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May. 18th, 2014 07:37 pmDay 14 – Favorite book of your favorite writer
2010 Answer: Death on the Nile or And Then There Were None (Christie), The Perfect Poison (Quick), and Q-Squared (David)
So, picking a favorite Christie is hard. There's SO many good ones. Out of the 76 titles in my "desert island" file, 14 of them are Christie titles.
For Hercule Poirot, I'll still go with Death on the Nile. It has a classic "how DID they do it?" plot, a pair of victims who you don't really feel too badly about, and a good film adaptation featuring Peter Ustinov, David Niven, Angela Lansbury, Mia Farrow and others.
For Miss Marple, I have to give the point to A Pocketful of Rye, where she isn't really invited in, but comes to solve the crime anyway. I love how she does the plot, and there's a lot of room for stories to fit in, including some of the alternate ideas in her notebooks. Point for dysfunctional families, a favorite of mine.
For standalones, it's a tossup between The Sittaford Mystery (snowbound murder, Ouija board, crossword puzzles, an intrepid reporter, a girl out to defend her man) and Murder is Easy (no one listens to little old ladies - what happens when a bored police type DOES). And Then There Were None belongs in its own category, I think.
Out of the 76 "desert island" titles, 15 of them are Heyer novels. For her mysteries, I have to go with Envious Casca, which has all the elements I love - dysfunctional family, character who (surprise! not) ends up dead, plenty of people with motives and no alibis, and an Inspector who's always paying attention. For her romances, since I've already talked about The Nonesuch, I'll go with another dysfunctional family of hers, the Darracotts who star in The Unknown Ajax, which is just fun all by itself. There's a good romance and good characters, and you will have a few good laughs while you read it.
DV
2010 Answer: Death on the Nile or And Then There Were None (Christie), The Perfect Poison (Quick), and Q-Squared (David)
So, picking a favorite Christie is hard. There's SO many good ones. Out of the 76 titles in my "desert island" file, 14 of them are Christie titles.
For Hercule Poirot, I'll still go with Death on the Nile. It has a classic "how DID they do it?" plot, a pair of victims who you don't really feel too badly about, and a good film adaptation featuring Peter Ustinov, David Niven, Angela Lansbury, Mia Farrow and others.
For Miss Marple, I have to give the point to A Pocketful of Rye, where she isn't really invited in, but comes to solve the crime anyway. I love how she does the plot, and there's a lot of room for stories to fit in, including some of the alternate ideas in her notebooks. Point for dysfunctional families, a favorite of mine.
For standalones, it's a tossup between The Sittaford Mystery (snowbound murder, Ouija board, crossword puzzles, an intrepid reporter, a girl out to defend her man) and Murder is Easy (no one listens to little old ladies - what happens when a bored police type DOES). And Then There Were None belongs in its own category, I think.
Out of the 76 "desert island" titles, 15 of them are Heyer novels. For her mysteries, I have to go with Envious Casca, which has all the elements I love - dysfunctional family, character who (surprise! not) ends up dead, plenty of people with motives and no alibis, and an Inspector who's always paying attention. For her romances, since I've already talked about The Nonesuch, I'll go with another dysfunctional family of hers, the Darracotts who star in The Unknown Ajax, which is just fun all by itself. There's a good romance and good characters, and you will have a few good laughs while you read it.
DV
