I am a HUGE fan of Agatha Christie.

So it's no wonder I "devour" her books whenever I can get hold of one. That's me- I like taking my time reading classics and other books, but when it comes to mystery books, I am very impatient to get to the conclusion when the killer is unmasked. Sleep is usually the only thing that forces me to put a book away for the night.

And since Christie is the QUEEN of mystery writing, (don't judge me!) I read two of her stories in four days. It's like my new addiction... BUT I'm still working on my writing sample, so it's not all leisure reading!


The first is Agatha Christie's A Caribbean Mystery. I think I've read too many of her books, because I identified her "writing pattern" and successfully guessed who the murderer was before the end!

Pretty proud of myself because I've NEVER been able to do this.

Anyway, the book is a Miss Marple novel. (Miss Marple is one of two Christie's famous detective characters.) A colonel asks if Miss Marple would like to see a photograph of a murderer. Yet, just as he's about to show her, he seizes up and shoves the picture away. He is found murdered the next day.

Who and why...

Rating: 7/10- Liked it a lot, but not enough to want to read it again. The other murder suspects were involved in too many "scandals"/ sub-plots, and this made it a bit too distracting (but I guess that's the whole point right?).

The other novel, After the Funeral, featured my favorite detective character, Hercule Poirot. Love his idiosyncrasies!

This time, I was not able to guess the killer at all. In fact, I was nowhere close.

After the funeral of a rich tycoon, his family gathers to hear the reading of his will. His youngest sister un-tactfully blurts out, "He was murdered, wasn't he?" The next day, she is discovered dead, with a hatchet to her head. Her family does not really feel sorry and have no wish to investigate further. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the family solicitor already called in Hercule Poirot.

Hint: DO NOT let the cover fool you

Rating: 7.5/10- Hercule Poirot shines (as usual) but not his finest case. The plot twist at the end was brilliant but also a bit... "pulling the wool over my eyes."