Miss Marple--Your Reactions?

Now that the four "Marple" mysteries have been aired and digestsed, I offer my take. I thought they declined in quality til the last one was a bit absurd. But on the whole they were delicious fun. The first, "A Pocketful of Rye" was the most quintessential: manor house, debauched family, intrigue, wills, etc etc. The second, "Murder is Easy" involving an unbelievable spate of crime in a small and quaint village, was almost as delightful with a terrific cast of who's who's--but the huge body count was a bit disconcerting. The third, "They Do It With Mirrors" was well-acted and had a great central group of characters but veered towards the bizarre and I didn't like the tragic ending. As for the final ep, "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?". Well what can I say--it took campy mystery to a whole new level. It was definitely the weakest. But it didn't spoil the tenor of the bunch--Julia McKenzie rocked.

So that was my twitter-like take on the series. What did you all think?

Miss Marple

We caught the first Miss Marple last night-- "A Pocketful of Rye" guest-starring EBC hero du jour Mr. Darcy Arthur Clenham Matthew MacFayden in a silly mustache as a decently-intelligent inspector (though no match for Marple, of course).
"Pocketful"also featured Elinor Dashwood Hattie Morahan in a minor role, as well as Freddy Honeychurch Rupert Graves as the prodigal son of the deceased patriarch, home from Africa just in time to see the inspectors swarm in to solve his father's murder.

As in many Christie novels, the murder(s) echo a nursery rhyme, but as to be expected in the hands of Dame Agatha there are a number of twists along the way that belie the rhyme's seeming simplicity and reveal the depths of human psychological murkiness, or something like that. You know why AC rocks.... I'm tired! It's been a long 4th of July weekend!

Summing it all up, it was an atmospherically-accurate adaptation of a good book that I'm pretty sure I read :)... Anyway anyone else watching "Six by Agatha?" And did you like this ep or were you too distracted by Arthur Clenham's facial hair?

Question of the Weekend: What's Your Favorite "Junk Food" Book?

(image: www.dollheads.com)

So with Angels and Demons getting expectedly pilloried in film reviews around the nation, I thought I'd open it up to my readers to ask what your favorite "candy" books are? Because just as we need to shove sugar and fat down our mouths sometimes and nothing else will do, so, too do we occasionally crave those delicious, addictive page-turners.

I think the reason people hate Dan Brown is because his books mix high and low in such a confusing way. He's neither Dean Koontz nor A.S. Byatt, but unashamedly throws a bit of everything into his winning formula(e?). But that's why I kind of have a soft spot for his place in the cultural fabric.

Anyway, I would not say Dan Brown is my favorite "light" read: I'd have to give that to the brits: Helen Fielding, Alexander McCall Smith, or--if she counts as "light"--Dame Agatha.

How about you?

The Moonstone

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins


My review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
While not nearly as hair-raising or diabolical as The Woman In White, Wilkie Colins' famous "first detective novel" was the perfect read for the last few rainy days.

The Moonstone concerns the theft of the diamond by that name, a theft that occurred the night of lady Rachel Verinder's birthday party. Of course, all the guests are suspects, as are the servants. In these early chapters the seeds of the classic "great house" detective mystery--which has influenced everything from Agatha Christie to Sherlock Holmes to Clue to "Gosford Park"-- were sown. Add to the mix a love story thwarted, a wise London detective, a tragically morose housemaid, a few Christian hypocrites (Collins was not a fan of being proselytized, apparently) and a quest by Indian priests who will stop at nothing to regain the precious stone for their temple--and you've got quite a fun and potent mix. The book, like The Woman in White, is narrated in turn by several characters which adds to the mystery, and of course the satire as they all opine on each others merits and defects. I actually was surprised by the lack of blatant racism when it came to the Indian quest (although the archaic spelling of "Hindoo" makes it hard to take seriously).

The "detective fever" as one of the characters calls it, did not hit me really until the last few sections, when I began to see that some of my guesses were near the mark and turn the pages more furiously. There were some very silly and maudlin scenes towards the denouement but nothing out of the ordinary for old-school Gothic and nothing silly enough to stop me! Anyway, I didn't need to be in a frenzy to KNOW WHO ABSCONDED WITH THE DIAMOND the entire time to enjoy the book and steadily wind my way through it. It's a leisurely, easy read, clever and amusing, and sometimes that's all you need.


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