Vassals of Kingsgrave

Bina007 discusses the Agatha Christie crime caper Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, published in one of the most prolific years, 1934. Despite containing a Wodehousian-named character called Bassington-Ffrench, the novel is pleasingly free of Woosterish-pastiche. Rather, it’s a well-plotted murder mystery and a wry, progressive commentary on the British class system. It also contains yet another wonderful female protagonist, Lady Frankie Derwent. A spoiler-filled discussion of the solution is after the closing music.

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Bina007 reviews Agatha Christie’s Lord Edgware Dies aka Thirteen To Dinner, originally published in 1933. A famous actress turned aristocrat is the prime suspect when her hated husband is stabbed, allowing her to marry yet higher in society. However, she has a perfect alibi having been at a dinner party at the time. Poirot investigates! A spoiler-filled discussion of the solution is after the closing music.

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Bina007 reviews Agatha Christie’s homage to The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Sittaford Mystery, originally published as The Murder At Hazelmoor in 1931. Snowbound moors, a seance, and a tolling prison bell signal murder, and Agatha Christie conjures up another courageous smart young woman to investigate. There’s no Marple or Poirot but plenty of gothic atmosphere. A spoiler-filled discussion of the solution is after the closing music.

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In this spoiler-free episode Bina007 reviews the first Mrs Marple novel, Murder At The Vicarage, originally published in 1930. This is the novel people think Christie always writes! A pretty English village and the narrator is a clergyman and the victim is a retired military man. But the novel is actually spikier, nastier and more subversive than the chocolate-box cosy image. A spoiler-filled discussion of the solution is after the closing music.

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