Death comes to the town of Broadhinny. On November 22, Mrs. McGinthy, a widow of sixty-four who worked in various village houses as a daily domestic, is found murdered, knocked in the back of the head, in her cottage parlour. Her bedroom has been ransacked, the floorboards pried up. Police find her savings, thirty pounds' worth, hidden under a stone behind the house. Suspicion falls immediately on her boarder, the "sometimes cringing and sometimes truculent" James Bently. But Superintendent Spence is not sure James did it, so he calls his dearest friend Hercule Poirot to help.

Mrs. McGinthy's Dead is a very complex story. Maybe a bit too complex to be good. The story evolves on a high pace, but in my opinion the outcome is one of the most disputable of Agatha's long and successful career. What seems to be a clear case at first, becomes a hodgepodge of intrigues and secrets. Finally, just a few pages before the end, a certain vital clue is discovered. Without this clue, it is truly impossible to find the murderer - unless your first name is Sherlock, of course. So "fairness" is not directly a word I would associate with this book. "It had not been an interesting murder," the Belgian sleuth things to himself at a certain point, but it gave me a nasty headache to find out what really happened. Next time I will read something lighter, I guess.

Although this book is not as well know as other "must reads" by Agatha, I still consider it one of the finest one. As always, the story is full of suprises, the plot is complex, and characters are fully developed. If u are a fan of Agatha, I'm sure u will love it. If u are going to read Agatha for the first time though, I suggest u to try "And then there were none", "Murder of Roger Akroyd", and of course "Death on the Nile" and "Murder on Oriental Express."

Poirot is given a case by his old pal Spence which takes him to a small village, where the fussy detective must unravel clues behind a crime in which the main suspect has already been arrested and sentenced... Hercule's indignities at the run down boarding house he's staying at make up the bulk of the story's humor, but the mystery is great fun, too and I doubt anyone can guess the killer, unless you're paying amazingly close attention. The characters here are some of Agatha's most entertaining, and Mrs Oliver, with her uncanny intuition, always makes a nice flighty side kick...

Miss Marple goes on vacation to stay at Bertram's Hotel. If you were thinking she was going to have some kind of adventure like she did in _A Caribbean Mystery_ or _Nemesis_ while she was on vacation, think again. If you enjoy Miss Marple because she comes up with these wacky village parallels, you are going to be disappointed. There aren't many here. A large part of the detecting is done my Chief Inspector Davy. Miss Marple is merely a side character in this one -- she really isn't super involved except when Davy talks to her during his investigations. She is more a "witness" than a sleuth.

Granted, by this point she is rather old, so at least Christie keeps her doing things within her capabilities!

The description of the hotel are great, and the premise of the plot had some nice possibilities but I don't think this was as well mapped out as some of the other Agatha Christie mysteries. If you are a long time reader, you are going to guess whodunit fairly quickly.

Overall, it's ok, but not one of the best. The Miss Marple short stories (ex: Thirteen Problems) are better.

Miss Marple is on another vacation courtesy of her nephew, the mystery writer Raymond West. On this outing, she is spending a week at Bertram's Hotel in London. Bertram's is one of the few places that has maintained its elegance and not given in to the mod fashion now sweeping London. The staff, the food, the setting is all very genteel and charming, much as it was in pre-war days.

However, something is not quite right at Bertram's. The police turn up checking out a clue that a series of well-planned robberies in the city is somehow connected to the stately hotel. Chief Inspector Davy is the detective in this one and he welcomes Miss Marple's keen acumen. We are introduced to an assortment of English ladies and gentlemen staying at the hotel which serves as a gathering place for suspects much as the country estates did in Christie's earlier works.

Although this is slower than many of her other works and has a rather complicated conclusion, it is a good look at the changing times in English society and another wonderful visit with Miss Marple.

Miss Jane Marple is in London on holiday and is staying at posh Bertram's hotel. Where Miss Marple goes, murder is sure to follow and it does. The details of Bertram's Hotel- the service, the high tea, etc- are great touches from a bygone era and help to make this book memorable. The plot is well-constructed and well-written although there are a few signs of the decline in Christie's work that was to begin a few years later.Overall,this is an enjoyable mystery by the greatest mystery writer ever.

