tags: Agatha Christie, classics, detective, thriller
The Tommy and Tuppence Classic Collection by Agatha Christie brings together some of her best work featuring the beloved sleuthing couple, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. This collection includes the novel The Secret Adversary, where the dynamic duo first launches into the world of espionage and private detection. Here, they stumble upon a case involving political intrigue and a missing young woman named Jane Finn, setting the stage for their future exploits. Christie crafts a thrilling introduction to the world of Tommy and Tuppence, showcasing their blend of wit, courage, and teamwork.
Following The Secret Adversary, the collection offers Partners in Crime, a series of engaging short stories where Tommy and Tuppence take over the "Blunt's International Detective Agency." As part of their detective roleplay, they adopt the personas of famous fictional detectives while solving various cases. This adds a humorous element to the narrative, as the duo navigates each mystery with charm and humor. Key stories include The Case of the Missing Lady, Blindman's Buff, The Man in the Mist, The Crackler, and The Sunningdale Mystery. Each tale challenges them with new situations-from missing persons to mysterious deaths, and even elaborate swindles.
Christie's unique blend of suspense, humor, and the subtle interplay between Tommy and Tuppence's personalities keeps readers enthralled. Illustrated scenes add an extra layer of engagement, bringing to life the amusing, suspenseful, and sometimes romantic moments in the duo's detective career. Through Christie's storytelling, readers are immersed in the contrasting energies of Tommy's logical mind and Tuppence's quick wit and spontaneity.
For fans of light-hearted mysteries with a mix of adventure, romance, and classic Christie twists, this collection serves as a compelling journey into the detective escapades of Tommy and Tuppence. The Tommy and Tuppence Classic Collection captures Christie's mastery in creating engaging mysteries while portraying the charm of one of her most memorable sleuthing pairs.
Novel
The Secret Adversary
In his most exhilarating novel yet, Britain’s greatest storyteller transports you from the vibrant streets of sixties London to the sun-soaked cobbles of Cadiz and the frosty squares of Warsaw, as an accidental spy is drawn into the shadows of espionage and obsession.
Gabriel Dax is a young man haunted by the memories of a every night, when sleep finally comes, he dreams about his childhood home in flames. His days are spent on the move as an acclaimed travel writer, capturing the changing landscapes in the grip of the Cold War.
When he’s offered the chance to interview a political figure, his ambition leads him unwittingly into a web of duplicities and betrayals. As Gabriel’s reluctant initiation takes hold, he is drawn deeper into the shadows. Falling under the spell of Faith Green, an enigmatic and ruthless MI6 handler, he becomes ‘her spy’, unable to resist her demands. But amid the peril, paranoia and passion consuming Gabriel’s new covert life, it will be the revelations closer to home that change the rest of his story.
The short novel got me interested again in espionage fiction. 32 year old Gabriel Dax, the accidental spy, is sometimes annoyingly naive, has loose lips, and randy. I forgive him because he suffered a trauma when he was 6 years old and he can't recall exactly what happened that day.
His older brother occasionally uses him as a courier and he unknowingly delivers spy stuff wherever he was asked to go. He never suspects his brother maybe because he is a bit dim. He becomes a "spy" and a useful idiot when the enigmatic Faith Green asked him to fetch a piece of artwork from a famous Spanish artist in Cadiz, Spain. He couldn't say no to the woman as though he is hypnotized. It's just him being randy. Once in a while he has flashes of brilliance when necessary.
The book has lots of humor, not the satirical John le Carré kind, just some light funny stuff. It has equal amount of suspense but not much mind-numbing action which is why I like it. William Boyd is a great storyteller.
Highly recommended for William Boyd readers.
Orphaned at an early age, Philip Ashley is raised by his benevolent older cousin, Ambrose. Resolutely single, Ambrose delights in Philip as his heir, a man who will love his grand home as much as he does himself. But the cosy world the two construct is shattered when Ambrose sets off on a trip to Florence. There he falls in love and marries - and there he dies suddenly. In almost no time at all, the new widow - Philip's cousin Rachel - turns up in England. Despite himself, Philip is drawn to this beautiful, sophisticated, mysterious woman like a moth to the flame. And yet ...might she have had a hand in Ambrose's death?
