The adventure begins. Anyone less lucky than Tommy and Tuppence would have been dead ten times over by the time it ended, but, as Tuppence said once, “The Young Adventurers take a lot of killing”. So they do. They also outplay the sinister and invincible Mr. Brown – and Tommy, who was believed not to be clever proves otherwise by the end of the story – even the famous Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot could never have done better! But before the happy end and two happy matches ending in accepted proposals we are more than once led to believe we’ll never see this nice couple again. For dessert we are served a nice, delicious red herring… but no, I’ll say no more. Not a word, or I’ll spoil it. The author takes care we only learn the shocking truth at the last moment.

How different this book is from the later works by the same author like, say, “Hallowe’en Party”, where there’s little action but a lot of contemplation and musing! Tommy and Tuppence are too young and active (around the age of 22 each) to waste time contemplating anything – they act!

The book is full of light-hearted humour. Both Tuppence and Tommy are good at making jokes, and their American friend Julius, whose speech is full of idioms of his country, makes me laugh at almost every page. But while all these characters are very thoroughly drawn, the villains are just, well, villains. We learn little more about them.

As the thrilling events come one after another, we keep turning the pages. Agatha Christie always knew how to keep her readers on the hook. If you admire this great writer as much as I do but haven’t read this book yet, I strongly recommend that you do and promise that you will enjoy every moment of it.

Hercule Poirot agrees to help with the investigation at the request of his friend Ariadne Oliver. She was at the ill-fated party – she was naturally shocked with the outcome. Poirot never fails – she knows it. She pays him a visit and asks for help.

Poirot is old – really old now, in 1969. He must be over a hundred – but he is just as shrewd as ever, with the same wonderful knowledge of human psychology. He starts making inquiries, as things become more interesting. Where did that East European au pair girl go? Was the old lady’s will a forgery? And who killed the young forger? Poirot won’t accept everyone’s version of events – he needs to be sure. Everyone’s opinion on what happened can be wrong.

I don’t know how he guessed the name of the murderer. When asked, he answered simply, “He fitted”. Strangely enough, this novel is one of the very few written by this author, in which I was able to guess the true answer before finishing the book. And I would have given the same explanation. He fitted indeed. She fitted too.

Poirot’s interference didn’t save a little boy, Joyce’s younger brother Leopold. Those who have killed once will do it again, and so Leopold dies. But he acts just in time to save another young life – that of a charming 12-year-old girl called Miranda, Joyce’s closest friend. Without him, she would have been dead also, for the criminals want to achieve their goals so badly, they’d stop at nothing. They’ve been murdering people for about three years to get what they want. As Poirot says elsewhere, murder is a habit.

This book is one of Agatha Christie’s late works, and is written more poetically than most of her other books, crisp and cheerful. She describes the beauty of the nearby garden with so much love as if it were the most important part of her story; she dwells on it. She also dwells on the beauty of its creator – Michael Garfield. Life has taught me to be wary of men with too much beauty in them.

There are parts of the book I like re-reading, but overall it’s not one of my favourites. I don’t like it when I can guess the murderer(s) too early, and the book seems a bit too moody, but it was still quite interesting meeting this “different” Agatha Christie. It was useful also as cultural education – I’ve learned a lot about what people do at Hallowe’en parties. And meeting Ariadne Oliver was fun.

With the fourth crime everything seems to go wrong – and they catch the obvious murderer. The case is as clear as could be – so why isn’t Poirot satisfied?

