Books Read in July 2025

 

Another month where every book was a very good read. I finished seven books in July. Two were short story books; that is unusual. Four were crime fiction, including one espionage thriller. And one science fiction story in a military setting. At the end of July I had only read 12 books for my 20 Books of Summer list. It is now mid-August (unbelievable!) and I have only read two more. So I don't think I will finish all 20 books for the challenge. We'll see.

Fiction

Five Tuesdays in Winter (2021) by Lily King

I started this book of short stories in December 2024. I read the first four stories and I liked them all; you can check out my thoughts on those stories here. In July, I read the remaining six stories in the book. Many of those stories are slice-of-life stories. I especially liked the characterizations; the stories were serious but ended on an upbeat note. Check here for my thoughts on the last six stories.

Olive, Again (2019) by Elizabeth Strout

Olive, Again is the follow-up book to Olive Kitteridge.  It is a very good book but not an easy read. Olive is in her seventies in this book. She is widowed and has a tenuous, troubled relationship with her son and his family. This is described as a novel composed of interrelated short stories. Only seven of the thirteen stories are directly about Olive and her life in Crosby, Maine. The other stories take place in the same area or nearby but Olive is not the main focus. See my thoughts here.

Science Fiction

Ninefox Gambit (2016) by Yoon Ha Lee

Ninefox Gambit is a military science fiction/science fantasy/space opera novel. I did not know a lot about the book going in, although I assumed it was a space opera because of the cover illustration. The world building was very complex and confusing for me, but the writing was very good and pulled me into the story. I loved the ending. See my thoughts here.

Crime Fiction

At Bertram's Hotel (1965) by Agatha Christie

This is a Miss Marple mystery with a huge cast; the plot can be confusing, but it is an entertaining story set at a lovely hotel. Chief Inspector Fred Davy is a Scotland Yard detective who does most of the detecting. See my thoughts here.

The Amateur (1981) by Robert Littell

Charlie Heller is a cryptographer for the CIA. When his fiancée, Sarah Diamond, is murdered by terrorists at the American Embassy in West Germany, the CIA decides not to pursue her killers. Heller is determined to find them and kill them himself. So this is a revenge thriller. Heller has none of the necessary skills, but he forces the CIA to train him. Nothing in this book is predictable; the story was compelling and I enjoyed it very much.

The novel has an interesting history; the story was first written by Littell as a screenplay, and was made into a Canadian film released in 1981. Shortly after that, the novel was written based on the screenplay. Recently another film adaptation was released starring Ramie Malek.

The Murder of Mr. Ma (2024) by John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan

Reading this book was a no-brainer for me. I will try anything written by S.J. Rozan. I was a bit uncertain about a book that she co-authored but still, it seemed like a safe bet. 

The two protagonists of the book are fictionalized versions of Judge Dee Ren Zie and Lao She, a Chinese academic and author. I have never read any of Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee mysteries, but my husband has. The story focuses on their investigation into the deaths of Chinese immigrants in 1924 London.

I was very happy with this book. It felt like an adventure story as much as a mystery, and was a lot of fun to read. John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan have come together in a great writing partnership and you can read about that at CrimeReads and Mystery Fanfare. The second book in the series is already out and I will be reading it.

A Death in Tokyo (2011) by Keigo Higashino, translated by Giles Murray

This is the third book in the Tokyo Police Detective Kaga series to be translated to English from Japanese. I have read the two previous books that are available in English, and they all work well as standalones. Detective Kaga is not part of the homicide division, but he often works with the homicide detectives when the case in in his district. He works in an intuitive way, and follows up painstakingly on every detail. In this case a prominent business man has been murdered; he is found at the base of a statue on a bridge, but that is not where the murder took place. His wife and two teenage children don't know why he was in that area of town. It is a very complex case, and has an interesting and complex resolution. 

The photos at the top and bottom of this post were taken by my husband at the garden center during our last visit. We enjoy both buying plants and supplies and viewing the variety of plants and pots and decorations on display. Click on the images for best viewing quality.

At Bertram's Hotel: Agatha Christie

 

Description at Goodreads:

Miss Jane Marple has checked into Bertram's Hotel in London for a much-needed vacation. The last thing she expects is that this elegant establishment, known for its service and old-world charm, could be embroiled in scandal. But after a series of strange events—including the disappearance of a fellow guest, the arrival of a notorious celebrity bad boy, and finally, a shocking murder—she finds herself drawn into a multifaceted mystery.

