This novel features Miss Marple in her very late years. The world around her is changing. This is one of only two Christie novels where I was able to guess the identity of the murderer. It's a very good murder mystery, but it could have been a better Miss Marple mystery. The best parts of the book are when Miss Marple is on the spot. Unfortunately, I almost began to wonder if Miss Marple would be in this novel at all. She left her house no more than three times and was therefore decidedly shoved into the background. The parts without her were rather dull, dry, and far too abundant. I found myself rushing more to see if I'd solved the mystery correctly rather than out of any sense of real enjoyment.

One of Miss Marple's best stories - takes place in the same location as, and years later than, The Body in the Library. Probably contains one of Aggie's most striking twist endings, maybe because it's so tragically heartbreaking. As usual in a Christie book, the characters are well defined, the plot nicely structured and the writing: swift and descriptive. The beginning especially is well-drawn as Marple reflects on the modern world slowly creeping up on her quiet but eventful St Mary Meade. Overall: an excellent doozie you can read in one or two days.

Agatha Christie returns us to St. Mary Mead, Miss Marple's quiet village where much has changed. A new subdivision, young marrieds who buy on the installment plan, and even a supermarket have have invaded the quiet village. Only Miss Marple and her friend Miss Hartnell remain the same, still living in their same homes. Even Col. and Mrs. Bantry's lavish Gossington Hall (the scene of the crime in "The Body in the Library") has changed. After the Colonel's death, Mrs. Bantry put the house up for sale and it has now been purchased by the American film star Marina Gregg and her husband Jason Rudd. The Rudds host a grand reopening of the home to show the villagers the many changes they have made. At the party, a guest dies after drinking a poisoned cocktail. Since the coctail had actually been intended for Marina Gregg, an investigation begins as to why anyone would want to kill her. A frozen stare and facts Miss Marple gathers from movie magazines at the hairdresser's are clues that lead her to solve yet another mystery.

In 1980 this novel was transferred to the big screen with Angela Lansbury in the role of Miss Marple. Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and Kim Novak had the other lead roles in this excellent recreation.

Halfway through I knew who did it, though I didn't know why. There were little hints here and there, but I thought the person was too obvious to really be the killer. Even still, I couldn't put the book down (read it in 2 days) but was disappointed with the end. I felt like Agatha Christie was bored with the book and wanted to end it as soon as possible, which is why she crammed so much information into the last Chapter of the book.

I really enjoyed this book. I would recomend this book to other readers. I found this book to be suspensefull and full of suprises. The book gives you clues on who the killer is. You use those clues to figure it out, and then you find out that your wrong. Finding out that I am wrong drives me insane sometimes, but that is what makes the book good. I would not mind if I had to read more Agatha Christie books, I think I would enjoy those just as much as I did this one. I could not help liking this book, and I think those who do not like to read would enjoy this book too. It was fantastic and had so many details so you could understand everthing that is going on. This is also part of the reason I like this book. I can say that I will read more of these books and I encourage everyone else to too.

M. Hercule Poirot, the armchair detective, helps our hero Colin Lamb & Detective Inspector Hardcastle make sense of 'The Clocks' murder. The story is intricate and impossible to figure out. In customary Christie style, you are kept going till literally the last pages of the book where it is all explained to you and you realize how far off you were - I LOVE IT. If you want the best detective/murder mystery or are simply looking for a challange, you cannot do better than this book (except for one Christie's other works, of course).

Pssst.. Here's a hint: the book could've well been called 'The Stiletto Heel.'

This book is well worth reading if you are a fan of Agatha Christies, Hercule Poirot. Poirots first taste of a traditional English Christmas ends in him solving the disappearance of a Princes ruby. After recieving a sinister note warning him not to eat the Christmas Pudding, a mysterious visitor in the night and his host nearly choking on the Christmas Pudding he sets a trap for his suspect and a joke on the children of the household. Not only in this story does Poirot retrieve a stolen ruby but he also helps his hosts to rid themselves of a problem of their own. This is a brilliant book and well worth the read.

The author of this works shows how Agatha Christie's private life and the traumas she endured pushed her to go beyond the usual norms of mystery writing, surprising and enchanting her readers. Recommended for fans of Agatha Christie's writing, as it lends insight into her life and her work.

I didn't understand the ending of "Behind the Screen". Can anyone explain me.? my email: durmaz_murat@hotmail.com

ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE is a good example of Christie's tendency to tweak and twist earlier plot devices and then combine them with different themes to create something new, and here she renders the sort of situation seen in CROOKED HOUSE with an unexpected most-likely/least-likely solution and combines it with her oft-repeated theme of an old, previously solved crime that reopens to affect present lives.