'Murder on the Links' is a fine story. There's the necessary murder/s, a semi-feasible plot, and, may I say, quite a turn of events that lead up to capturing the killer. Such a turn that no one--unless they've cheated and read to the end--will guess the murderer. But the thing that hinders me from giving this book a complete five stars is a matter of sheer detail.

It seems Christie felt the need to accentuate the foriegn-ness (if there is such a word) of her characters. Poirot has uncharacteristically halted speech, Hastings is ridiculously British, and the French police are fumbling in their splotchy and nonsensical English. This makes for a trying read. However, if you can wade through the ridiculous parts and find the meat of the story, you'll find a suitable mystery. Not the best of our Agatha, but certainly worth a look.

This is the second Poirot - written in 1923. Perhaps because of this early date the book has both extra charm and some rough edges. On the charm front, Poirot is still a developing character and I had the sense that Christie wasn't just delivering a formula character. She also has the flexibility to place the plot in France which is largely a positive (even if all the "M's" get a bit confusing). Hasting is still pretty unpolished. Also some of the plot transitions are choppy.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It has many twists and turns. Some of them are truely clever and a few are predictible. The title is a tad misleadling. While a body is found in the sandtrap of a golf course, golf has virtually nothing to do with the murder. However, the reader needs to be alert as there are many "links" that will prove important as Poirot sees beyond the obvious to find the truth.

Hercule Poirot and Captain Hhastings are in France when they are called on to investigate a murder on a golf course. The story is not really centered on golf so don't let that put you off if you're not a fan of the sport. Poirot, of course, solves the mystery in his inimitable way. The polt is pretty well constructed and the solution to the crime is not too obvious. This is a pretty good Christie book but not up there with her best.

"Double Clue" (December 1923) - Marcus Hardman, a collector of antiques, has been robbed of some historic jewelry during one of his fashionable tea parties. Poirot and Hastings are called in because Hardman (suspecting one of his distinguished guests) wants to avoid scandal. Incidentally, this marks Poirot's 1st meeting with Countess Vera Rossakoff, who we meet again occasionally in later years; Poirot's interest in her isn't entirely professional. :) One of the key clues in this case is similar to one used in _Murder on the Orient Express_; Christie was very thrifty with good ideas and often recycled them.

"Theft of the Royal Ruby" (in expanded form, "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding") (December 1923) - A foolish young Middle Eastern prince let his current mistress wear the ruby that had just been reset for his bride - and she stole it. Poirot's main task is to avoid scandal - and it takes a lot of high-powered diplomatic persuasion, plus the promise of oil-fired central heating, to get him to endure Christmas in an English country house in pursuit of the gem. :)

"Double Sin" (September 1928, a.k.a. "By Road or Rail") - Hastings and Poirot are taking a week's holiday on the south Devon coast, when Poirot is offered a case on the north Devon coast. Hastings, after looking into the trains, urges Poirot into taking an all-day excursion trip by car to get there instead. One of the endless stream of auburn-haired women who pass through Hastings' life, Mary Durant, is also combining business with pleasure: delivering a case of valuable miniatures for her aunt. Unfortunately, she doesn't have sense enough to keep quiet about it...

"Wasp's Nest" (November 1928) - Poirot unexpectedly drops in on his friend John Harrison in his garden at the end of a hot August afternoon. He's travelling on business, rather than pleasure - investigating a murder that has not yet been committed. (Poirot attempts this when possible, but has had a mediocre success rate.)

"The Last Seance" (1933) - This is one of Christie's forays into supernatural fiction and can best be appreciated in _The Hound of Death and Other Stories_, rather than this mystery-dominated collection.

"The Dressmaker's Doll" (1954) - Sylvia Fox doesn't remember buying or being given the elaborately dressed doll that's kept lying around the studio, and lately there have been some disturbing incidents, as it's been moved from place to place, and nobody will admit to moving it...

