Tag: Mount TBR 2020

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

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The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
,

, Book # 4
William Morrow Paperbacks
1926
Paperback
286
English
December 7, 2020 December 11, 2020

Voted by the British Crime Writers’ Association as the "Best Crime Novel of all Time"

Hercule Poirot comes out of retirement in one of Agatha Christie’s ten favorite novels, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He suspected also that someone had been blackmailing her. Then, tragically, came the news that she had taken her own life with an apparent drug overdose.

However the evening post brought Roger one last fatal scrap of information, but before he could finish reading the letter, he was stabbed to death. Luckily one of Roger’s friends and the newest resident to retire to this normally quiet village takes over—none other than Monsieur Hercule Poirot.

About the book

First book I read dedicated to Poirot in which there is no Hastings :( . The narrator is a country doctor (from a village called King’s Abbot) who is first called to the scene of an apparent suicide and then, a few days later , gets a rather strange phona call. This doctor, Sheppard has a peculiar neighbour and a very gossipy sister who believes the neighbour is a retired hairdresser. In reality it is Poirot who has retired to the country after a lifetime of investigating.

Poirot is called into question when the richest man in the country (Roger Ackroyd) is murdered after reading a letter about a blackmail against a woman known to him and who committed suicide a few days earlier. In addition, the doctor. right before discovering the body, receives a phone call announcing the death of Ackroyd.

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The Hound of the Baskervilles

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The Hound of the Baskervilles

, Book # 5
Signet
August 1901
Paperback
256
English
November 25, 2020 December 27, 2020

We owe The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) to Arthur Conan Doyle's good friend Fletcher "Bobbles" Robinson, who took him to visit some scary English moors and prehistoric ruins, and told him marvelous local legends about escaped prisoners and a 17th-century aristocrat who fell afoul of the family dog. Doyle transmogrified the legend: generations ago, a hound of hell tore out the throat of devilish Hugo Baskerville on the moonlit moor. Poor, accursed Baskerville Hall now has another mysterious death: that of Sir Charles Baskerville. Could the culprit somehow be mixed up with secretive servant Barrymore, history-obsessed Dr. Frankland, butterfly-chasing Stapleton, or Selden, the Notting Hill murderer at large? Someone's been signaling with candles from the mansion's windows. Nor can supernatural forces be ruled out. Can Dr. Watson--left alone by Sherlock Holmes to sleuth in fear for much of the novel--save the next Baskerville, Sir Henry, from the hound's fangs?

About the book

The Hound of the Baskervilles is perhaps Doyle’s most famous book. And I have to say that it is the one that I liked most. We finally get to know Mortimer and I must advise against reading the books in the order that Goodreads says to read them. Read the anthologies of short stories after the novels. Unfortunately in the anthologies there are references to Mortimer that come out of nowhere and therefore the story is not known. Indeed, it is not known even now after reading a novel with him as the protagonist (or almost).

Be that as it may, the book is about an old legend or curse that all Baskervilles are forced to endure. But Sherlock doesn’t believe in curses and therefore tries to find out what’s behind this rumour.

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Silent Child

Laura4 Comments on Silent Child
Silent Child
,

, Book # 1
Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
January 22nd 2017
eBook
413
English
July 2, 2020 August 7, 2020

In the summer of 2006, Emma Price watched helplessly as her six-year-old son's red coat was fished out of the River Ouse. It was the tragic story of the year - a little boy, Aiden, wandered away from school during a terrible flood, fell into the river, and drowned.

His body was never recovered.

Ten years later, Emma has finally rediscovered the joy in life. She's married, pregnant, and in control again...

... until Aiden returns.

Too traumatized to speak, he raises endless questions and answers none. Only his body tells the story of his decade-long disappearance. The historic broken bones and injuries cast a mere glimpse into the horrors Aiden has experienced. Aiden never drowned. Aiden was taken.

As Emma attempts to reconnect with her now teenage son, she must unmask the monster who took him away from her. But who, in their tiny village, could be capable of such a crime?

It's Aiden who has the answers, but he cannot tell the unspeakable.

This dark and disturbing psychological novel will appeal to fans of The Widow and The Butterfly Garden.

About the book

Silent Child is about a 6-year-old boy who is kidnapped and who after 10 years is suddenly found wandering through the woods of the village where he was born. The story is more about the mother and what she feels about having the first child at home with her after so long and the relationship with her husband, who she married a few years after the disappearance of her son. Not much is known about what happened to the child in these 10 years, there are only stories here and there and only at the end we discover what really happened that day.

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The Murder on the Links

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The Murder on the Links


, Book # 2
HarperCollins Publishers
May 1923
Paperback
320
English
July 8, 2020 July 14, 2020

Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is summoned to France after receiving a distressing letter with a urgent cry for help. Upon his arrival in Merlinville-sur-Mer, the investigator finds the man who penned the letter, the South American millionaire Monsieur Renauld, stabbed to death and his body flung into a freshly dug open grave on the golf course adjoining the property. Meanwhile the millionaire's wife is found bound and gagged in her room. Apparently, it seems that Renauld and his wife were victims of a failed break-in, resulting in Renauld's kidnapping and death.

There's no lack of suspects: his wife, whose dagger served as the weapon; his embittered son, who would have killed for independence; and his mistress, who refused to be ignored - and each felt deserving of the dead man's fortune. The police think they've found the cumprit. But Poirot has his doubts. Why is the dead man wearing an overcoat that is too big for him? And who was the impassioned love-letter in the pocket for? Before Poirot can answer these questions, the case is turned upside down by the discovery of a second, identically murdered corpse...

About the book

Second book in the series dedicated to Poirot. Since I am borrowing these books (virtual, no paper for now) from my library, I have to read them as soon as they are available.

Here the crime is committed in France and Poirot is contacted directly by the victim. The man is killed with a stab in the back, but who is the killer among the many characters in the story?

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The Return of Sherlock Holmes

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The Return of Sherlock Holmes
,

, Book # 5
Wisehouse Classics
1904
eBook
396
English
June 22, 2020 June 27, 2020

The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of 13 Sherlock Holmes stories, originally published in 1903-1904, by Arthur Conan Doyle. The stories were published in the Strand Magazine in Great Britain, and Collier's in the United States.

The book was first published in February 1905 by McClure, Phillips & Co. (New York) then on March 7, 1905 by Georges Newnes, Ltd. (London) and was the first Holmes collection since 1893, when Holmes had "died" in "The Final Problem". Having published The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1901–1902 (setting it before Holmes' death) Doyle came under intense pressure to revive his famous character.

The first story is set in 1894 and has Holmes returning in London and explaining the period from 1891–94, a period called “The Great Hiatus” by Sherlockian enthusiasts. Also of note is Watson's statement in the last story of the cycle that Holmes has retired, and forbids him to publish any more stories.

About the book

Another collection of stories dedicated to Sherlock Holmes always narrated by the faithful Watson. For this book, too, I will not summarise all the stories and also the review is not long as I still don’t like collections of stories. But to read the whole series you have to read them right?

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