are available.

Prisoners of Geography – Tim Marshall
4****

Subtitle: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World - or in U.K. editions: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics

I’ve always been relatively good at geography, and yet I wouldn’t say I’m particularly interested in or fascinated by the subject. Until now.

This was a selection for my F2F book club and I’ll admit I went into it with some reluctance. So, I was pleasantly surprised at how very readable and understandable Marshall’s work is. I quickly became engaged in the way he outlined the benefits and challenges of various geographical features. A lack of a warm water port, or a mountain range border, for example can make or break the fortunes of a nation. Not to mention the happy coincidence of finding a wealth of natural resources within your borders – oil, gold, diamonds, copper, rubber.

My husband is retired from a career in international business. The only continent he has not visited is Antarctica. After he left the corporate world he took consulting assignments, including working for U.S. AID. He still reads widely about world affairs, global economics, and geopolitics. So, much of this book was not news to me; I’ve been listening to my husband talk about these topics at the dinner table for years. But Marshall organizes and presents the information, along with some instating conclusions (or suggestions) in a way that really captured my attention. I recommended the book to my husband; after about ten pages he said, “Haven’t I been saying this to you for years?” Yes, Dear, you have; but NOW I understand it.

The Cuckoo’s Calling– Robert Galbraith
Digital audiobook narrated by Robert Glenister.
4****

Adapted from the book jacket: After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, creditors are calling, and he’s living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door and asks that he investigate as possible murder. Bristow’s sister, supermodel Lana Landry (known to her friends as the Cuckoo), fell to her death a few months earlier. Police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers.

My reactions
Well if you didn’t already know by now, Galbraith is the pseudonym of J K Rowling, and this book proves that she knows how to craft a compelling story. I was hesitant to read it, but I’m glad I finally came around. I’ll definitely keep reading this series.

I really liked Strike as a lead character. He has obvious flaws, and some not-so-obvious ones as well. But he’s a strong-willed, principled man with a keen intelligence despite his reliance on alcohol to numb the pain. I also really liked how he went about gathering the facts / clues, his way of evaluating what he learns and WHO is providing the information.

But the character I most liked was his assistant, Robin. What a wonderful foil for this detective. She’s young, bright, unflappable, intelligent, resourceful, and compassionate. Recognizing the difficulty her “temporary” boss is in, she takes the bull by the horns and quietly and efficiently makes things as right as they can be. She’s a treasure – as an assistant, and as a character.

The plot is suitably complex, with plenty of red herrings to confuse and misdirect both Strike and the reader. I did not guess the culprit in advance of the reveal.

Robert Glenister does a marvelous job of voicing the audiobook. He keeps the pace up (a must for this genre), and his skill as a voice artist is up to the challenge of reading a book with so many different characters. I really like the way he interprets both Strike and Robin.

Beartown – Fredrik Backman
Book on CD performed by Marin Ireland
4****

”So even Sune finds himself wondering: what are principles worth, if you don’t win?”

That may be the essence of this novel, set in a small town where hockey is not only “the only thing” but also “everything.”

The junior ice hockey team has a chance at winning the national title. Such a win would bring resources into this slowly dying small town – sponsors, an ice hockey academy, more residents. It would also launch star player Kevin towards a professional career with the NHL. For Amat, a 15-year-old who has always been on the outside, it would mean acceptance. For Peter and Kira, it would possibly validate their decision to move their family back to this isolated, though beautiful, small town. But carrying the hopes and dreams of an entire town is a heavy burden for a group of teenaged boys. And one violent act traumatizes players and residents alike, pitting neighbor against neighbor, and making many of them look long and deep into their consciences.

This is definitely a departure from the kinds of novels that have made Backman an international literary star. If you’re looking for Ove or a quirky grandmother who spins elaborate fantasy tales, you won’t find it here. But you will recognize Backman’s gift for drawing characters – good, bad, young, old, talented young people, and alcoholic has-beens. Readers will also find a thought-provoking story line, that makes one question “What would I do?” And please don’t dismiss this as a “sports” book that focuses only on the men involved in the game. The women in the novel are equally important to the story. Maya and Ana (teen-aged best friends), Kira, Ramona, Fatima, even Kevin’s mother and Benji’s sisters are all complex, strong women who are equal to the task of dealing with a testosterone-fueled hockey culture.

The audiobook is performed by Marin Ireland who does a fantastic job. She brings all these characters to life, male and female, young and old.

Lord Edgware Dies – Agatha Christie
A BBC radio drama performed by a full cast of actors.
3***

Jane Wilkinson was once the toast of Broadway, but now she is better known for her advantageous marriage to Lord Edgware. But the marriage isn’t a happy one, and Lady Edgware has another man in mind. Trouble is that Lord Edgware is adamantly opposed to divorce. Jane asks Hercule Poirot to convince Edgware to grant her a divorce. She even somewhat jokingly admits to Poirot that she’d do anything to end her miserable marriage. Which really complicates matters when Edgware is found stabbed in the neck a day later. Thank heavens that Jane Wilkinson was at a dinner party and everyone there can confirm her alibi.

Poirot is, as usual, intent on ferreting out the truth. All these suspects! All these conflicting stories! Colonel Hastings is by his side, but he acts mostly as a foil, asking questions that allow Poirot to expound on his thought processes. And those “little grey cells” get a workout!

These mysteries are my go-to comfort food of reading. Christie writes wonderful characters, even if she uses stereotypes that are jarring to modern sensibilities. She’s also very good at crafting intricate plot twists.

The BBC radio drama is wonderfully acted, but I was glad I also had a text version of the book. I find it interesting that I hadn’t noticed before how much of the action in these mysteries is handled through dialogue.