"Greenshaw's Folly" - Horace Bindler, literary critic, is at heart suited only to the rarefied air of the city intelligencia, but has wished himself as a country houseguest upon author Raymond West. Seeking for a diversion, and knowing of Bindler's fondness for photographing monstrosities - houses apparently designed by architects on drugs - introduces him to Greenshaw's Folly. As it happens, although interrupted while grubby from gardening, Miss Greenshaw isn't upset by visitors - she needs them to witness her will, since her housekeeper is the legatee rather than being on salary. (Her nephew, as the son of her rogue of a brother-in-law, is being disinherited.) On their way home, the critic remarks that all her library needed was a body. On hearing the story, Raymond's aunt Jane Marple is reminded of Mr. Naysmith, who liked deceiving people for fun, and sometimes got trouble rather than laughs...

"Sanctuary", a.k.a. "The Man on the Chancel Steps" (October 1954) - Bunch Harmon (one of Miss Marple's many relatives, whom we met in _A Murder is Announced), was asked for sanctuary by a dying man. But why did he come to Chipping Cleghorn in the first place?

this is a gooood boooooooook!

One morning the body of a beautiful but rather cheap-looking girl is found in the library of Colonel and Mrs. Bantry at Gossington Hall. The Bantrys don't have a clue of the identity of this unfortunate girl. Luckily Miss Marple is there to help the police in their investigations and guide them politely to the discoveries that will solve this complex case.

Following Murder at the Vicarage (1930) and The Thirteen Problems (1932) this is Miss Jane Marples third appearance. Why Christie waited more than a decade to get back to her old spinster in 1942 remains unknown, but it might have something to do with the enormous popularity of her private detective with the little grey cells: Hercule Poirot.

The come-back of Miss Marple has not really the same spirit as the bulk of Agatha Christie pre-war books. It certainly lacks the freshness of Vicarage, although some characters from that book make their second appearance in The Body in the Library. The characters are drawn in the typical style that has become a trademark of Christie, so nothing wrong with that. The ending though is so utterly unlikely that is gives you a rather bitter aftertaste. From a whodunit point of view the end is neatly composed and proves the master ship of the Dame of Crime, but that is far from what real life is supposed to offer. I know, you shouldn't expect realistic story-lines if you open an Agatha Christie novel, but there are certain limits.

I'll be honest here, this isn't her best. I enjoy Miss Marple mysteries, but this one didn't grasp me as other Agatha Christie books (I highly recomend "And then there were none".) If you want a book to keep you reading until late at night, dont read this one. Halfway through the book, I tossed it and picked up, "Sleeping Murder." Also by Agatha Christie. I did give it three stars though because it did provide some "whodunnit" atmosphere, but not enough to keep me reading. Hope I helped!

Agatha Christie's the Body in the Library is truly a great mystery book. Of course, Agatha Christie does not need any additional praise from humble me to boost her reputation as an unparallelled author of mysteries. In this book, the corpse of a young woman is found in the library of Gossington Hall, the home of a well-to-do colonel and his wife. Miss Marple, in conjunction with the police, sets out to investigate. She comes upon many discoveries, and it can be seen that many parties benefit from the death of the woman in the library and/or have the opportunity to kill her. As the investigations progress, a possibly related incident occurs: a car burned to shrapnel in a neighboring region. Miss Marple, of course, with her impeccable investigative prowess and sharp eye for detail, solves the mystery methodically and impressively. The outcome is dazzling and this book is a great read for all mystery-lovers out there.

In the 1920s and 1930s Agatha Christie often created novels that were more "thriller" than "mystery"--but as time passed she became less and less interested in such material. 1954's DESTINATION UNKNOWN (also published as SO MANY STEPS TO DEATH) is one of her few such novels from the latter half of her career.

