Finished 4-22-11, rating 4.5/5, mystery, 224 pages, pub. 1920

Emily Inglethorp– wealthy mistress of Styles.  Murdered in front of her family.

Mr. Inglethorp– Gold digger and hated and suspected by all.

John Cavendish– Oldest member of the family and in need of money.

Mary Cavendish– Wife of John who is carrying on with another man.

Lawrence Cavendish– Younger brother without charm or influence.

Cynthia– Lives at the house at the invitation of the family.

Miss Howard– Companion to Mrs. Inglethorp.

Dr. Bauerstein– A little too familiar with certain memebers of the family.

Captain Hastings has been sent home to recover from sickness on the field of WWI, but has nowhere to go when he runs into his old friend, John Cavendish who invites him to stay at the family estate of Styles in Essex.  While there Hastings sees his old friend and ex-Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, who is also familiar with the family.  When Emily is murdered in locked room (and yes, also in front of her family), Hastings and Poirot are on the case and find no shortage of suspects.

So, I’ve never read an Agatha Christie novel (but I did listen to one on a car trip last year).  Yes, I know, why then sign up for a challenge to read ALL of her over 80 novels?  I have no good reason except that I kept reading Margot’s posts for the challenge, I like mysteries and I wanted to do it.  The challenge is to read them in order, so I started with this, her first, and confess that it was better than I thought it would be.  I was really impressed by how easy  and entertaining this book was.  Captain Hastings and Hercule Poirot are both characters I look forward to seeing again in later books and am going to see if I can track down the movie for this one.  I loved the mystery and did not figure it out until I was told by Hercule.  Hopefully, I’ll get more adept at recognizing the clues as I continue.

I am happy I signed up for this challenge and recommend this book to all mystery lovers.  It does not feel as though it was written in 1920 and I think you’ll be impressed at Christie’s debut novel.

Fun Agatha Christie fact – Agatha Christie is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the World’s Bestselling Author. Her books have sold over 2 billion copies in 44 languages.

I checked this book out of the library.

Finished 4-17-11, rating 4.5/5, fiction, 371 pages, pub. 2011

Book 10 of the Myron Bolitar series.

“I’m not going to rehash my mistakes right now.  That’s not the point anyway.  We were good parents, I guess.  Most are.  Most are trying their best and if they make mistakes, it’s from trying too hard.  But the truth is, we parents are at the most, say, auto mechanics.  We can tune up the car and make sure it has the proper fluids.  We can keep it running, check the oil, make sure it is road ready.  But the car is still the car.  When the car comes in, it’s already a Jaguar or Toyota or Prius.  You can’t turn a Toyota into a Jaguar.”

(Myron’s dad)  Chapter 8

Myron started his business, MB Reps, working as a sports agent after a knee injury ended his NBA career before it began.  He is an agent with a heart and his business has expanded to represent all types of jocks and artists.  When one of his first clients comes to him for help, he doesn’t hesitate to do what he can.  And when he does what he can he gets caught up in a mess that has serious repercussions for everyone he loves.

Myron’s best friend, Win, is there to back him up with his influence and muscle even when he knows Myron is making a mistake.  His Dad tells him to step away, but Myron can’t, not when his estranged brother’s wife shows up hooked on heroin and he sees his 15-year-old nephew for the first time.  Now all Myron needs to do is figure out why his brother’s wife is harassing his client.  There are rock stars, mob bosses, and drug dealing teachers all in the way of Myron and his quest to save his client and maybe even his brother.

Myron is a smart ass, but one with a certain humanity and goodness and I am always rooting for him and his even bigger smart ass friend, Win, to save the day.  And they usually do, but this time they do not come away unscathed.  I love this series but by the end of this one I was sad.  Not because I didn’t want it to end (although there was that), but because the series felt like it was winding itself down and now I wonder if we’ll see Myron and gang in the same way again.  I don’t think I’m spoiling anything here by saying that Myron’s nephew, and by association Myron, will be the focus of Coben young adult book due out in the fall.   I hope Myron will be back front and center someday.  That being said, if you have not read any of the other Myron books, this is not the place to start and I think you will be missing very important background info.

Coben is the king of pop culture references.   If you haven’t read him yet, you are missing out on a witty and current author.

This book is from my personal library.