Philip Ashley at 18 months old was brought up by his cousin Ambrose when his parents died. The trouble started when Ambrose went to Italy for plant specimens and got married to a half Italian half English woman. The English parent of the Countess, as she prefers to be called, is a cousin of Ambrose and Philip.
Ambrose hadn't come home to England for almost 1 year because he started getting sick and became paranoid that his wife is trying to kill him. He was able to send a few short letters to Philip when cousin Rachel is out. Philip went to Italy to try to rescue Ambrose but he was already late. Ambrose has died and the Countess left immediately after his death so they never met.
Philip was angry at the gold digger cousin Rachel and imagined her as a huge fat ugly woman who didn't deserve his beloved Ambrose. Cousin Rachel as part of her scheme, came to England and the gullible easy to manipulate Philip instantly fell in love. Cousin Rachel is the opposite of a warty ugly witch. She is pretty, small and with dainty small hands with lovely fingers. Poor Philip. He had no idea and never seen a "real" woman. He doesn't think his childhood girl friend is a woman. She's just there as a girl He is so enamored with Rachel that he couldn't accept that she has a purpose in coming to England. Philip gave in only to discover the truth. He is frustratingly childlike that I wanted to shake him up or slap him upside the head for his naivete. However, all the feelings of aggravations while reading became moot with the great ending.
Daphne du Maurier is a master of atmospheric superb stories. I loved this book.
Highly recommended.
When a practical joke involving eight alarm clocks turns into murder, the case is taken up by Bundle Brent and Jimmy Thesiger. With the help of Bill Eversleigh they discover that the Seven Dials Club is not only a nightclub but also the headquarters of a Secret Society.Agatha Christie's murder mystery is quite different from her regular whodunnits in not following the usual steps/methods. The short novel has young people in their early twenties instead of older folks trying to solve 2 murders with the help of Scotland Yard Superintendent Battle.
A fearless woman, raised in the forest, fights against a group of powerful men in a novel about good versus evil, the enduring nature of myth, and the power of love by #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz.
Raised in the wilderness by her late great-uncle, Vida is a young woman with an almost preternatural affinity for nature, especially for the wolves that also call the forested mountains home. Formed by hard experience, by love and loss, and by the prophecies of a fortune teller, Vida just wants peace.
If only nearby Kettleton County didn’t cast such a dark shadow. It’s where Jose Nochelobo, the love of Vida’s life and a cherished local hero, died in a tragic accident. That’s the official story, but Vida has reasons to doubt it. The truth can’t be contained for long. Nor can the hungry men of power in Kettleton who want something too: that Vida, like Jose, disappear forever. One by one they come for her, prepared to do anything to see their plans through to their evil end. Vida is no less prepared for them. Vida, the forest, and its formidable wonders are waiting. She will not rest until goodness and order have been restored.
Dean Koontz's latest book is absolutely riveting. A fight between a young woman living alone far from the town and seriously evil men. She was orphaned at 5 years old and adopted by her great uncle who died of old age and she never left her forested 18 acre home.
The degenerate men who came for her with murder in their mind didn't know what was coming. The story unfolded slowly and the reader would feel scared for Vida but will find out how clever and prepared she was.
The body was on the pointed rocks alongside the stream. The artist might have fallen from the cliff where he was painting, but there are too many suspicious elements -- particularly the medical evidence that proves he'd been dead nearly half a day, though eyewitnesses had seen him alive a scant hour earlier. And then there are the six prime suspects -- all of them artists, all of whom wished him dead. Five are red herrings, but one has created a masterpiece of murder that baffles everyone, including Lord Peter Wimsey.
Solve the murder to save what's left of the world.
Outside the island there is nothing: the world was destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched.
On the island: it is idyllic. One hundred and twenty-two villagers and three scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they're told by the scientists.
Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And then they learn that the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay.
If the murder isn't solved within 107 hours, the fog will smother the island—and everyone on it. But the security system has also wiped everyone's memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer—and they don't even know it.
And the clock is ticking.The synopsis made me read it hoping it might be as good as Kazuo Ishiguro's novels. Alas, it isn't and disappointing.