The novel has a topical story line that references the Cold War, defections, and even the notorious House Unamerican Activities Committee. In the aftermath of her child's death and a painful divorce, Hilary Craven travels to the Middle East in an effort to escape her past--and when this fails determines to kill herself. But her attempt at suicide is foiled when she is confronted with an intelligence officer aware of her intention, an intelligence officer who makes her an unusual proposal: if you are so determined to die, why not do it in a way that would serve your country? A nuclear scientist has defected; his wife, rushing to join him, has died in a plane crash. And Hilary, intrigued, agrees to take the wife's place in an effort to trace the missing scientist and uncover the intent behind his disappearance. It is a mission from which she is unlikely to return alive.

Although the premise is interesting, the resulting novel reads rather like the outline for a minor Alfred Hitchcock film. Christie writes with her usual expertise, but the characters here are not greatly memorable and the story itself falls down a bit toward the novel's conclusion. Still, it is a fast and fun read, and fans of the writer will likely enjoy it as a change of pace from her more typical fare. Mildly recommended.

--GFT (Amazon reviewer)--

Hillary Craven, the main character in this exhilarating story, wishes to take her own life. Just before she takes the pills that will end her life. A man knocks. The man's name -- Jessop. This character is introduced as a detective but what is he really?

The "Red Herring" was not an effective device in this book. I knew what was going to happen, and it did. It turns out the butler did it! (No, just kidding.)

In a wild twist of events, the killer is revealed ...
But I can't tell you who it is, you'll have to read it for yourself to find out "whodunnit".

Hilary Craven, the heroine of this story, wishes to commit suicide. The sleeping pills are on her bedside table and all is ready for self-imposed death when a knock on the door changes her plans. A young man tells her the story of a nuclear physicist who has disappeared. Hilary, intrigued by the drama, agrees to impersonate the scientist's wife and begins an improbable masquerade that leads her deep into Africa to an unknown destination.

This is a book you will probably want to read in one sitting because of its breathless excitement which culminates in a surprising ending.

I thought that Halloween Party was a very good book. Unfortunately, it started of slow, but it picked up the pace as I started to get to the end of the book. One reason why Agatha Christie is a famous author is because she has great character development in her books, and she expressed her strength in this novel. My favorite detective in Christie's stories' is a man named Hercule Poirot, who was the detective of this story. Christie makes Poirot so good that no real life detective can be anywhere close to as good as Poirot. I found it ironic that there was a character in the story who was also a detective fiction writer, like Christie. The kids try to give the author some ideas for another story. I recommend this book to you if you are a detective fiction fan.

At the age of 79, when this book was published, Agatha Christie was not capable of producing the tighly-plotted, ingenious puzzle fiction that poured from her pen when she was 39. When one is the world's most published author of all time, however, and when one is still able to hold a pen, the pressure to keep producing yet another 'Christie for Christmas' cannot be discounted. It was to be several years before Agatha Christie's daughter said, 'Now, that is enough, Mum'. This is clearly an elderly author at work here, cunningly presenting characters who are mainly elderly themselves, who can get away lines like, 'You know what young people are like nowadays,' and who tend to end sentences with 'and that sort of thing'. Nevertheless, she provides much of the fun and challenge that you expect in her mystery novels, whatever their date of publication.

Her popular creations Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver get yet another airing here, as they investigate the drowning in an apple-bobbing tub of a thirteen-year-old girl at a children's Hallowe'en party, a girl who not long before had boasted that she had once witnessed a murder. Exploring the possibility that the girl were telling the truth, Poirot probes several local deaths and disappearances. Amongst vague and gossipy eldery characters, and unbelievably articulate and poetic adolescents, Poirot makes his way with waxed moustache and patent leather shoes to a solution to the mystery.

Agatha Christie repeats many of the tricks she tried in her earlier books. You will find echoes of children's nursery rhymes here and a crime that occurs in a familiar domestic setting. You'll also find an especially lyrical few pages in praise of gardens, mid-way through the novel. Agatha Christie, a garden enthusiast herself, never wrote anything better than these few pages.

So expect late vintage Christie here. You may not like the attempt at a nail-biting finish, but you can still respect the author's way of setting up a baffling mystery.