The Argles are an unusual family, composed of wealthy parents and five adopted children--all of whom were drawn from underprivledged backgrounds that continued to affect them well into adulthood. One of these children, Jocko, grew up into a singularly undesirable man; constantly involved in legal scrapes, he is the obvious suspect when his adoptive mother is found with her head bashed in by a poker, and he soon convicted. But two years after his death, a man who could have given Jocko an iron-clad alibi suddenly resurfaces, and the family is suddenly thrown into disarray as the case is reopened.

Christie is, as always, extremely expert in her writing, but ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE proves an extremely mechanical effort without more than one or two memorable characters--still, it offers a typically surprising and memorable Christie solution, and that is saying a great deal indeed. While it does not rank among her finer efforts, both fans and newcomers should enjoy it quite a bit.

Jack Argyle was convicted of the brutal murder of his mother and sentenced to prison where he died six months later. He had always maintained his innocence and said he had been hitchhiking at the time of the murder. The man who had given him a ride had never been found.

Two years later, Dr. Arthur Calgary, the man who had given him the ride, returns from an Arctic expedition. Calgary had been struck by a lorry the morning after giving Jack a ride, suffered a severe case of amnesia, and left immediately to join the expedition without knowing of the murder or of the fact that he alone could provide an alibi.

Although it is too late to change things, Calgary feels it necessary to tell the family his story. The family is less than receptive because this new revelation means the real murderer is still at large and could be one of them. This novel is filled with maladjusted personalities and one more murder plus an attempted murder will occur before the truth is revealed.

This is my personal favourite of all Agatha Christie's books. For no good reason, though. It doesn't stand out particularly, but it is nonetheless a thouroughly brilliany mystery. I have long been of the opinion that Christie really came into her own when she ditched Poirot and marple. The books in which they do not feature are definitely some of her best. ("Towards Zero", "Death Comes As the End" "And Then there Were None" "Murder Is Easy" "The Pale Horse", to name but a few.)

Arthur Calgary is a really likeable character, as are several characters in this book. Which makes it even harder to read about what this opening up of an old wound is doing to them. It is hard to imagine how you would feel if, after several years of security, a stranger comes along and reveals that the killer of your friend/relative was not indeed the one imprisoned, but someone else. Someone who has been walking amongst you all these years, talked to you, eaten with you. And now all of you are under suspicion again. This book demonstrates that wonderfully, and it is a brilliant study of what the hunt for a kilelr can do to the people involved, the assumed guilt, the intrusion, the harassing of the innocent. All trying to find that one person who is guilty.

This book shines becuase it is actually rather realistic. It is full of human emotion and feeling, and some wonderful characters. they are not all of them incredibly likeable, but they are recognisable human, and you can empathise with all of them.

The story is told brilliantly, and the solution is typically unguessable and shocking. The climax is great. Fear permeates the atmosphere almost all through the book, leading to a great resolution.

One of her very very best books, if not her very best. Explores wonderfully issues of innocence and guilt, which raises it above the norm.

Although I enjoyed the setting of Murder in Mesopotamia (an archaeological dig), I found this book to be rather hackneyed and commonplace, definitely not up to Agatha Christie's standards. Somehow the characters seemed to be 2 dimensional...the only character who interested me was the young man who reminded the narrator of a Wodehouse character. In fact, after reading this book, I sallied forth to the library and checked out a book by P.G. Wodehouse, just so I could see what Ms. Christie was talking about. I highly recommend the works of Mr. Wodehouse, but not Murder in Mesopotamia. While I admit that the identity of the killer surprised me, by the time the murderer was unmasked, I was indifferent to the whole case. If you want to read a great Agatha Christie, read Death Comes as the End or And Then There Were None or Hallowe'en Party....they're all much better than Murder in Mesopotamia.

As another customer said: "In this book, you'll feel thrilled, devastated, fondness, fear, suspicion, hatred, curious and even more....
You'll feel thrilled when the genius Hercule Poirot solves the mystery....
You'll feel devastated when a character you have learned to love is brutally murdered....
You'll feel fondness for the main characters Nurse and Hurcule Poirot as well as the suspects....
You'll feel fear when someone is discovered sneaking about the grounds and again when you realize that unless the murder is solved, the person whose viewpoint we have will be the next victim...
You'll feel suspicion against all the characters as M. Poirot interrogates them....
You'll feel hatred against atleast two of the characters, the conceited, spoilt daughter of the doctor and again against the unknown murderer....
You'll feel curious as did Nurse when she snooped around for the littlest clue which might help M. Poirot."