This portion of the description at Goodreads is an accurate description, but later there is an implication that Miss Marple gets involved in the investigation, which is not accurate. Miss Marple observes useful pieces of information, and along the way she does reveal her thoughts to the reader on many of the events. The real investigator in this mystery is Chief Inspector Fred Davy, who has noted the connection of many of the guests at the hotel to various crimes in the area, and the story works more as a police procedural than is usual in a Miss Marple novel. All of that worked very well for me and I had no complaint. Fred Davy was a great character.

There are a lot of coincidences in this story; for example, Miss Marple runs into various guests at the hotel in the city of London who seem to be in questionable relationships. 

At Bertram's Hotel is a later book in the Miss Marple series and it didn't measure up to other books in that series for me. However, it was a fun read, with some humor.  I like books set in hotels and Bertram's Hotel was lovely. There were several interesting characters, so overall I liked it and I plan to finish the series. 

Short Story Wednesday: "Philomel Cottage" by Agatha Christie

For my Short Story Wednesday post this week, I have reviewed a story for the Agatha Christie Short Stories Read Along hosted by Fanda at Fanda Classiclit. Fanda's post for April is here. 

"Philomel Cottage"

To be honest, I enjoyed this story of psychological suspense, but when I got to the end I could not figure what had happened.

Alix Martin is the main character. She is in her thirties and for fifteen years supported herself in a clerical job. Then she received an unexpected inheritance which allowed her some independence. Shortly after that, she married a man she met at a friend's house, after a whirlwind romance. When they married they moved into a remote cottage that she paid for with part of her small inheritance.

This all sounds very idyllic but Alix begins to have doubts about her marriage. She has several dreams about her husband dying and she hears of questionable things that her husband has said or done but not shared with her. 

Then she hears from an old boyfriend who wants to drop by and visit her and her husband. This confuses her even more because the boyfriend had been in her dreams about her husband. 

The ending was abrupt, and I thought that it was ambiguous, although not all reviewers agreed with that. Regardless the story is filled with tension and was very entertaining. 

This story first appeared in The Grand Magazine in November 1924. It later appeared in a collection titled The Listerdale Mystery in the UK in 1934 and in The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories in the US in 1948.

Short Story Wednesday is hosted by Patricia Abbott at Pattinase. 

Six Degrees of Separation: From Knife to Valley of the Kings

  

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is Knife: Meditations after an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie. I haven't read this book; I don't read many memoirs. And when I first read about Knife, I did not think I wanted to read it. But having since read many reviews that have praised the book, I do plan to read it. 

My first link is to another memoir. In 1946, Agatha Christie published Come, Tell Me How You Live, a memoir of the time she spent with her second husband, Max Mallowan, at archaeological digs in Syria. I have not read that memoir yet either, but it is on my shelves to read.

Next is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie, Murder In Mesopotamia (1936), set at an archaeological dig in Iraq. This novel is part of the Hercule Poirot series. One of the members of the expedition is murdered. Poirot happens to be passing through the area and is called on to look into the death. The story is narrated by Nurse Leatheran, and that is what I liked best about the book. 

The books in the Gideon Oliver series by Aaron Elkins series feature a forensic anthropologist who often works at archaeological digs. In Curses, Oliver is invited to an archaeological dig on the Yucatan Peninsula. Both my son and I have read a few books in this series. The first book in this series was published in 1982. 

My next link is to a novel in a historical mystery series that I read years ago, the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters. Amelia begins her adventures in archaeology in Crocodile on the Sandbank, which is set in 1884 in Egypt.  

The fifth link of my chain, also set in Egypt, is a nonfiction book, The Tomb of Tutankhamen. The author, Howard Carter, was the leader of the excavation and this is his firsthand account of the discovery of the tomb and the artifacts discovered. This book is from my husband's bookshelves and he has several other books on this subject. We visited the Tutankhamen exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1978. 