I read this book about 20 pages at a time every Sunday. Sunday's aren't exactly my cup of tea. It's the day after the weekend when I'm tired and sleep most of the day. What I read of the book I didn't really enjoy at all. British literature dosn't exactly make much sense to me. I don't understand some of it. Other parts are just so boring that I couldn't even tell you what I was reading. Perfect example: "I am quite sure" said Hercule Poirot". "When a thing arranges itself so, one realizes that it must be so, one only looks for reasons why it should be so. If one does not find the reasons why it should not be so, then one is strengthened in one's opinion." This didn't make a bit of sense to me, and most of the book was like that.

Soy un admirador de Agatha Christie, y particularmente de Hércules Poirot. Sin embargo, creo que el encanto de las obras de Christie reside en la profusa caracterización de sus personajes y sendas descripciones de las situaciones. De este modo, nos sumergimos en el universo creado por Christie y nos empapamos de la situación. Nos hacemos partícipes de la labor de resolver el crimen. En los relatos cortos, este encanto se pierde. La brevedad no es definitamente un aliado de las obras de Agatha Christie. Sin embargo, si uno desea una introducción a Hércules Poirot y al mundo de Agatha Christie, y no tiene paciencia para leer un libro más extenso, creo que puede ser una opción muy interesante.

I was very disappointed by this book. I am a great fan of Christie's writing (I named my cat Jane Marple) and I could not be more ready to enjoy something that she wrote. In this case, however, I repeatedly put the book down and walked away from it, only finishing it because I wanted to see how it ended. Christie wrote it late in her career and the best explanation that I can come up with was that she was coasting on her success and not putting as much effort into this as in her earlier books. Passenger to Frankfurt is a spy novel rather than a murder mystery. It bears a strong resemblance to The Big Four, a very successful earlier novel. Both plots center on a sinister organization bent on world domination, a threadbare idea at best. It works in Four because of the obvious care that Christie put into creating the intricate plot which, while complicated, can be easily followed; and into the characters, the hero being Hercule Poirot who was already a well developed personality. No such effort was spent on this book. Passenger opens in an airport where Sir Stafford Nye, a minor diplomat is petitioned for help by a young woman who says that she will be killed if he doesn't lend her his cape and passport. He does, and the action moves from there. The book is not doomed from the start. As I said, Christie can make this sort of thing work and she leaves herself some excellent openings. The main trouble with the book is that it tries to cover too much and tell too little. Christie seems so unwilling to give anything away that large segments of the action are left out and throughout most of the book the reader has no idea who the good guys and the bad guys really are, even down to the heroes. By the middle of the book the plot has gotten fairly absurd. This secret society has instigated a youth movement worldwide, spearheaded by a handsome young man who they claim to be the son of Hitler. That in itself might not be so bad, if she hadn't pushed it on to have these youth take over all of South America, force Chicago under martial law, et cetera. There are also long paragraphs in which the author goes on and on, philosophizing about the young. Since the book is copyrighted 1970, it occurred to me that this might at least in part be inspired by the popularity of public protest among young people at that time.

I know better than to give away the ending but I will say that I found it very contrived and I didn't feel that she had given the reader enough information to make it really fair.

The saving grace of this book is the characters. While some are woefully underdeveloped, others make excellent proof of Christie's talent in this area. The best by far is Sir Nye's Great-Aunt Matilda. Sharp old maids have always been this author's specialty and the parts in which she appears seem more like genuine Christie than anything else in the book.

Agatha Christie wrote several novels that deal with international organizations trying to take over the world. While I prefer her works set in the cozy country estates with families full of suspects, this is an enjoyable foray into this type of her work. Tones of neo-Nazism, drug trafficking, international finance, and a scientific discovery that could change the world are some of the elements that make up this story.

The characters are interesting: Sir Stafford Nye, an unambitious member of the British diplomatic corps caught up in this caper; his great-aunt Matilda, an aristocratic lady reminiscent of Miss Marple in that she has a remarkable memory of things that happened long ago; a young girl with three identities who fears for her life, and a young man rumored to be the son of Adolph Hitler are among the characters that come to life in this novel.

