Throwback Friday #56
The Body in the Library
The Body in the Library
Miss Marple, Book #3
Mystery
Kindle Edition
February 1942
ebook
224
Colonel Bantry has found the strangled body of an exotic blonde bombshell lying on his library hearth - and the neighbors are beginning to talk! When Miss Marple takes an interest, though, things begin to move along nicely, and its all far more convoluted - and sordid - than the genteel Bantrys could have imagined.
A curmudgeonly financier, his self-absorbed adult children, a couple of pragmatic and clever hotel workers, tons of money and influence, a wild local lad, some smitten girls, the film business, mix into a classic Christie plot filled with twists, turns, and double-backs galore. Plus the glorious settings of A Great House, a fancy Hotel, and an excessively genteel little village, and let's not forget Miss Marple...
About the book
This is a fairly old book, I read it for the Popsugar challenge “a book set in a bookstore or library” and therefore I had no expectations. I’ve never read anything about Agatha Christie and I do not think I will read anything else about the author. I found this story a bit too simple.
I have a question: isn’t the series titled Miss Marple? Because I met her only twice and I’m on page 47…. I thought she was going to be more present… Maybe in the other books she is more present but not in this one and I’m sad about it.
The book is nice, obviously being a dated book is not one of those complicated that exist now and that obviously I like more, but the reading was pleasant, simple even if as I said I hoped for more Miss Marple. All right, she solves the case, but being the protagonist (more or less) I would have liked more presence. It was a little obvious who the killer was, reading the mysteries written nowadays, solving the case before the protagonist of an “ancient” book is common I think, but I did not see the small final twist.
The title, among other things, especially the English one (The Body in the Library) reminds me of an episode of the Bones TV series…
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
This is a meme held on Kathryn’s blog Book Date! Click the image to go to the website. But what is this about? Each Monday you have to post what you’ve read, books you’ve reading and books you will finish at some point in the future.
So here my list:
Book Blogger Hop #20
Click the image above to know what this is about! It’s fun!
This week question:
You have just won a $100.00 Visa gift card. Will you spend the entire amount on a rare collector’s edition you have always wanted, or buy several newly-published books? Explain your choice. (submitted by Maria @ A Night’s Dream of Books)
My answer:
Neither. I don’t care about editions, as long as a series is composted by the same edition. And I don’t care about the date a book was published. I look at the cost and whether I want to read that book or not. The cheaper the books are, the more I can buy.
Throwback Friday #55
Those Who Follow
Wienerbrorskapet
Fredrik Beier, Book #1
Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Aschehoug
January 15th, 2015
Hardcover
445
What starts off as a simple case of a missing person soon turns into a hunt for a brutal killer in a drama involving the members of a doomsday cult and monstrous experiments in racial purity dating all the way back to World War II. However, the tie to the past is yet to be uncovered when Superintendent Fredrik Beier is called to the scene of a mass murder in the outskirts of Oslo. The victims belonged to the isolationist doomsday cult "the Light of God". Initially, everything seems to point to a religious vendetta, but Fredrik and his new partner Kafa Iqbal are sceptical and soon another line of inquiry emerges. Fredrik suddenly finds himself in the middle of a murder case, hunting not only for a faceless killer, but also for answers as to what lies hidden in the sect leaders' mysterious pasts.
About the book
A Norwegian Christian sect is brutally attacked on their farm. A lot of the members are slaughtered, while others disappear. The police find a chemical laboratory when they arrive on the scene. Everything points to an Islamic group, but policemen Kafa Iqbal and Fredrik Beier discover that there is a bigger conspiracy, composed by a group of scientists who met in the 30s in Vienna.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
This is a meme held on Kathryn’s blog Book Date! Click the image to go to the website. But what is this about? Each Monday you have to post what you’ve read, books you’ve reading and books you will finish at some point in the future.
So here my list:
Book Blogger Hop #19
Click the image above to know what this is about! It’s fun!
This week question:
What author have you read the most in the past two years? (submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews)
My answer:
Linda Castillo’s Kate Burkholder series, 7 books.
Throwback Friday #54
Isle of the Dead
Isle of the Dead
Isle of the Dead, Book #1
Crime, Historic Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Quercus
January 1st, 2013
Paperback
528
In 15th century Venice it is a dangerous time to be alive. A permanent winter has rolled in over the canals and bodies keep washing up on the banks of the city. These bodies are especially hard to identify, since they have been skinned.
In the present day, a famous portrait by Titian has been discovered. Its subject: the 15th century suspected murderer Angelico Vespucci. The skins of Vespucci's victims were never found, so his guilt was never proven. Although it is rumoured that when the portrait arises, so will the man. And when flayed bodies start turning up all over the world, it looks like this is more than just a superstition. A murderer has been called back to life, and he is hungry for revenge.
About the book
I read this book for the Popsugar challenge of “Your favorite prompt from the 2015, 2016, or 2017 Popsugar Reading Challenges”, I chose “a book of a female author”. At first I was convinced to read this book for the prompt “book with a heist”, but I remembered the title uncorrectly, even if there is a robbery in the book, but it is a very small fact compared to the actual robbery. Luckily it’s okay for another prompt (not that I wouldn’t read an extra book).
Of the author I read “The Caravaggio Conspiracy” before this and I really liked it. Sometimes (not always) I like intrigues born in the past and then brought into the present. This book starts in 1500 in Venice and ranges from London, Tokyo, New York and Venice itself.
When Gaspare Reni, an art collector, and Nino Bergstrom, his adopted son, come in possession of a Titian painting portraying the sixteenth-century murderer, Angelico Vespucci, they are alarmed by what might happen. There is a rumor that when the painting emerges, the sixteenth-century killer will also return, and in fact, shortly afterwards the one who found the painting is brutally murdered. Will Nino and Gaspare manage to get to the bottom of the painting legend, or will it be too late for the victims?