read all of Agatha Christie's Poirot stories

gradually. I rather want to be done with this goal now. I want to read other books. The main problem I have is the differing quality. A friend told me that it is thought that Agatha Christie had alzeimers towards the end of her life and that her novels ahve been studied to support this idea; the language used and so forth. I have to agree that the early novels (say pre 1950s) seem best.

The worst so far was Elephants Can Remember. The story is ok but the writing is incoherent at times and often the same sentence or phrase is repeated on the same page. Moreover the editors seem to have given up as there are loads of mistakes. But Hallowe’en Party I really enjoyed. I don’t think I’ve seen a TV adaptation made, and as it deals with the murders of children perhaps it’s unlikely, but it was actually quite a good read. Although you could tell that the writer was uncomfortable with the modern age and there was still the quality issues in the writing style, but not so much in the story constructin at least.

I’m reading The Mysterious Affair at Styles now. I was going to save it for the penultimate read, the first Poirot then the last, but I’m waiting on the library for other titles and like I said, I want to get though them all now. I picked Curtain up at a second hand bookshop so I’m still keeping costs down.

My mum went to a book fair at the weekend and picked up four Poirots for me. They were really cheap (3 for £1 or something) so she isn’t asking to be reimbursed. She’ll probably post them soon.

So now I have The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Peril at End House, Lord Edgware Dies and Hallowe’en Party on the way. I mooched Elephants Can Remember and the only unread book on my list that isn’t available at the library is Curtain. BUT, the library service have started charging for reservations so I will not be able to complete the list without spending anything which is a shame.

I had Murder in Mesopotamia on my “Yet to Read” list so I borrowed it from the library thinking I had only seen the TV version. But it was clear after a couple of chapters that I had read it before. I finished it on Sunday morning then after lunch I switched on the TV and there it was; the David Suchet version. It thought it was rather serendipitous. I enjoyed it very much despite having read it. Sometimes knowing who the murderer is allows you to see other elements of plot.

Also I have removed Black Coffee from the list. I started reading it but disliked the style a great deal. I know it is technically a Poirot story as it was adapted from the Christie play but I couldn’t abide it. And I make the rules; so it is Christie written stories only.

And I am going to double check Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, I am worried that I got it confused with the Christmas Pudding short story. Being forgetful makes it very difficult when reading dozens of novels that are rather similar. But as is my experience with MiM it won’t do me any harm to read it again.

I’m on The Blue Train now and Elephants Can Remember next then back to the library for some more. I want to finish by the end of the year, and have Curtain to read for the Winter holidays.

I went in to Borders yesterday and looked through their Christie section to check on which ones I’d read. I’m feeling more confident about it now. I went to the library and borrowed two more and I received another through the post that I got from Bookmooch.

This is going well although I felt really embarrassed when my mum asked me what I needed to go to the library for. She reads hundreds of books a year, sometimes two in a day, and she looks down a little on stuff like Poirot. But my “habit” isn’t harming anyone.

I am pretty sure that I have read some of the books on the “Yet to Read” list but have put them there just in case. It is tricky when I have seen so many film and TV versions.

I have checked local libraries and they have around half. I’ll deal with them first and then see about buying the remainder second hand if possible.

I’m not going to concern myself with reading them in chronological order except that I will only allow myself to read Curtain when I have read all the others -or as near as is possible if some are hard to come by.

I’ll leave myself two years for this as I want to read other books as well.

All short stories

Murder on the Orient Express, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Dumb Witness, Death on the Nile, Appointment with Death, Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, Evil Under the Sun, The Hollow, Mrs McGinty’s Dead, Lord Edgware Dies, After the Funeral, Hickory Dickory Dock, Cards on the Table, Three-Act Tragedy, Death in the Clouds, The Third Girl, Cat Among the Pigeons, Murder in Mesopotamia, Five Little Pigs, The Mystery of the Blue Train, The Clocks, Elephants Can Remember, Peril at End House, Hallowe’en Party, The ABC Murders, Taken at the Flood, One Two Buckle my Shoe, Dead Man’s Folly, The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

Yet to Read…
The Murder on the Links, The Big Four, Sad Cypress, Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case.