If you like international intrigue, stories about spies and world domination, I think you will enjoy this book.

this book goes practically nowhere at all, and is slightly confusing really, as to whose side everyone is on, etc.

But, it is not the bad book that most of these reviews seem to make it out as.

In all honesty, it really doesnt deserve the five star rating i have given it. In fact, four stars is a more accurate estimation of it's quality, but i have given it five stars to "raise the average". because it really doesnt deserve the two and a bit stars which it currently has.

This book has some real plusses. It is brilliantly written. The language Christie uses is probably the best of all her novels. It is more well written and literary than some of them. There are some great characters (Stafford Nye, Mary Anne, Countess Wauldsausen (who we see unfortunately little of)) who really inspire interest in what is a rather perplexing plot. Perplexing why? Because there is actuall no real plot. It goes almost nowhere, and seems a bit pointless. Just written as a device to air some of Christie's views on the way society is sliding down the drain.

Which is where the book does the major credit. The social observations, passages about the state of the world, its climate, its politics, the attitude of its people, its governments, is intensely interesting. Christie's take on the new "youth" is very interesting. Anarchy and rebellion ar ethe order of the day, and they do permeate this book with a strange sense of fear. Fear for the future, and what it holds for us in this strangely unstable world.

This plot has a huge scope, exploring diplomacy, politics, forms of rule, government, vision for the future, and the state of the world. In that, it is truly excellent. The foreboding, doom, hopelessness of things is brought across well. This book also has a high count of people "just trying to do the right thing" in spite of so many people who disagree with them.

so, as a plot driven novel, its not good. But, as a novel driven by ideas and notions about the state of world politics, then it is excellent. It's interesting, thought-provoking, with some great characters, and a nice prose style.

A very different Christie book, and for all it's faults, it is one of the "great" ones. (As opposed to one of the "excellent" or "good" ones.)

Listen to this advice from an hardcore Christie fan: don't read this book. It's such a painful experience to see one of the greatest mystery writers ever getting into - I can't use another word - complete senility. The story (I can't call it a plot) goes nowhere. Characters are wooden, and some excerpts are merely ludicrous. If you really like Christie, be charitable and forget about that sad final opus. She wrote so many excellent things in her earlier years.

Postern of Fate, published in 1973, was the last book ever written by the incomparable Agatha Christie. My vote for her worst book ever was Passenger to Frankfurt.Christie's health was in sharp decline when writing Postern of Fate and unfortunately it shows. The plot involves Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, now in their retirement, investigating a murder in retrospect. The story is very unfocused and many elements of the story just don't make sense. Considering all the great books she wrote over her career and the countless hours of pleasure she provided to readers all over the world for several generations, Christie can certainly be forgiven for a few clunkers later in the life. I's actually give her two stars for execution, three stars for effort

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, now retired, move into a house in Devonshire. In an old children's book left in the attic, Tuppence finds cryptic clues to a murder which took place in the village during the First World War. The girl who died was mixed up in an old scandal to do with the passing on of naval secrets. But was she innocent or guilty? Intrigued, Tommy and Tuppence investigate. Suddenly Tommy and Tuppence are in danger, though no one can guess from what source, nor why their raking up of the past should be so bitterly resented. What can it matter now?

This is the last book that Agatha Christie wrote, although not the last one to be published ' it was followed by a few other, like Curtain, but they all date from before Postern. Unfortunately, Postern of Fate is one of, if not the, very worst books Christie wrote, and as such forms a sad ending to the enormously successful career of the Dame of Crime. The story never succeeds in catching the readers' attention. It goes on and on, without really making a point. And when the chaotic plot finally unfolds in the last twenty pages, you might as well go to sleep. Strangely the conclusion is even more tiresome.

The only reason to ever read this book is when you are like me and want to read every book written by Agatha Christie. But even then, be prepared to be utterly disappointed.