Staying with Egypt and archaeology sites, the last book in my chain is another of my husbands books, also nonfiction, Valley of the Kings by John Romer. The Valley of the Kings is an area in Egypt where tombs were constructed for pharaohs and nobles for nearly 500 years. Per the Preface of this book, it is a nonfiction account of "two interlinked stories: the first is the history of the travellers and scholars who studied and excavated the royal tombs of the valley; the second is that of the tombs themselves and the motives and methods of the people who made them."

My Six Degrees focused on archaeological sites in fiction and nonfiction. If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

The next Six Degrees will be on May 3, 2025 and the starting book will be a book longlisted for the 2025 Stella Prize, Rapture by Emily Maguire.

Short Story Wednesday: "The Listerdale Mystery" by Agatha Christie

 

I have discovered the Agatha Christie Short Stories Read Along hosted by Fanda at Fanda Classiclit. It originally started in 2024, but I just saw it recently, and I plan to join in this year when I can. 

Fanda has a post each month to note the stories for that month. The post for February is here. The full list of stories for the year is here. The stories for February are "The Listerdale Mystery" and "The Tuesday Night Club," a Miss Marple story.

So, for Short Story Wednesday today, I read the "The Listerdale Mystery." Here are my thoughts:

A widow, Mrs. St. Vincent, lives with her grown daughter and son in a boarding house. She checks her finances every month, and now she realizes that they may have to move to someplace even cheaper. Originally they lived in much better circumstances, in a home that had been in the family for generations, but her husband didn't handle business affairs very well and left them with little to live on. One day she notices an advertisement in the paper for a rental house that requires only nominal rent. She goes to check out the house, and the butler shows her around, but it seems too good to be true, so she leaves without any hope. Soon she gets a letter offering her the house for a small amount of rent. 

She moves into the house and everything goes well. But Mrs. St. Vincent's son, Rupert, is suspicious. It turns out that the house they are living in is owned by Lord Listerdale, who disappeared from the house and then later turned up in East Africa. Rupert thinks that there may have been foul play, and comes up with all kinds of theories. He even begins to do some sleuthing.

This story was different from other mystery short stories by Christie that I have read. It is a mystery but it does not involve a crime, and is actually closer to a romance. I enjoyed the story; it was a fun read and had a nice ending.

“The Listerdale Mystery” was first published as “The Benevolent Butler” in Grand Magazine, December 1925. I read this story in The Golden Ball And Other Stories, a collection of 15 short stories by Agatha Christie.

Books Read in June 2024

 

I read eleven books in June and that was many more books than I expected to read, considering that I had cataract surgery in the middle of the month. I ended up having more time to read and not much energy or motivation for anything else, including blogging. Nine of the books read in June were from my 20 Books of Summer list. Unfortunately I am very late in posting about my reading for June but I hope to catch up more in the next few weeks.

Graphic memoir

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (2003) by Marjane Satrapi; Mattias Ripa (Translator)

This graphic memoir tells the story of the author's life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, from the point when the Shah is overthrown through the war with Iraq. Reading about those times from the viewpoint of a child is interesting and entertaining. The story is continued in a second volume, and I will be reading that too.

Fiction

The Lonely Hearts Book Club (2023) by Lucy Gilmore

This story has a book club theme, and it also has romance, dysfunctional families, and lonely people making friends. See my thoughts here.

Redhead by the Side of the Road (2020) by Anne Tyler

Micah Mortimer is a creature of habit; he wants everyday to be the same. He has been with his girlfriend for three years. Two new events happen in his life that shake up his normal life. I liked the story a lot, the length was perfect at under 200 pages, and I want to read more of Anne Tyler's books.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (2014) by Gabrielle Zevin

This book is centered around a bookstore and of course books are discussed throughout. This was a lovely story with a little bit of romance and a lot about relationships, friends, and community. See my review.

Fantasy, Time Travel

Tales from the Café (2017) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

This is the second in a series of five books about time travel that takes place in a café in Tokyo which has been serving a special coffee for more than one hundred years.  There are four connected stories in this book. The stories of the people who run the café are just as interesting as the time travel stories. The first book in the series is Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

Crime Fiction

Skeleton-in-Waiting (1989) by Peter Dickinson

Peter Dickinson is one of my favorite authors. I prefer his mysteries, but he also wrote children's books and fantasies. This is the second book in a duology, set in an alternate Britain with a very alternate royal family. The first book is King and Joker, and in that book the two main characters (Prince Albert and Princess Louise) are teenagers. This book takes place over ten years later and both Albert and Louise have married and have children. This was a reread, and this time around I was more impressed with the story and enjoyed it very much. 

