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"Emily Barton, I think, has a mental picture of men as interminably consuming whiskeys and sodas and smoking cigars, and in the intervals dropping out to do a few seductions of village maidens, or to conduct a liaison with a married woman."
~~~Page 82, The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie
Title: The Moving Finger
Author: Agatha Christie
ISBN: 0440158613
Publisher: Dell/1982
Pages: 189
Narrated by Jerry Burton, The Moving Finger is based in Lymstock, which is a typical idyllic English town. Everything seems to be in a slow pace here. But the tranquility ends when someone with a poison starts to write letters to its inhabitants, shredding their reputation. Everyone seems to dread the mailbox. One day the shock and scandal is so much that the receiver supposedly commits suicide. Some think there is truth in that letter and a few others have their misgivings.
Then another dead body is found and it is a murder. The police have to uncover the truth. Jerry Burton has had a nasty accident while flying and has arrived in Lymstock with his sister Joanna Burton, to recover. Joanna to receives one of the poisoned letters. Jerry knows he has to do something. And Miss Jane Marple comes to his aid in the last quarter of the novel.
The good doctor, Owen Griffith and his sister Aimee, the lawyer Symmington, and other characters including he childish Megan make it an entertaining reading. The novel moves slow for a mystery but it holds the interest of the reader. The ending was surprising. Agatha Christie novels never ever failed. Lovers of cozy mystery, can read it safely!
"So far I'd been excoriated for being a slut and pitied for being a dumpee who was all but stalking a former lover. If I didn't have such a positive self-image, I might have let those two calls discourage me."
~Page 139;
Title: Dead Head
Author: Rosemary Harris
ISBN: 9780312569945
Publisher: Minotaur Books/2010
Pages: 245
Paula Holliday, a gardening specialist in Springfield, Connecticut. But she has also earned some fame as an amateur sleuth. It is discovered that, Caroline Sturgis, a client/friend and a very cool mom, is a fugitive from law. She is really Monica Jane Weithorn, who escaped from the prison, twenty years ago, where she had been jailed for drug charges. The tabloids in Springfield are having a field day, trashing Caroline.
Paula has been thinking of going into business with Caroline when she is arrested. Caroline's husband, Grant wants Paula to find the person, who told on Caroline/Monica. Paula is not so keen. But she finds about a stranger who had been to the Springfield a short while ago and must have recognized Caroline. Paula is determined to find out all about that stranger and how he knows Caroline.
And more she gets into it, more it gets murkier. And Sgt. Mike O'Malley, a Springfield cop does not like Paula to be all over the place. However, he is always there when she is in trouble. Now who is the victim? Caroline? Or the person who told on her? Or someone else? With the help of Lucy, her friend, Paula gets to the bottom, even though she too is attacked.
With tongue in cheek humour, a heroine who is not afraid of anything, her friends, Babe (of Paradise Diner) and Lucy, this is another engaging red from Rosemary Harris. I look forward to read all the books involving Paula Holliday., Dirty Business, both literally and figuratively.
She leaned in. "How many men do you know who can move their fingers and push in and out at the same time?"
~Page 201
Title: Pushing Up Daisies
Author: Rosemary Harris
ISBN: 9780312943721
Publisher: St. Martins/2008
Pages: 288
Paula Holliday, a television executive in New York City quits her job and moves to Springfield, CT. She wants to turn her interest in gardening to a career. She gets her chance in the restoration of the gardens of a property left to the Historical society, by Dorothy Peacock. She knows it will either make her or break her.
While digging, she discovers a body of a baby, which seems to be very old. The local authorities, thinking it would bring bad name to the Peacock sisters, drop the case. But Paula can't. She finds too many loose ends to rest.
Then one her helpers is arrested for attempted murder of a old lecher. She knows Hugo is innocent although the local police does not believe her. She has a friend in an aging rocker, babe who owns the greasy diner in that place. There is this mysterious Mexican labourer and more secrets tumble out. The list of suspects include the local congressman, and his gin drinking mother. With more interesting characters thrown in, Paula has a field day unearthing all the town's deeply buried secrets. In the way, she makes a few enemies too. She also solves a 50 year old case.
With varied mix of characters, a good town setting, long buried secrets and of course a past and a recent murder, this cozy mystery is also filled with wit. It has gardening tips too.
The author was kind enough to give me two of her books, that too, when she was in Delhi and had them sent to me.