Murphy Shepherd is a man with many secrets. He lives alone on an island, tending the grounds for a church with no parishioners, and he's dedicated his life to rescuing those in peril. But as he mourns the loss of his mentor and friend, Murph himself may be more lost than he realizes.
When he pulls a beautiful woman named Summer out of Florida's Intracoastal Waterway, Murph's mission to lay his mentor to rest at the end of the world takes a dangerous turn.
Drawn to Summer, and desperate to find her missing daughter, Murph is pulled deeper and deeper into the dark and dangerous world of modern-day slavery.
With help from some unexpected new friends, including a faithful Labrador he plucks from the ocean and an ex-convict named Clay, Murph must race against the clock to locate the girl before he is consumed by the secrets of his past--and the ghosts who tried to bury them.I never heard of this author before this book appeared on my Hoopla suggestions. It is a mystery with romance and Christian quotes on the side. The first few chapters were not so exciting but picked up as soon as the mother looking for her daughter appeared. She started telling the story of a book series she had gotten addicted to and declared the books cured her of narcotics addiction. The story of the books [within the story] is a truly engrossing action thriller with a hint of romance between a priest and a nun working as a team to rescue young girls from predators. The story parallels the actual novel. There is a reason and it is easy to guess why.
The Genome" is a new science fiction thriller by the author of the bestselling Night Watch series.
Five months after the horrific accident that left him near death and worried that he’d never fly again, master-pilot Alex Romanov lands a new job: captaining the sleek passenger vessel Mirror. Alex is a spesh—a human who has been genetically modified to perform particular tasks. As a captain and pilot, Alex has a genetic imperative to care for passengers and crew—no matter what the cost.
His first mission aboard Mirror is to ferry two representatives of the alien race Zzygou on a tour of human worlds. His task will not be an easy one, for aboard the craft are several speshes who have reason to hate the Others. Dark pasts, deadly secrets, and a stolen gel-crystal worth more than Alex’s entire ship combine to challenge him at every turn. And as the tension escalates, it becomes apparent that greater forces are at work to bring the captain’s world crashing down.
According to Goodreads readers, the author included a coded message that the novel is supposed to be a parody of space operas. My copy of the book doesn't have it. Maybe the author removed it, I'm not sure.
The odd characters, the good story, and the humor made me think it is sort of a parody. The murder mystery is very interesting. I enjoyed the book very much. Highly recommended.
The book is written by the author of Night Watch Series.
The British Embassy in Bonn is up in arms. Her Majesty's financially troubled government is seeking admission to Europe's Common Market just as anti-British factions are rising to power in Germany. Rioters are demanding reunification, and the last thing the Crown can afford is a scandal.
Then Leo Harting—an embassy nobody—goes missing with a case full of confidential files. London sends Alan Turner to control the damage, but he soon realizes that neither side really wants Leo found—alive.
Set against the threat of a German-Soviet alliance, John le Carré's A Small Town in Germany is a superb chronicle of Cold War paranoia and political compromise.
With an introduction by the author.John le Carré's short novel was first published in 1968 and in the "introduction" he wrote that he was not happy with the book. He meant it to be comedic but the German people were not too happy with his depiction of them. He revised some of what he wrote and he was half satisfied with the finished novelette.
Benny is so nice they feel compelled to destroy him, but he has a friend who should scare the hell out of them.
Benny Catspaw’s perpetually sunny disposition is tested when he loses his job, his reputation, his fiancée, and his favorite chair. He’s not paranoid. Someone is out to get him. He just doesn’t know who or why.
Then Benny receives an inheritance from an uncle he’s never heard of: a giant crate and a video message. All will be well in time. How strange—though it’s a blessing, his uncle promises. Stranger yet is what’s inside the crate. He’s a seven-foot-tall self-described “bad weather friend” named Spike whose mission is to help people who are just too good for this world. Spike will take care of it. He’ll find Benny’s enemies. He’ll deal with them. This might be satisfying if Spike wasn’t such a menacing presence with terrifying techniques of intimidation.