Nearly Nero (2017) by Loren D. Estleman

Between 2008 and 2016, Estleman wrote nine humorous short stories about Claudius Lyon, a man who is obsessed with emulating Nero Wolfe in all ways, and his assistant, Arnie Woodbine. Most of these stories were published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. This book includes all of the stories. I reviewed the stories here and here.

Family Business (2021) by S.J. Rozan

S.J. Rozan won the 2022 Shamus Award for this novel, her 14th book starring New York City private eyes Lydia Chin and Bill Smith. When the powerful Chinatown crime boss Big Brother Choi dies, he leaves the Tong headquarters building to his niece, Mel, who hires Lydia and Bill to accompany her to inspect it. They discover the body of another Tong member in Choi's living quarters. I will be reading the latest book in the series, The Mayors of New York, very soon.

In the Midst of Death (1976) by Lawrence Block

This is an early book in the Matthew Scudder series.  Scudder is an ex-cop who works as an unlicensed private detective. In this case he is helping out an old friend on the police force who is accused of murdering a prostitute.  I liked the book but it was very dark, especially the ending. 

The Cipher Garden (2005) by Martin Edwards

The books in this series are set in Cumbria, England's Lake District, and feature Detective Chief Inspector Hannah Scarlett and historian Daniel Kind. DCI Scarlett heads the cold case division. Here, an old cold case involving the death of a gardener is reopened because of poison pen letters sent to the police and to people involved in the crime. I like the mystery plot but could do without the romantic subplot.

A Caribbean Mystery (1964) by Agatha Christie

This is the 9th book in Christie's Jane Marple series. It is not set in Miss Marple's village of St. Mary Mead and I missed that setting. On the other hand it has a nice depiction of a Caribbean island vacation spot and any Miss Marple story is going to be entertaining. Another elderly visitor to St. Honoré, Major Palgrave, has been monopolizing Miss Marple's time, telling stories of his adventures during his travels. At one point he tells her about a murderer he met, starts to show her a picture, then gets interrupted. Shortly after that Major Palgrave dies, seemingly of natural causes. We just watched the film adaptation starring Helen Hayes tonight, and saw another adaptation with Joan Hickson a couple of weeks ago. Both were good.

Currently reading

I have just started reading A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny, the 12th book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels. The story begins with Gamache taking on a new job and the discovery of an old intricate map. 

The subject of the photos at the top and bottom of this post is our cat, Rosie. At the top, Rosie is helping me read. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

Six Degrees of Separation: From The Optimist's Daughter to Wave Me Goodbye

 

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point. Last month she did not supply a title and asked us to start with the last book on our previous Six Degrees post. So for me, the starting book will be The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty.

The Optimist's Daughter was published in 1972 and won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Laurel McKelva Hand is a widow, living and working in Chicago. Laurel returns to her hometown in Mississippi for her father's funeral. The story explores her relationship with her father, her mother who died when she was younger, and her new stepmother who is much younger than her father and has inherited the house that Laurel grew up in. It also focuses on her memories of losing her husband during World War II, not very long after they were married. There is a lot of depth to the novel, which is only 180 pages long.

1st degree:

I chose the first book in my chain, Kissing the Gunner's Daughter, because of the title, the mention of a daughter. It is a perfect link, because there are two daughters that figure in the story. This is the 15th book in the Ruth Rendell Inspector Wexford series. A family is attacked at dinner time and a famous author and her daughter and son-in-law are killed. Only the teenage granddaughter lives through the attack. And while Wexford is investigating this horrible crime, he is worried about his daughter Sheila, who is in a relationship he disapproves of. Kissing the Gunner's Daughter is a dark story of psychological suspense.

2nd degree:

My next book, Henrietta Who?, is also a police procedural mystery which features a daughter. Grace Jenkins has been killed in a hit and run accident. When her daughter is called home from college, Henrietta learns that she cannot be Grace's daughter because the woman has never had a child. This is not only the search for a murderer but also the story of a very young woman coming to terms with questions about her parents and her origins.

