Fiction Friday: Mystery Releases by The Queens of Crime

Fiction Friday: 

Mystery Releases by The Queens of Crime

In 1941, three of the four “Queens of Crime,” Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, and Ngaio Marsh. At the time, the fourth “Queen,” Dorothy Sayers was focused on her radio dramatization of the life of Jesus as well as translating Dante’s Divine Comedy into colloquial English. The period during which these women wrote is known as the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, and books published during this era were typically “whodunits” and often feature closed door mysteries (i.e. the killer is not from outside the group of people) and took place in country manors of “landed gentry.” With the exception of Agatha Christie who found success with two sleuths, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, the other authors are primarily known for one:

• Allingham: Albert Campion
• Ngaio Marsh: Roderick Alleyn
• Sayers: Lord Peter Wimsey

Let’s take a look at their publications for the year.

Margery Allingham’s Traitor’s Purse takes place in the early days of World War II and intriguingly has

a plot line that mimics a real German operation, Operation Bernhard, that involved pouring counterfeit money into Britain. However, the campaign didn’t become public until after the war, so she wouldn’t have known about it. The main character, Albert Campion first appeared in her 1929 book The Crime at Black Dudley. He would show up in a total of eighteen full-length novels and copious short stories.

He awakens in a hospital with amnesia yet feels compelled he is on an important mission of some sort tied to the number fifteen. He overhears a conversation taking place in the hallway about an unconscious man who has killed a policeman and is to be hanged. Campion assumes they are talking about him and escapes. Stolen cars, secret meetings, and hidden trucks combine with espionage and murder to keep the reader (and Campion following clues) to ascertain the culprit.

Agatha Christie’s Evil Under the Sun doesn’t refer to the war although ostensibly takes place in the present day (1941). Poirot is on vacation at “The Jolly Roger Hotel” in Devon and gets tangled up in the murder of an attractive woman no one seems to like. As is his penchant, the detective observes the other guests and their interactions, drawing conclusions and making associations no one else sees. The plot is somewhat convoluted because nearly every guest has a secret and/or motive to kill the victim. In the end, Poirot brings everyone together and announces that not one, but two people were involved in the murder scheme.

Ngaio Marsh’s Death and the Dancing Footman takes place in 1941, and the war is not mentioned. As was popular the story is set at the large manor of “wealthy dilettante” Jonathan Royal who hosts a party with guests “whose mutual animosity is sure to provide cruelly macabre entertainment.” A snowstorm arrives, and the telephone lines soon go out. Shortly thereafter, the victim is killed with a Maori greenstone mere weapon, a short, broad-bladed weapon in the shape of an enlarged tear drop, from Ms. Marsh’s native Australia. Inspector Roderick Alleyn is called in from a nearby town and stages a re-enactment to determine the villain.

Have you read any of these classics?

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Murder at Madison Square Garden

1941: The dream of a lifetime becomes a nightmare.

Photojournalist Theodora “Teddy” Schafer’s career has hit the skids thanks to rumors of plagiarism. With any luck, a photo spread with Charles Lindbergh at the America First Rally will salvage her reputation. After an attempted assassination of Lindbergh leaves another man dead, Teddy is left holding the gun. Literally. Can she prove her innocence before the police lock her up for a murder she didn’t commit?

Private Investigator Ric Bogart wants nothing to do with women after his wife cleaned out their bank account and left him for another man, but he can’t ignore the feeling he’s supposed to help the scrappy, female reporter who is arrested for murder at the America First rally. Can he believe her claims of innocence and find the real killer without letting Teddy steal his heart?

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Movie Monday: Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Movie Monday: 

Murder on the Orient Express

WikiImages

We’re still in the 1970s, and today we’re going to look at the 1974 version of Agatha Christie’s 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express. With a budget of just under $1.5 million, the film was a resounding box-office success, earning over $35 million. The producers’ choice of directors, Sidney Lumet, was no doubt a calculated move. He is reportedly one of the most prolific filmmakers in the modern era, directing more than one move a year on average since his debut in 1957. Actors loved working for him, and critics could count on a well-executed film. Although fourteen of his movies were nominated for Academy Awards, and Lumet himself was nominated for five, he never won an individual Oscar. Late in life, he received an Academy Honorary Award. Intriguingly, he directed Murder in between Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon.

