Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case – by Agatha Christie

1 02 2025

Hastings has been summoned to a guest house by Poirot, the site of a murder he solved when he first came to Britain. But it’s many years on, Poirot is old, frail, wheelchair-bound, it’s a sad sight.

Poirot has on his mind 5 unconnected deaths he’s been looking into that all seem explainable and dealt with – but he’s spotted a person, X, who for no good reason, links all 5 deaths together…. and is one of the people currently staying in the guest house. He won’t tell Hastings who, but wants him to be his eyes and ears as he expects X to strike again.

I thought I had it sussed, but turned out to be miles off, which is the sign of a good book, surely! It kept me gripped and I read it in a week!


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The No2 Feline Detective Agency – by Mandy Morton

16 05 2024

I bought this for my mum as a bit of a joke as she loves the Alexander McCall-Smith books, and then she, possibly as an act of revenge, leant it back to me.

The thing is, there is nothing about this book that requires the characters to be cats, which is surprising given that’s the main thing they’ve changed from the books they’re spoofing. The cats drive cars, they use pens, they sit at tables, they wear human clothes, they don’t even lick themselves clean (there’s reference to scrubbing their fur with soap).

The story itself is fine. It’s cute and cosy, has dramatic turns and likeable characters. But the story would have been exactly the same if they were humans, so it all seemed a bit pointless. There is one tiny bit of the story that being a cat sort of worked better for, but a negligible change would have made it work for people too so it didn’t seem enough of a point.

Nice idea, decent story, just not enough made of it’s main selling point to make the joke work for me.


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Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet – by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

15 02 2014

I’m a relatively recent convert to Sherlock. I watched my first episode on New Year’s Day this year when the first episode of series 3 was aired – I was hooked! I dedicatedly watched the rest of the series and am now catching up on series 1 & 2 that I’ve been able to borrow from friends.

I was aware they’re based on the old series of books, and another friend offered to lend me the first one – I thought, why not?! Always aiming to read more, why not read something a bit more classic.

I read “A Study in Scarlet” which is the first book in the series, where Sherlock Holmes and John Watson meet, it’s also the book that the first TV episode, “A Study in Pink” was based on. It didn’t disappoint.

Considering the books were written in the 1800s I was expecting it to be hard work, but it wasn’t, the story grabbed me in and I was so keen to know what happened. I had an idea as I’d already seen the TV episode, but there’s enough difference that I didn’t really know how it would come together.

Just when it was about to resolve though I had a bit of a shock. Suddenly we were in Utah, USA, with different characters, and several chapters without any reference at all to our Hero. I messaged my friend who had leant me the book and assured me it was still the same story, but the jump was so sudden I really wasn’t sure.

In the American section of the book there’s a whole bit on the Mormons which was slightly weird for me as one of the last books I read had also had a large section on them – bizarre!

Definitely a recommended read. The book is only little and even then less than 200 pages, so it doesn’t take long, and is definitely entertaining.

sherlock holmes


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