1) The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Hastings & Poirot are introduced. Many are suspected and there is a surprise drawing room 'reveal' of the murderer by Poirot. A formula that during a lifetime of books, movies, and television has been encountered many times. But that doesn't mean these classic 'Golden Age' detective stories are any less enjoyable. And this was one of the first. 2) Murder on the Orient Express - I knew 'whodunit' from the movie(s) but this was still an enjoyable read. And the various characters, alibis, clues, and timelines were fresh. The text quotation accompanying the frontis illustration didn't seem to be correct. A mild annoyance. I got over it. 3) The ABC Murders - My favourite, so far, of this set. Hastings is back and again ogling the prettiest woman. The soon-to-be prime suspect is identified right away. He's definitely involved but did he commit the murders? Poirot isn't front and centre as much as in the first two but his little grey cells are working overtime. 4) Death on the Nile - After ABC, I found this dragged and put it aside. Came back to it to finish off the set just as things started to happen. Then it raced along. Poirot is in this the most of the four - which is good. I guessed whodunit early on but then second guessed myself. A lot happens.A lot. ( )

Favorite Agatha Christie & Hercule Poirot Collection...

This is a collection of five Hercule Poirot mysteries by Agatha Christie. In 2013 I read all of her works and I enjoyed all of them. These five stories are some of my favorites of Poirot's. I normally don't re-read a lot of books but for my 2016 Summer Bingo Challenge I decided to read "Thirteen at Dinner" for my 'Favorite Re-Read' square. I'm so glad I did! It's made me realize I should re-read more often.
 
Thirteen at Dinner is a fun mystery about an actress, Jane Wilkinson, who asks Poirot to help her get rid of her husband so she can marry someone else. After her husband is murdered, she then asks Poirot again for his help when she is spotted at her husband's house, while also attending a dinner party with thirteen other very important guests, hence the title Thirteen at Dinner. I really can't tell you much else without giving too much away so I'll just say if you've never took the time to read Agatha Christie's books, you should put it on your list of things to do before you die! You won't find another mystery writer like her! ( )

An omnibus collection containing Thirteen at Dinner (aka Lord Edgware Dies), Murder on the Orient Express, The ABC Murders, Cards on the Table and Death on the Nile.

This wasn't quite the first Agatha Christie I've ever read -- I vaguely recall reading And Then There Were None many years ago -- but it was pretty close. Having had something of a crash course in her writing now, I find that my feelings on the subject are a little mixed.

On the negative side, I didn't care much for the character of Poirot at first. His accent is strangely annoying, his character not quite as well-defined as I might prefer, and his "psychological" methods considerably variable when it comes to how convincing I find them. He did grow on me over the course of these novels, though, mainly by displaying entertaining flashes of humor. As for the plots, I'm afraid none of these did the thing I most love for a detective or mystery novel to do, which is to induce that wonderful little feeling of epiphany when, the moment before the murderer is finally revealed, all the pieces suddenly fit together with a snap, and I find myself exclaiming, "Aha! Of course!" The clues were generally a little too obscure for that, I think, the situations a little too improbable, and important bits of information withheld perhaps just a little too long. (Although I should probably add that it's a little unfair to say that about Murder on the Orient Express, just because I was already spoiled for whodunnit, but I'm pretty sure I would have had the same experience with that one, regardless.)

On the other hand, whether I was able to figure any of them out or not, the solutions, once revealed, were always clever and complicated and interesting in ways that somehow still feel remarkably fresh many decades later, and I think that by itself made this collection worthwhile for me. So, while I feel like maybe I've now read about as much Christie as I want to, I am at least glad to have read this much. ( )

7/11/08
Finished Cards on the Table... and thus have finished the whole compilation book! I must say, I rather liked this one, too. Perhaps even more than The ABC Murders but I think we shall call it a tie, because I wasn't entirely thrilled with the concept. A man who likes secrets brings four people he suspects to be murderers to his home and four "detectives"... and then when he's in a room with the four suspected murderers, he is killed without anyone noticing? Hm. Sounds too easy a set-up, even though I do like the idea of man killed in room without the others noticing, and the others all have a reason to want to kill him. I particularly liked the character of Mrs. Oliver, a murder mystery novelist who one can't help but wonder if Christie created as a mockery of herself. I felt a great deal like Mrs. Oliver throughout the book, thinking along the same lines and then saying "I always knew s/he did it" each time a character seemed to be the frontrunner. But yay for such a wonderfully large book with Christie novels on it. Definitely a fine Strand purchase from their $1 shelves, even if it did take me a year or so to actually read the whole thing... and it was a but cumbersome, but oh well. Agatha Christie is just so terribly readable, I was delighted to have this gem already on my bookshelf. Now let's see if I can actually pick up another book that I already own and take as much pleasure in it.

7/03/08
Finished The ABC Murders while on a train and loved it! This totally made up for a wishy washy Thirteen at Dinner. I liked the break from the usual style (aka instances where things were not in Hastings' notes because they were happening to someone else and Hastings could not have been aware of them), and in general, I consider this to the the best in the book so far. (Well, okay, second best because Murder on the Orient Express is in this book and that's great, but I had already read that one before I picked up this five-book tome.) On to the final novel...

7/01/08
I picked this up so I could have something entertaining and light while on a business trip. (Well, not light in the tangible sense, as it's a hardcover with five books crammed in, but you get what I mean.) Thirteen at Dinner... I must admit that it's not my favorite Christie yet... mostly because I guessed the killer from the beginning. I wasn't particularly thrown by any details, though I did enjoy a few bits of banter. And Poirot is always entertaining. Still, it was a good read to get me through some long waits in plane terminals.

5/29/08
Finished Death on the Nile last night and I feel thoroughly pleased. There really is nothing like a good Hercule Poirot mystery when you crave a good mystery. I don't really feel like I can take this book out of "currently-reading" and put it on the "read" shelf yet, though, as there are four other novels in there, but I will put it on this month's shelf. There weren't any great quotes that jumped out at me, but I imagine I'll pick it up again quite soon to gulp down another novel.

05/27/08
For perhaps the first time ever, I felt rewarded for not purchasing a book. I went into my local Community Bookstore and thought that if they didn't have the book that I'm scheduled to read for book club, I would treat myself to an Agatha Christie novel. (For some reason, whenever it's really sunny out, I tend to like gothic literature or dark mysteries.) They had the book and so I actually kept up the deal: no buying Christie. But when I got home, I remembered... I had this hardcover book that I'd purchased at the Strand for $1 that had five Christie novels within... and low and behold! The very book I was going to purchase at the bookstore was within this compilation. Not only did I not spent the $8 on a new book, but I re-discovered something I already owned... and not just one book, but five! So I'm about 75% through Death on the Nile. Of course, if I actually remembered all the books that I owned, then maybe I didn't even have to think about buying a new one, but still, I feel like I accomplished something with my discovery. ( )