The cast is star-studded and included Sean Connery, Albert Finney, Ingrid Berman, Lauren Bacall, Jacqueline Bisset, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Widmark, and Michael York. Connery was the first actor approached and said yes immediately. He would ultimately make five films with Lumet. Lumet wanted Bergman to play Princess Dragomiroff, but she chose instead, the smaller role of Greta Ohlsson. Obviously, a good choice because she won Best Supporting Actress.

Exterior filming was mostly done in France, and the scenes of the train going through Central Europe

Pixabay/Jorg Vieli

were filmed in the Jura Mountains on the Swiss-French border. There were concerns about the lack of snow proceeding the scheduled shooting of the snowbound train, therefore snow was trucked in (at quite a large expense). Ironically, heavy snowfall occurred the night before the scheduled filming making the extra snow unnecessary, and stranding the snow-laden backup vehicles.

Christie only liked two of the film adaptations of her novels, and Murder was one of them, the other being Witness for the Prosecution. She passed away fourteen months after the movie’s release. Roger Ebert was effusive with his praise, specifically saying, “What I liked best about this movie is its style, both the deliberately old-fashioned visual strategies used by director Sidney Lumet, and the cheerful overacting of the dozen or more suspects.”

A classic that’s not to be missed.

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Dial S for Second Chances

Can years of hurt and misunderstanding be transformed into a second chance at love?

Jade Williams agrees to be on the high school reunion committee because the-one-that-got-away is out of the country and won’t be home in time to attend the festivities. Now, he’s not only home, but joined the committee. Is it too late to back out or can she set aside forty-five years of regret and pretend she isn’t to blame for her broken heart?

One of the downsides of being rich means fielding requests for money and favors. But when an old high school buddy contacts Derek Milligan to be on the reunion committee as just one of the gang, no strings attached, he can’t resist. At the first meeting, he’s dismayed to find himself sitting next to his former high school sweetheart. He should be angry. Instead, he’s attracted. Can he risk his heart a second time?

Reunion festivities include calling into WDES’s program No Errin’ for Love with fake relationship problems. When both use their real situation, the stakes are raised higher than either imagined.

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Mystery Monday: Murder on the Orient Express

Mystery Monday: Murder on the Orient Express 

 

Photo: WikiImages

Published eighty-eight years ago this month, Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express is still one of her most popular books. Additionally, the book regularly appears in lists denoting the top one hundred mysteries of all time. The story was originally titled Murder on the Calais Coach. 

 

Orient Express was Christie’s twelfth novel and inspiration for the book came from several places, the first of which was the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Charles Lindberg’s son that occurred two years prior to her writing. In 1928, Christie took her first trip on the Orient Express and a few months later, the train was marooned in Turkey during a six-day blizzard. On a later journey the train was halted for twenty-four hours because of flooding, and Christie’s experience also served as inspiration, especially with regard to passengers. 

 

For those unfamiliar with the book, Murder on the Orient Express features Hercule Poirot, the "world-

famous” sleuth from Belgium. He is approached by American businessman Samuel Ratchett who asks for protection because of threats he’s received. Poirot refuses the case, and that evening the train is stopped because of heavy snowfall. The following morning, he is informed that Ratchett has been murdered. With the train unable to go anywhere (or for anyone to reach them), Poirot is tasked with finding the murderer. Much of the book involved the suspects being interviewed and the detective searching various parts of the train. 

 

The book was highly successful, with critics lauding it with statements such as the book “keeps her readers enthralled to the end,” and “what more can a mystery addict desire?” One website comments that “Agatha Christie has been hailed as the queen of crime fiction, and Murder on the Orient Express might just be her crown jewel. 

 

Christie’s story had been adapted to radio (1992-1993), film (1974: starring Albert Finney, and 2017: starring Kenneth Branagh), stage (2017) and television, including a 1955 German and 2015 Japanese version. In 1985, a board game based on the novel was released as well as a 2006 computer game featuring David Suchet’s voice as Poirot. The book has never been out of print. 

Have you read this classic?

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Happy book birthday, Under Ground 

 

It’s been six months since Ruth Brown followed clues to England and discovered the identity of her sister’s killer. War continues to rage as Ruth reports on food shortages, the black market, the evacuation of London’s children, and the bravery of the British people. When a bombing raid destroys her home and unearths a twenty-year-old skeleton in the cellar, her reporter’s senses tingle in anticipation of solving another mystery. Unfortunately, the by-the-book detective inspector assigned to the case is not interested in her theories. As Ruth investigates the case on her own, she butts heads with the handsome policeman. 

 

Will she get to the bottom of the story before the killer strikes again?

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