Did Manuel Carmague, a famous flautist, die in an accident or was he murdered? Did his death have anything to do with the fact that he was going to marry a woman fifty years younger than himself? Was his daughter returning home after years of separation really his daughter or an impostor? If she was an impostor, how could she manage it so well and when did the substitution take place?

Read the rest of this entry »

The Murder on the Links is one of the earliest of Agatha Christie’s books and the second Hercule Poirot novel. Just like the majority of her early works, it’s exciting and dynamic, with no time for contemplation. The events happen mainly in France, but, apparently, Hastings can manage French perfectly, because he translates everything into English without any difficulty.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m continuing to get acquainted with the works of this very original, gloomy, unpredictable and unmistakable English writer of detective novels. Once again I meet Chief Inspector Wexford who is always sixty, no matter what year it is – and always impossible to deceive, even if it takes him some time to arrive at the truth. He won’t entertain us by disclosing to us his deductions the way Hercule Poirot would do, but he is fascinating in his own, Wexford, way. I don’t always understand how he arrives at the truth at the end of each book, but I always look forward to the moment when he will reveal the solution to Burden and/or someone else.

Read the rest of this entry »

Archy McNally works as a private investigator for the company of his father, an attorney. The family lives in Palm Beach, Florida, and their lifestyle is quite sybaritic, so the young Archy just enjoys his life when there are no discreet inquiries to be done. But a strange visit from an employee of his father’s current client changes everything.
Read the rest of this entry »

“At Bertram’s Hotel” is one of the latest works by Agatha Christie and, like some of her other late works, tends to be less exciting, but more contemplative. Most of the book is dedicated to the description of Bertram’s Hotel, which imitates old England in the second half of the twentieth century to cater to the desires of the older folk to see the world as if it hadn’t changed.
Read the rest of this entry »

This novel by the Queen of the genre is a bit unusual – not in style, but in the choice of the leading characters. We’ll see neither Hercule Poirot nor Miss Marple here – on the contrary, the case will be investigated by two young people without any previous experience in solving mysteries.
Read the rest of this entry »

Bernie Pryde is dead. To avoid the hardships of living with cancer and going through the treatment he preferred suicide. He leaves his private detective agency to Cordelia Gray, his business partner. What is Cordelia to do with it?
Read the rest of this entry »

“The Secret Adversary” is one of Tommy and Tuppence mysteries – and the only one from this series I’ve so far managed to lay my hands on. It’s a perfect thriller, and I absolutely love it. I read it for the first time thirteen years ago, and now just had to refresh it in memory before reviewing it – but I remember the first time, and how completely mystified I was.
Read the rest of this entry »

This book is well known – I think I can very well call it famous – and most people know the plot, if not from the book itself then from the film or theatre. I’ll remind briefly that in the first act we meet a poor flower girl Eliza Doolittle speaking a dreadful dialect of English, Professor Higgins, an expert of phonetics, and Colonel Pickering, who is extremely interested in Professor’s research but has only just met him in the flesh. Next day as Higgins demonstrate his art to Pickering, Eliza pays him a visit to offer to take lessons of good English from him, since that would enable her to become “a lady in a flower shop”. Unfortunately, Higgins is as rude as could be, and his charges are way too high for the poor girl, but Pickering volunteers to pay for the lessons after offering Higgins a bet that he won’t be able to pass Eliza as a duchess in six months.
Read the rest of this entry »

Simon Morley (Si for his friends), a young talented artist, has to sketch soap bars in an advertising agency for a living, which is as boring as it sounds, until one single day changes his life completely. He is invited to participate in a top-secret project of the USA government. Before long he finds out that it has to do with time travels, but no time machines are involved – just careful recreation of the old surroundings where participants can live and absorb the atmosphere of the past, telling themselves they are already there – and then a little hypnosis does the rest.
Read the rest of this entry »