He’ll eventually explain it all – of course he will. Once again we’ll be left dumbfounded by the genius of the author: who’d have thought it was like this! Oooooh, the way she turns it all around…

I read this book many years ago, when I just started reading in English. I picked it up from a library. Many years have passed, and now I visit the same library again, and there’s the same book standing on the shelf. Why not re-read it, I thought today…

Funny how the passage of time changes the way we perceive things… especially books. Last time I was so indignant with Poirot for the way he treated Thora Grey. There was, I thought, no ground at all for his innuendo! Now I’m reading it again – not a girl of 25 anymore, but an experienced, married woman of 38 – and I see it all so clearly. Of course he did have grounds! They are all here, staring me in the face…

But that’s not the most important thing to say about this book, of course – just the episode. What I have to say, if you are a fan of Agatha Christie’s books but haven’t read this partucilar one yet, you definitely should. It’s a masterpiece – a gem. You’ll be thrilled – and what’s more, you’ll discover a different Agatha Christie (yes, again – isn’t she different in any book she ever wrote?)

if, on the other hand, you’ve never read any of her books yet, “The ABC Murders” could be a good one to start with, if not a very typical one. I recommend it to you in any case – unless, of course, you hate detective stories. The way Poirot arrives at the identity of the murderer – the way he sets up his trap to get a confession out of him – it’s all pure genius and pure pleasure for any fan of the genre.

The only daughter of a famous archaeologist, Anne finds herself orphanned and penniless, trying in vain to find a job and longing for adventure. Before long she gets involved in a murder investigation (where the police fail) and spends all her money – to the last penny – to get aboard a ship going to South Africa. Her adventures begin onboard the ship, “Kilmorden Castle” – and continue when she reaches her destination.

We know from the first chapter that the Colonel’s downfall is to come through a woman. Nadine thought the fortune-teller’s prophecy referred to herself. She was wrong. Will Anne be the woman in question?

The book is thrilling. It has mystery; it has danger – more than enough to keep the reader captured from beginning to end. It also has its sentimental side – Anne finds passionate love, as well as friendship (who said that friendship between two women was impossible? Not for Anne and her new friend Suzanne!)

Also, the author promises that the Colonel will be the person least likely to be one. She’s true to her promise. Trust me, you’ll be much surprised if you read the book to the end. Another pleasant fact for me to learn was that both supposed Russians of the first chapter weren’t Russians at all – no wonder they couldn’t speak the language!

Yet another proof (if I needed one) that Agatha Christie was a genius of the genre.

When it comes to inventing a mystery that can’t be solved just like this, Agatha Christie is unrivalled. “A Murder is Announced” is, perhaps, one of her best ever books. It’s a Miss Marple mystery, and I happened to see it filmed before the book came my way. I regret it now: knowing the solution has spoiled the pleasure of reading it for me. I envy those who will read it without having any clue about the identity of the murderer.

For Detective Inspector Craddock it was his first experience of working with the one and only Miss Marple. He didn’t believe in her abilities at first, but she won him on her side quite soon. So, when it came to setting a trap for the murderer, he accepted her plan and played his arranged part in it quite willingly and with a skill of an actor. The murderer bites the bait, gets caught… confesses.

“A Murder is Announced” is one of the first Agatha Christie’s novels I ever read – about 14 years ago. It was a gift from an Italian friend – in those days we could hardly hope to buy anything good locally. I kept returning to it and re-reading it many times through the years, which I do only with the books I love best. There is something very neat and very precise about the way the book is written – the mystery, the characters, the background and the psychological explanations of the motives behind each murder (there were three altogether). And Miss Marple is, of course, a sweety, as usual – she alone might make it worth reading. I’d love to meet her likeness in real life.

Might have worked, but in the middle of the second party George himself dies, having drunk from a glass of champagne. This time, the police don’t believe in suicide.

In this book there’s no Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple – not even Tommy and Tuppence to solve the mystery. Some Anthony Browne, unheard of – we are told it’s not even his real name – is to be the clever one and solve the whole riddle. It’s not an easy one to solve (Agatha Christie is true to herself). Nearly everyone present at the first party had a distinct, strong motive to wish Rosemary dead, even including her husband (what a shame – granted, she was unfaithful, obtrusive, tactless and arrogant, but she was so beautiful!). But his own death a year after clears him – it’s assumed he’s got too close to the murderer and has been silenced so he won’t tell anyone.

But we know it’s never that simple in Agatha Christie’s books, don’t we? An attempted murder of Iris Marle, Rosemary’s younger sister, follows…

And then, as always, a totally unexpected explanation of the mystery.