3rd degree:

My next book in the chain takes me to The Hollow by Agatha Christie, which features another character named Henrietta. This is the 25th book in the Hercule Poirot series although as I remember it, there is not much of Poirot in the book. The story is built around a country house weekend; the characters are interesting, somewhat quirky, and all seem to be hiding something. Henrietta Savernake is a successful sculptor who is in love with Dr. John Christow, who has a wife and children.

4th degree:

Gallows Court is the first book in a relatively new series by Martin Edwards featuring Rachel Savernake, the daughter of a hanging judge, and an amateur sleuth. The setting is London in the 1930s. I have not read this book but the series is doing well and I am eager to try it soon.

5th degree:

My next link is to Perfect Gallows by Peter Dickinson. This book is about a murder that occurs in 1944 in the UK, on an estate occupied by US forces preparing for the invasion of France. It is primarily set during World War II, with a framing story set in 1988. Peter Dickinson was a wonderful writer who has written many books in the mystery and fantasy genres.

6th degree:

Using World War II as a link, my next book is Wave Me Goodbye: Stories of the Second World War. The book is comprised of short stories that take place during the war or the years immediately afterward; the authors are all women and all but one story was written during that time. The stories are mostly home front stories. I have read only a few stories in that book so far.

My chain starts out in Mississippi in the US but moves to the UK after that. Was there any connection between the first book and the last? Only the tenuous connection to World War II because the death of Laurel's husband was connected to that conflict.

Have you read any of these books? And where did your list take you, if you participated in this month's Six Degrees meme?

The next Six Degrees will be on March 2, 2024, and the starting book will be Tom Lake by Ann Patchett.

Books Read in December 2023

 

 

December was a very good reading month. I had planned to read Winter Solstice to coincide with the solstice, and I finished two days before Winter solstice, on December 19th. The remainder of my books were mysteries: two with espionage elements, one Christmas mystery, the most recent Thursday Murder Club mystery, and a book of Miss Marple short stories by Agatha Christie.

Fiction

Winter Solstice (2000) by Rosamunde Pilcher

Elfrida Phipps, once an actress on the London stage, 62 years old, has been living in Dipton in Hampshire, England. She has become friends with Gloria and Oscar Blundell and their 12-year-old daughter. Oscar's wife and child are killed in an automobile accident. Oscar asks Elfrida to help him move to Creagan, Scotland where he owns half of an Estate House which used to belong to his grandmother. Mainly set in Scotland in the two months leading up to Christmas, this is a lovely story of friends and family.  See my review.

Crime Fiction

The Last Devil to Die (2023) by Richard Osman

Book 4 in the Thursday Murder Club series. Two men and two women in their seventies or eighties have formed a club called the Thursday Murder Club. They started out investigating cold cases, but now they investigate current crimes whenever they get the chance. In this case, an antique dealer has been killed. He was a friend of Elizabeth's husband Stephen, and the foursome feel they have to solve the crime. Their friends in the police discourage them, but they persist. Joyce takes on a bigger role in this case. This is a wonderful series; I will continue to read these books as long as the author writes them.

Missionary Stew (1983) by Ross Thomas

I loved this book; it is only the third book I have read by this author. I would call it a political thriller but it has a bit of espionage too. All the characters in this book are very strange; that is often true in fiction about politics or espionage. The two protagonists had unusual childhoods, one with a father who was jailed for being a Communist, the other having been basically ignored by his mother, an intelligence operative in France during World War II. The mother is a real piece of work. And one of the prominent secondary characters is named Velveeta Keats. I want to read all the rest of his books, and fortunately I have ten of them on my shelves. 

The Paris Diversion (2018) by Chris Pavone

I have read Pavone's first three books and enjoyed them. The Paris Diversion is an espionage thriller which begins with a terror attack on Paris. It is the second book featuring Kate Moore and her husband Dexter. The first book was The Expats. If you enjoy fast-paced thrillers you might like this.

Who Killed the Curate? (1944) by Joan Coggin

This is a vintage Christmas mystery, a humorous mystery, of the screwball comedy type, I guess. It was first reprinted by Rue Morgue Press in 2001, and more recently reissued by Galileo Publishers in the UK. The main character is Lady Lupin, who is now married to a vicar and living in a small village. She doesn't fit in at all; she is too scatterbrained and doesn't have any idea of how to be a vicar's wife, but she is so well-meaning that no one minds too much. And she and her husband are madly in love, which is very refreshing. It is set at Christmas which is why I had saved it to read in December. I enjoyed it, but I only recommend it to readers who like a lot of humor in their mysteries.

Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (1985) by Agatha Christie

This collection is comprised of 20 short stories by Christie, all starring Miss Marple, the amateur sleuth who lives in a small village in the UK and uses her observations of the people she knows in St Mary Mead to solve crimes. The first thirteen short stories were published in book form in The Thirteen Problems in 1932 (aka The Tuesday Club Murders). The others were published in three other collections of Christie's stories, mixed in with stories about other sleuths. I reviewed some stories from this collection in June, in September, and this month.

End of Year notes

I read 90 books in 2023. The longest book I read was 823 pages:  Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. The average number of pages for the books I read was 295. 

Of the 90 books I read, 60 books were from my TBR pile (purchased prior to 2023), which surpassed my goal of 48 books. I will continue to aim at 48 books from my TBR in 2024. 

I read more espionage books in 2023. Of the 65 mysteries I read, ten were espionage novels. One of my nonfiction books was about espionage in World War II, Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre. Espionage fiction is my go to comfort reading. That may sound strange because so often those books are fast-paced thrillers. I do love those too, but several espionage books I read this year were slow-paced thoughtful books.

I was surprised that I read 12 nonfiction books. Several were books about books, one was graphic nonfiction, and two were biographies of the Mitford sisters. 

The photos at the top and bottom of this post were taken at the Alice Keck Park Memorial Garden, a small park in Santa Barbara. One of our favorite places to visit, it is near downtown and covers only one city block, but has lots of paths to walk around on. The large aloe plant with orange flowers at the top was blooming in January 2023, and I have seen many such plants all over the Santa Barbara / Goleta area in December and January.

The photos were taken and processed by my husband. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

Short Story Wednesday – Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories

When I first got this book, I was surprised to learn that Agatha Christie had written only 20 short stories featuring Miss Marple. The first thirteen short stories were published in book form in The Thirteen Problems in 1932 (aka The Tuesday Club Murders). The others were published in three other collections of Christie's stories, mixed in with stories from other sleuths. 

I started reading the stories in this book in June 2023. (There were two previous posts in June and in September where I reviewed a few of the stories.) I just finished all the stories in the book with the very last story on December 30, 2023. 

"Sanctuary"

Bunch Harmon, the vicar's wife, discovers a man's body in the church when she brings in flowers for the alter. The man is not dead but he is bleeding; she goes to get the doctor, and the police are called in. After the man dies, of a gunshot wound, his sister and her husband come to talk to Bunch. She gives them his belongings, including a coat that he was wearing. The police say that the man killed himself, but Bunch is not satisfied that everything has been resolved. Shortly after that she goes to visit Miss Marple, her godmother, who is staying at her nephew Raymond's flat in London. Between the two of them, the puzzle of the man's death is solved.

This was one of my favorite stories in the book. There are some interesting notes on this story at the Agatha Christie website.

Short Story Wednesday: More Miss Marple Stories

Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories is comprised of 20 short stories. The first thirteen short stories were published in book form in The Thirteen Problems in 1932 (aka The Tuesday Club Murders). The others were published in three other collections of Christie's stories, mixed in with stories from other sleuths. 

Description from the back cover of my paperback edition:

This collection gathers together every short story featuring one of Agatha Christie’s most famous creations: Miss Marple. Described by her friend Dolly Bantry as “the typical old maid of fiction,” Miss Marple has lived almost her entire life in the sleepy hamlet of St. Mary Mead. Yet, by observing village life she has gained an unparalleled insight into human nature—and used it to devastating effect. As her friend Sir Henry Clithering, the ex-Commissioner of Scotland Yard, has been heard to say: “She’s just the finest detective God ever made”—and many Agatha Christie fans would agree.

In June of this year I read four short stories from Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (reviewed here). I thought I would finish reading the other 16 stories during the summer months, but alas, that did not happen. 

Miss Marple's unusual gift that aids her sleuthing is that she remembers people she had known, mostly from St. Mary's Mead where she lives, and compares their behavior and foibles to the people in the case at hand. She is an elderly sleuth and has had many years and many experiences to draw from.