And I agree completely and I think you will too after you have read this book. Read it today.

Murder in Mesopotamia may not be as famous as some of Agatha Christie's other works but it is an excellent book none the less. Featuring Hercule Poirot, the story is set in Mesopotamia (i.e. Iraq) at an archaeological dig. Christie's husband, Max Mallowan, was a noted British archaeologist and she spent a great deal of time with him in Iraq. Her familiarity with and affection for her subject matter is clear and infuses the story. The book itself is classic Christie- well-plotted, crisp dialogue, great characters, lots of red herrings and a satisfying conclusion which, as usual, left me stumped. Great fun to read. Highly recommended.

Even the Queen of Crime turned out an occasional clinker, and while this particular novel is not actually down-right bad it certainly isn't particularly good.

The premise is interesting: a snowbound group of friends amuse themselves with a "psychic" game of table-tapping, during which they receive a message from the spirits that a friend has been murdered. And so he has--but Christie does not follow her very original-sounding premise with an equally original story; she instead very blatantly recycles a plot twist from an earlier work that most Christie fans (and probably a lot of newcomers as well) will spot almost immediately.

Moreover, the novel feels leaden, completely lacking in the sense of fun and puzzlement with which Christie endowed her finest works. Fans determined to read everything by their favorite writer will no doubt wish to read it, but others would do better select an entirely different title.

You'll be able to tell who did the dirty deed in this one but the snowstorm plot device is very ingenious. A goofy seance begins the story and from there, the amateur sleuthing begins. The main characters seem somewhat like the enjoyable duo from Why Didn't They Ask Evans? Not a masterpiece, but as usual, Agatha tosses an extra red herring into the plot to throw you offguard.

Ahhh. This is more like! A mystery reader/fan must, every now and then, return to the books of the great Dame Agatha. Yet, it becomes harder and harder to find one that perhaps hasn't been read for a while. It's important also, not to get sucked into a recently read title now masquerading under a new name.

I'm sure that at some time in my past, I've read The Murder at Hazelmoor, but not recently enough to have given the subsequently-named The Sittaford Mystery a familiar aura. S'wonderful, indeed.

No one captured the thirties quite so eloquently as did Christie, and this book is a prime example of her art. There is no Miss Marple or Hercule Poiret in this episode, however. Rather we have an intrepid young woman named Emily Trefusis, who has the misfortune to be engaged to the nephew of a man who is found murdered, after his death had been exposed by a 'table turning.' This is a version of the Ouija Board, which was enormously popular in the first decades of the 20th century.

Captain Trevelyan, who was rather fond of money, had been prevailed upon to let out his own Sittaford House to a widow and her daughter, apparently just arrived from South Africa. Never married, the Captain had few heirs: one sister and the three children of another, now deceased. It is James Pearson, one of this latter group, who has captured the fair Emily, and finds himself in jail under suspicion of having done in his uncle.

Emily knows better, however, and with the aid and assistance of a live-wire newspaper reporter, Charles Enderby, sets out to prove his innocence. Emily and Charles quite put in me mind of Tommy and Tuppence with their humorous bantering. (Perhaps they were the inspiration for Dame Agatha, as well.)

The prevalence and importance of trains and their schedules take one back to that time when almost no one owned an auto of their own, and walking twelve miles (round-trip, to be sure) for a visit was hardly any kind of bother at all. If one was fit, that is.

Village life along the moors is captured perfectly, along with the various eccentrics who reside there. It's a cracking good puzzle, with all the clues neatly laid out for the intrepid sleuth. A visit to Agatha Christie's England is good for us all every now and then. I'm looking forward to the next one!

This is a good Agatha Christie mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end. Miss Marple is at her sharpest. A witty, funny, and enjoyable read.

After getting quite tired of Hercule Poirot's character and style, it was refreshing to read a Ms. Marple novel, especially since other characters, such as Lucy, help her out, so it's not a "standard" Agatha Christie book (most of Hercule Poirot's books, for instance, usually have Poirot arriving in the scene after the crime, Poirot observes and talk to people, often there are an extra crime or two happening before he solves it, then he gathers the survivors and in turns puts the blame on everyone until he finds the guilty party). but there are others, such as "And Then There Were None" who are much better than this one...