In the company of Spike and a fascinated young waitress-cum-PI-in-training named Harper, Benny plunges into a perilous high-speed adventure, the likes of which never would have crossed the mind of a decent guy like him.Amazon Prime First Reads for the first time ever offers one great book and possibly one good book to start the year.
While ringing in the New Year, Lord Peter stumbles into an ominous country mystery.
Lord Peter Wimsey and his manservant Bunter are halfway across the wild flatlands of East Anglia when they make a wrong turn, straight into a ditch. They scramble over the rough country to the nearest church, where they find hospitality, dinner, and an invitation to go bell-ringing.
This ancient art is steeped in mathematical complexities, and tonight the rector and his friends plan to embark on a nine-hour marathon session to welcome the New Year.
Lord Peter joins them, taking a step into a society whose cheerful exterior hides a dark, deadly past. During their stay in this unfamiliar countryside, Lord Peter and Bunter encounter murder, a mutilated corpse, and a decades-old jewel theft for which locals continue to die.
In this land where bells toll for the dead, the ancient chimes never seem to stop.
The legacy of the “Queen of Suspense” continues with the highly anticipated follow-up to Mary Higgins Clark’s iconic novel Where Are The Children?, featuring the children of Nancy Harmon, facing peril once again as adults.
Of the fifty-six bestsellers the “Queen of Suspense” Mary Higgins Clark published in her lifetime, Where Are the Children? was her biggest, selling millions of copies and forever transforming the genre of suspense fiction. In that story, a young California mother named Nancy Harmon was convicted of murdering her two children. Though released on a technicality, she was abandoned by her husband and became such a pariah in the media that she was forced to move across the country to Cape Cod, change her identity and appearance, and start a new life. Years later her two children from a second marriage, Mike and Melissa, would go missing, and Nancy yet again became the prime suspect—but this time, Nancy was able to confront the secrets buried in her past and rescue her kids from a dangerous predator.
Now, more than four decades since readers first met Nancy and her children, comes the thrilling sequel to the groundbreaking book that set the stage for future generations of psychological suspense novels. A lawyer turned successful podcaster, Melissa has recently married a man whose first wife died tragically, leaving him and their young daughter, Riley, behind. While Melissa and her brother, Mike, help their mom, Nancy, relocate from Cape Cod to the equally idyllic Hamptons, Melissa’s new stepdaughter goes missing. Drawing on the experience of their own abduction, Melissa and Mike race to find Riley to save her from the trauma they still struggle with—or worse.
Just like the original, Where Are the Children Now? keeps readers guessing and holding their breath until the very last page.I can't remember when I read and what was the last book I read by Mary Higgins Clark. It was so long ago. Where Are The Children is the most memorable of Mary Higgins Clark's books. When a sequel popped up in the library's recommendations, I had to borrow it although I have stopped reading her books more than 15 years ago.
Baking. It can get a guy killed.
When a retired detective superintendent chooses to take a culinary tour of the British Isles, he hopes to find tasty treats and delicious bakes … … what he finds is a clue to a crime in the ingredients for his pork pie.
His dog, Rex Harrison, an ex-police dog fired for having a bad attitude, cannot understand why the humans are struggling to solve the mystery. He can already smell the answer – it’s right before their noses. He’ll pitch in to help his human and the shop owner’s teenage daughter as the trio set out to save the shop from closure.
Is the rival pork pie shop across the street to blame? Or is there something far more sinister going on? One thing is for sure, what started out as a bit of fun, is getting deadlier by the hour, and they’d better work out what the dog knows soon or it could be curtains for them all.
It is a short easy read and I enjoyed reading about a dog with attitude as a partner in detecting. The reason I cannot give it a 4 star rating is the ever present drugs as the main reason for the murders and crime. Why do modern day British authors dwell so much on drug crimes? It is getting boring.
The recipe for Pork Pie at the end of the novel saved it from getting a low 2-star rating. I will still read the second installment because Rex Harrison, the dog, is interesting.
Sergeant Hamish Macbeth , Scotland's most quick-witted but unambitious policeman is back and may have finally met the woman of his dreams in this new mystery in M.C. Beaton's beloved, 'New York Times' bestselling series.