This week I read four more stories from the book. Here are my thoughts on those stories:

"Motive v. Opportunity"

This was the fifth story from The Thirteen Problems. The premise of the stories in this collection is that a group of people meet to discuss unsolved mysteries. Initially they plan to meet every Tuesday, so they call themselves the Tuesday Night Club. 

This puzzling case was brought to the group by Mr. Petherick, the lawyer. An American medium has charmed an older man, Simon Clode, and taken over his home. Previously Mr. Clode had planned to divide his estate between his two nieces and a nephew, but in the end changes his mind. Yet then the new will is replaced by a blank  sheet of paper. Very strange, complicated, but still fun to read.

"The Thumb Mark of St Peter"

Another story from The Thirteen Problems. Miss Marple tells this story to Raymond West, her nephew, and Joyce. Miss Marple's niece's husband died, and everyone where she lived thought the niece had murdered him. There is no evidence one way or the other but she is shunned by all her neighbors. Another very complicated one, but I was glad that Miss Marple cleared her niece of any suspicion.

"Miss Marple Tells a Story"

The next story I read was from a different collection, The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories. In this story, Miss Marple is telling her nephew Raymond and Joan about a case she solved in the past. Mr. Petherick, the lawyer, brought the problem to Miss Marple, hoping she can clear his client of murder; he is suspected of killing his wife. As usual, the client doubts Miss Marple's abilities, but she proves her worth and clears him. A very clever story.

"Strange Jest"

This story is from Three Blind Mice and Other Stories. Janet Heilen, a beautiful actress who knows Miss Marple and believes in her crime solving skills, invites her to a party so she can help her friends solve a mystery. Charmian and Edward have inherited their great-great-uncle's estate, but they cannot find the money that he was hinting about having hidden away somewhere. Miss Marple saves the day.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Wifedom to Hebrides

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is Wifedom by Anna Funder. This book was just published recently in the US. It is about Eileen O’Shaughnessy's marriage to George Orwell and the subtitle is "Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life". I have not read this book but I think it would be an interesting read.

My first link is The Autopsy of a Boring Wife by Marie-Renée Lavoie (translation from French to English by Arielle Aaronson). The story is about a woman whose marriage of 25 years falls apart after her husband announces he is leaving her for a younger woman. The author is Canadian and the story is set in Quebec. I haven't read this yet but I have a copy and plan to read it in the next year.

For the second link I will continue with another novel about the failure of a marriage, Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott. This book was published anonymously in 1929. The setting is New York City during the Jazz Age, and it explores the social mores of the time. My husband commented that the plot line sounded like the 1930 film The Divorcee, and indeed, that movie was based on Ex-Wife, although the story in the film is simplified and tamer. This is another book that I have not read but plan to read.

My third link is a novel I have read, and fairly recently, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Published in 1925 and set in 1922, it is also about the Jazz Age. A lot of the story takes place on Long Island, in the mansions of the rich.

My fourth link is to another book I read set on Long Island, Death Likes it Hot by Gore Vidal. Published in 1954, this is one of three mysteries Vidal wrote under the name Edgar Box. Amateur sleuth Peter Cutler Sargeant II has his own public relations agency in New York City. In this book he has been invited to spend a weekend in the Hamptons by a society woman who wants to discuss a possible job.

I am continuing with another island setting for book #5, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, published in 1939. This is one of Christie's standalone mysteries. Eight guests are invited to a mansion on an isolated island off the coast of England. As they journey to their destination, they muse about the letters they received and their expectations for their visit to the island. When they arrive on the island, the only two people at the house are Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, the butler and the cook. They have been notified that Mr. Owen, the owner, will be arriving later. They soon realize that they have been tricked and the owner will not be showing up.

Staying with the island theme, the last book in my chain is Hebrides by Peter May. My husband is reading that book right now.  Peter May discusses the geological history of the Outer Hebrides, the history of the people on those islands, and his own personal history with the islands. Initially he came to the Outer Hebrides to work on a TV drama. Later he came back to the islands to use the area as locations for his trilogy: The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man and The Chessmen. The photographs that illustrate the book were taken by David Wilson.

My Six Degrees took me from wives and ex-wives to islands in the US and the UK. Have you read any of these books? 

If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

The next Six Degrees will be on October 7th, 2023, and the starting book will be I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.