In "The 4:50 From Paddington" Agatha Christie gives us another in her long list of detective stories involving a large family at their estate. This is, in my opinion, one of the best, and begins when Elspeth McGillicuddy, a friend of Miss Marple's, is returning from Christmas shopping in London and on her way to visit Jane in St. Mary Mead. Her train is running alongside another one on a nearby track, and Mrs. McGillicuddy has an excellent view inside the parallel carriage of the other train. What she sees is the back of a man strangling a woman. No one believes Mrs. McGillicuddy since no corpse is found and no injured woman turns up at any hospital. Only Miss Marple believes her friend. Although Mrs. McGillicuddy is leaving for Ceylon to spend Christmas with her son, Miss Marple continues her quest to prove her friend's story. First she books passage on the same train and narrows the search for where a body should have been thrown to the area around Rutherford Hall, the large family estate of the Crackenthorpes. The family consists of the semi-invalided and grouchy Mr. Crackenthorpe, his daughter Emma, three sons, a son-in-law, and a grandson. At least four of the men are likely candidates for the strangler.

Because Miss Marple is not young enough to physically search for the body in unknown territory, she engages Lucy Eyelesbarrow, one of Christie's most interesting female creations. Lucy quickly gains employment at Rutherford Hall as a domestic and busily does all the legwork for Miss Marple. Meanwhile, Jane Marple has taken up residence at a nearby home and advises and assists Lucy.

In 1961, this became the basis for "Murder, She Said," the first of four films starring Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple. Although it deviates from the book, most notably in the omission of Lucy, it is enjoyable and worth viewing.

When buying this book, the plot summary sounded intriguing. Two vctims get killed in exactly the same way, so Poirot sets up a dinner party of his own. It turned out that this was actually a rather tedious book.

First of all, Poirot only really comes into the story during the last half. Christie should've learned that putting the stars behind the scenes is all wrong. After all, that's why "The Body in the Library" was so boring.

Then most of the mystery is a group of amateurs looking around for the murderer. You have long dialouges, pointless discussions, all of which make things boring. You have the odd-ball match of two of the characters and find yourselves tangled up in their love affair. Frankly, although I love a good romance, this was just annoying.

The best part comes when Poirot stages his said dinner party to uncover the murderer. You're not sure what proof he has found, but as usual, he's found something. However, by that point, I'd guessed the murderer. I usually have a theory, although it's never been found correct.

So, hoping for a good ending, I discover that I HAD guessed the right person! What a disappointment. So here's my clue: if you go ahead and buy this anyway, think SMALL. Most of the time you never think big enough for Christie's plot, but this time the murderer, motive (which is a big issue in this book), and discovery has small and petty reasoning behind it. In fact, the whole murders could've been avoided, quite easily. Oh well. It's not too bad--in fact the end shocked me since I was expecting such a grande finale.

In murders, nothing should be taken for granted. Especially Agatha Christie's. In several of her novels, she had the investigators looking into a murder that did not exist, a person that did not exist, a motive that did not exist and many other red herrings.

Hence, when the good Rev Stephen Babbington died during a party thrown by retired actor Sir Charles Cartwright, none of the guests present appeared to be who they were supposed to be. There was no motive, nothing was left to show the death was a criminal act.

Some time later, Dr Strange who was also a guest at the party died, this time, the nicotine poisoning was clear.

Told primarily from the perspective of Sir Charles Cartwright, his friend Mr Satterwaithte, and modern girl "Egg" Hermione Lytton Gore, Hercule Poirot took the passive role most of the story. The other three went about gathering clues, examining scenes of the crime and interviewing the usual suspects.

The only problem with such an approach could be revealed by one of Christie's favourite dogma : people do not tell what they saw or heard, they tell what they thought they saw or heard.

In many instances, it was merely written Sir Charles, Mr Satterwaithe and Egg reported what had happened to Poirot rather than describing the words they used to convey the information to Poirot. Therein lies one of the weakness of this book.

A second weakness of the book was some of the offstage investigation work done by Poirot was not revealed to the readers. In stories where the clues for opportunities and accessories were (subtly) evident, motive was not as vital for the readers to correctly guess the solution. However, this story was weak in all but the opportunities department. Only the camouflaged opportunities was masterfully done by Christie for both deaths, requiring people to consider things in the opposite of the conventional direction.

Call me daft, but i really really like this Christie novel.

The characters are great (especially the sublime Mr Satterthwaite, and the wonderfully entertaining Hermoine "Egg" Lytton Gore). Really entertaining, and great to read about. As with many of the best Poirot novels, Poirot himself does not really take a large role until quite a way into the book ("Appointment With Death" "Cat and Among the Pigeons", for example.)

The plot is great, and the motive for the first motive is just sheer originality. (Even though it, and the motives for the other murders, is just a tiny weeny bit thin).

It's a pretty light Christie book, but with a brilliant first death and motive for it. And a great, rather unexpected solution. It may not be her very very best novel, but it is still one of the great ones.