Hamish's new constable, Dorothy McIver, may be the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. Completely bewitched by her sparkling blue eyes, Hamish spends the summer traveling with her up and down Sutherland until finally, he can take it no longer. He gets down on one knee beside the Land Rover and begs her to marry him—and to his amazement and delight, she says yes.
But just as the town of Lochdubh gets ready to celebrate, Hamish finds himself with a new murder on his hands. If he doesn't find the killer fast, Hamish's dream wedding could become a nightmare.
Sigh. I loved Hamish through all 33 books until M C Beaton's death a few years ago. She authorized writer R W Green to finish this last book she wrote before her passing. Hamish doesn't act like Hamish. He is prone to losing his temper more often despite his giddiness towards his new-found love. The other characters also don't feel the same. Something is amiss, that's for sure. I was hoping Hamish will finally have a happy ending with a woman he truly cares for but alas, it was not to be. Way to go Mr. Green.😒
The author then continues on with a new book in the series, Death Of A Traitor, probably as requested by M C Beaton. I'm sad to say I won't continue reading. Hamish and Agatha need not continue, IMHO. They should have died with the author.
Mr. Green's Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin are not the same characters that M C Beaton created. Very disappointing. I guess I have to say goodbye to my favorite policeman with flaming red hair and politically incorrect man-hungry female sleuth.
You can bury the bodies, but you can’t hide the truth.
When a landslip on Pembrokeshire’s stunning coastal path reveals the harrowing remains of two bodies, ex-DCI Evan Warlow’s quiet retirement is shattered. As the original investigator for the two missing persons eight years before, Evan is recalled to help with what is now a murder inquiry. But as the killer scrambles to cover up the truth, the body count rises.
Working with a new young team, Warlow peels away the layers to reveal the dark and rotten heart that beats beneath the chocolate box tranquility of an area renowned for its quiet beauty. But does he still have what it takes to root out the monstrous truth before all hell lets loose? The Engine House is the gripping debut crime thriller set in the heart of wild Wales from author Rhys Dylan.
Perfect for fans of LJ Ross, JD Kirk. JM Dalgliesh and Simon McCleave. Celtic noir with a spatter of dark humour.I was excited to start a new series from a British author because all the mystery authors whose books I liked have sadly passed and the ones I still read are good but not great (Wilkie Martin) and some are mediocre.
1930s Leningrad. As a mood of fear cloaks the city, Investigator Vasily Zaitsev is called on to investigate a series of bizarre and seemingly motiveless murders. In each case, the victim is curiously dressed and posed in extravagantly arranged settings. At the same time, one by one precious old master paintings are going missing from the Hermitage collection. As Zaitsev sets about his investigations, he meets with suspicion at practically every turn, and potential witnesses are reluctant to provide information. Soon Zaitsev himself comes under suspicion from the Soviet secret police. The embittered detective must battle increasingly complex political machinations in his dogged quest to uncover the truth.
In the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo an unusual statue of a Japanese mythic beast - a kirin - stands guard over the district from the classic Nihonbashi bridge. In the evening, a man who appears to be very drunk staggers onto the bridge and collapses right under the statue of the winged beast. The patrolman who sees this scene unfold, goes to rouse the man, only to discover that the man was not passed out, he was dead; that he was not drunk, he was stabbed in the chest. However, where he died was not where the crime was committed - the key to solving the crime is to find out where he was attacked and why he made such a super human effort to carry himself to the Nihonbashi Bridge.
That same night, a young man named Yashima is injured in a car accident while attempting to flee from the police. Found on him is the wallet of the murdered man. Tokyo Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga is assigned to the team investigating the murder - and must bring his skills to bear to uncover what actually happened that night on the Nihonbashi bridge. What, if any, connection is there between the murdered man and Yashima, the young man caught with his wallet? Kaga's investigation takes him down dark roads and into the unknown past to uncover what really happened and why.
Abandoned by her family, Kya Clark, otherwise known to the townspeople of Barkley Cove as the Marsh Girl, is mysterious and wild. "Where the Crawdads Sing" is a coming-of-age story of a young girl raised by the marshlands of the south in the 1950s. When the town hotshot is found dead, and inexplicably linked to Kya, the Marsh Girl is the prime suspect in his murder case.