“Sparkling Cyanide” is an excellent detective novel – not very long, but I don’t like very long detective novels: they tease my curiosity all the time while I read, and since it can take several days (I have work to do, apart from reading), I arrive at the end completely exasperated from the torture. Agatha Christie is usually merciful to the reader: her books can usually be consumed within an evening or two and still have everything in them to reward the reader for the effort.

She is not so merciful to her characters though. I felt terribly sorry for the beautiful Rosemary (though what a relief her death must have been to Stephen Farraday!) I felt sorrier still for George – a quiet, reliable, kind and honourable man, even if a little dull. And to subject the lovely Iris to the danger – now that’s a little too much! But we have a happy end finally.

I can safely recommend the book to all Agatha Christie’s fans: you won’t be disappointed.

The daughter – a brave and decisive young lady – hired Poirot to investigate the murder and prove her mother’s innocence beyond doubt – so she could get married happily, have children and live a normal life unmarred by the grim shadows of the past.

Poirot hesitated – after all, sixteen years had passed since the day of the crime – but young Carla Lemarchant flattered him, and finally he agreed to take upon the impossible task.

In order to obtain the facts necessary for his investigation, he approached five people who were present in the house at the time of the crime (“five little pigs”), talked to them and got each of them to write up a narrative containing their personal perception of events preceding the crime – and the crime itself – as they remembered it.

The more he read, the more desperately impossible his mission looked – and yet he succeeded. He succeeded when things looked so hopeless that even Carla herself was prepared to give it all up. “The accepted version of certain facts is not necessarily the true one”, said he, and proved it with multiple examples as he narrated his own version of events in front of all the people involved in the case gathered, as is traditional with Hercule Poirot mysteries, in one big room to listen to him. The clue to the case was there – in the disproval of accepted versions of facts.

I’ll say no more…

However, if we bring ourselves to credit that, the rest of the novel is perfect. The characters are drawn with mastery; you can close your eyes and see Louise Leidner smiling at you with that special smile, at once charming and ruthless, which only women of a particular kind ever possess. You can see Amy Leatheran, the honest, compassionate and hard-working young nurse eagerly helping Poirot in his investigation to describe it later on in her written narrative. You can see Miss Johnson, plain and elderly, but devoted, companion of Dr Leidner’s — and you can’t help feeling sympathy for her hopeless love and desperate jealousy, which is doomed to end nowhere.

Male characters are done in the same detailed manner, but — perhaps, because the author is a woman, or, perhaps, because I’m myself a woman — I cannot see their inner passions and visualise them as clearly as I can do with female characters. Their feelings seem somewhat hidden beneath a cloak; their characteristic features — like Bill Coleman’s silly talkativeness or Carl Reiter’s shyness — look a little exaggerated. The most alive of them all is, perhaps, Dr Reilly, who is not one of the leading characters in the book, but adds a lot of charm to the episodes in which he participates with his dry, typically English humour, relaxing manner of speech and pleasant informality of ways. His daughter Sheila, who is surprisingly unlike her father in every way, adds a whiff of reality to the dreamy, fairy-tale-ish world of the novel: her rude, unpolished honesty won’t endear her to the reader, but she still makes one respect her in the same way as we might respect an enemy. It definitely takes some courage to talk the way she does, though you might just say her father has spoiled her. There’s a lot of truth in that, no doubt — and yet…

And, of course, there’s Poirot, who never seems to change — clever, cheeky and courteous, still staging the final disclosure of all secrets as someone might stage a play. He handles this case without his friend Captain Hastings. (Who needed to add him to the mix in the film? Amy Leatheran was just as good for the role!)

The environment, in which the events take place, teases my imagination. I have always had special feelings for ancient relics, excavations and people who dedicate their lives to archaeology, so the fact that almost everyone at the scene is an archaeologist has added to the charm of the book greatly. I’ve read it several times, and now I’m about to read it again.