An introduction, treasures and a mystery

Hi, so I wanted to welcome you on my modest blog. I hope that you will be able to enjoy the posts. I dont want to make the welcome too long but I would like to state a few things before we begin.

I am not a native speaker so my English is not as good as you could expect, so i ask for patience. Of coure i will be grateful for any tips or correction of my mistakes. I hope that it won't interfere with anything.

The picture in the Header is mine. This is how i draw most of the things. I am particullary happy about this one because it turned out just as i wanted it to look like. I hope you like it too. Please give your opinion in comments below.

Today I would like to start my activity on this blog with a post about a writer that many of you probably love or at leat know her name. Ladies and Gentleman I give you... Agatha Christie



As one of my favourite authors I read already more than half of her books so i have a pretty good image of her writing style and the characters. This post will mainly consist of a list of her books witch a short decripcion, a list of characters and the books which I read will also have a brief opinion on it from my piont of view. I want to make a full list of all her books each witch a descreption but it is a lot of work so today i will give you the first seven books.

But i would like to start witch a short biography of Agatha (I don't want to bore you with unnecesary information. If you want to read a detailed biography you can do it here) and a bunch of interesting things that i got to know about her in the meantime.

Agatha Christie:

date of birth: 15 september 1890
date of death: 12 January 1976
artistic achievements:

• 66 detective novels
• 6 romances (written under the name Mary Westmacott)
• 14 short story colletions

And now to the more interesting things (there will be more of them in the future i promise):

Treasure hunt

Agatha Chrisie once organised a treasure hunting. It took place on Manx island. The treasure hunt was based upon a short story "Manx gold" which was published in her last book "Until the Light Lasts". The story was written specialy for the hunt. Agatha accepted a grand worth 60 pound for her effort. On an island were four hidden treasures which the participants had to find with a help of a story. This kind of event never happened again. I don't know what you think but i would die to take part in it!

Here's a short description of the story:

Two cousins Fenella Mylecharane and Juan Faraker recieve a mysterious message from their uncle who died recently. He invites them to the island of Man for the reading of the will. They discover that their uncle was a rich man because of the treasure that he found of the island. They have to compete with other members of their family in search of the manx gold.

Mysterious disapearance:

On friday the third of December 1926 Agahta Christie left her home to disapear for 11 days. This mystey still hasn't been solved. No one knows why a rising cryminal literature star suddenly left her car near a lake and vanished. The search that was organised was one of the biggest in history. Even people as Arthur Connan Doyle were involved searching for clues that the famous author might have left behind her. Speculations about reasons of her disapearance varied from those which stated that she had an amnesia to those which assumed that she was kidnapped by aliens. Finally Agatha Christie was found in a spa hotel using an assumed name


And now to the list of the books:

The Mysterious Affair at Styles:

year of publishing: 1920
detective: Poirot
other characters: inspector Japp, Hastings
short description: story introducing Hercule Porot and Arthur Hastings. Poirot tries to settle down with a help of Emily Cavendish. When the lady is killed he together with his friend investigates her murder.
my opinion: When I first red this book I didn't know that it was her first one but something made me think so before i even checked that. Her style isn't here so clear and characteristic as it will be later and the plot is a little bit predictable. Although I enjoyed the image of young Poirot and again his friendship with Hastings is amusing as always. I also liked the fact that the book contained maps and drawings. It really helped to feel the atmosphere.

The Secret Adversary:

year of publishing: 1922
detective: Tommy and Tuppence
other characters: Julius Hersheimer
short description: Tommy and Tuppence meet each other. Both poorwithout money or perspectives for futur they decide to establish a company "The Young Adventurers, Ltd". Soon they find themselves in quite a dangerous situation fighting with an unknown enemy.
my opinion: I am a great fan of all the books futering Tommy and Tuppence. I really like the spirit that they have. I also think that they adventures are often "more adventerous" than most of the books with Jane Marple and Poirot. This book has a great and interesting set of chracters and Tommy and Tuppence who are new to this whole detective buisness bring a lot of freshness to the acion.

Murder on the Links:

year of publishing: 1923
detective: Hercule Poirot
other characters: Arthur Hastings
short description: Poirot recieves an offer from a client. He travels to France just to find out that the body of a men who wanted to hire him is found on a golf coure. A millionaire was stabbed in the back and found in a grave on a golf couse
my opinion: none (i will update it as soon as i wil read it)

The Man in the Brown Suit:

year of publishing: 1924
detective: none
other characters: Anne Beddingfeld, Colonel Race
short description: Anne Beddingfeld a youg girl comes to London in search of a job. But suprisingly she finds herself in a pursuit of a very dangerous adventur which leads her to Africa.
my opinion: This was my second Agatha Christie's book that i read. I realy enjoyed the fact that it futured a person who wasn't a detective or even working as a policeman. For me Anne being a well constructed character bring a lot of new exciting ways of fighing an enemy. I was slightly iritated by the romantic (wątek). It was very soapy and for me ruined a good part of the book. Although i really liked the pairing (no spoilers so i can't tell which) but the way that she (Agatha) presented their relationship was really annoying.

The Secret of Chimneys:

year of publishing: 1925
detective: none
other characters: Anthony Cade, Virginia Revel, Superintendtent Battle, Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent
short description: Anthony Cade gets an unsusual request from his friend. He is supposed to bring a manuscript to London's publisher's office and deliver some letters to its owner. Soon the letters are stolen from his hotel room and a few people are interested in "taking cake" of the manustript.
my opinion: My first Agatha Christie's book. So very important moment for a person who just starts to read her books. If you choose the first one badly you can be () to the rest even if they are much much better. Although I have a grat sentiment to this book it doesn't belong to my favourites.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

year of publishing: 1926
detective: Poirot
other characters: Roger Ackroyd, Caroline Sheppard, Dr James Sheppard
short description: Death of mrs Feraras is at the beginning is believed to be an acident. Than suddenly Roger Ackroyd reveals that she commited a suicide after killing her husbend. He knew also that somebody has been blackmailing her before death. Than he is found dead with a knife in his back.
my opinion: I don't really have any particular feeling about this book. For me it is one of those books which you never remember very well. It has it fact an unpredictable ending but the plot itself is very boring and monotonous. I was alsovery annoyed be the fact that it its narration is first-person.

The Big Four

year of publishing: 1927
detective: Hercule Poirot
other characters: Arthur Hastings
short description: Hercule Poirot and Capitan Hastings are trying to uncover a dangerous group of criminals. The international intrigue puts Poirots life in danger.
my opinion: It is a quite short novel. I would say two times shorter than the regular size of Agatha's books. I enjoyed reading it mostly because it shows us Hercule Poirot in a different spot light. He is dealing with something unknown even to him. It makes the situation interesting because most of Poirots books show him as an always mysterius always knowing something others don't know. Here (although this book is still full of Poirots brilliant ideas) we can see him a little bit confused. Another plus (at least for me) is the presence of Hastings.


I wanted to end this with my personal Agatha Christie "stats"

number of books read: 48
favourite book: Destination Unknown
favourite short story: The Lonely God
favourite detective: Tuppence
favourite pairing: Hilary and Andy from Destination Unknown

See you soon next time ;) i am planning to do a steak cooking guide but if you have some other ideas you can write in comments.