My last post
about cozy mysteries was an ode to books written by – and often featuring –
women. But not all women mystery writers pen cozies. And even that queen of
crime, Agatha Christie, often like to try their hand at other genres of the
puzzling type. With that in mind, as I refresh my acquaintance with Christie’s
oeuvre, I dug into some of her lesser-known works, as well as found traces of
her influence even on writers of other schools.
I’d read
some of Canadian author Louise Penny’s enjoyable mysteries without immediately
connecting them to Christie. But when I found Penny’s double-village style book,
Bury Your Dead, with its modern take on a locked room murder, I could
resist pairing reviews of both women’s works, starting with:
***
A tale of
two villages, or the body in the library (basement)
Review of: Bury
Your Dead
Author:
Louise Penny
Publisher:
Minotaur Books
Rating: 4
stars
All Chief
Inspector Armand Gamache wants in Louise Penny’s 2010 Bury Your Dead is
a place to heal physically and emotionally from an operation gone terribly
wrong. And where could anyone expect to find more peace and quiet than in an
obscure historical library within the walls of the old city of Quebec? Except
that this library’s basement holds a murdered body whose discovery threatens to
ignite a new round of antagonism between the city’s English-speaking minority
and its francophone separatist elements. To top off Gamache’s troubles,
harassing letters from Penny’s fictional village of Three Pines lead Gamache to
reinvestigate a murder once believed to be closed.
Not content
with three mysteries – Gamache continually replays the disastrous operation in
his head – Penny adds a fourth: the mystery of the lost burial place of
Canadian founding father, Samuel de Champlain, whose quest apparently lured the
library victim to his doom.
Although it
would be out of place to peg Penny as a writer of cozy mysteries – most of her
books are, to some extent, police procedurals of the Quebec provincial law
enforcement agency, the Sûreté du Québec, where Gamache heads the homicide
division.
 |
| Image: Tom Staziker from Pixabay |
Despite the
mayhem, Penny’s depictions of both the fictional setting and the village-like
insularity of Quebec’s old city, will make readers long to go there. Or as least
to Quebec, whose descriptions at the height of the winter carnival season are
as enticingly lovely as a life-sized snow globe.
Penny’s ability to juggle all these elements is breathtaking. Until the balls start to fall, in endings whose twists some readers will relish and others – not so much. But read on, not forgetting the thrilling action scene near the novel’s end. Pull on your snow boots, marvel at the history, and snuggle in for a diverting read. Wine optional!
***
And just to
show that Agatha Christie’s interest in mayhem wasn’t always satisfied with the
productions of “the little grey cells,” here’s a selection of her tales of the
paranormal as:
Queen of
crime, empress of eeriness
Review of: The
Last Séance: Tales of the Supernatural
Author:
Agatha Christie
Publisher:
William Morrow
Rating: 4
stars
The quality
of the 20 short stories in this volume is considerably mixed, not surprisingly,
considering they were published over a period of more than 40 years. But when
they’re good, they’re very good. The title story, “The Last Séance,” is the
collection’s gem, in spite of, or perhaps because of its telegraphed ending,
which will have readers, like watchers of a horror flick, shouting to the
characters, “Don’t go there!”
The volume
is also notable for the breadth of range. Conventional ghosts are few, but
Christie’s writing ranges over mediumistic methodology, prognostication,
reincarnation, and religious cults and fanaticism – as in the earliest, 1922’s
“The Wife of the Kenite,” billed as a story never before published in the
United States, but whose obscure biblical references may puzzle modern readers.
Her star
detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, even take a few turns. Some
tales yield their secrets to investigative skills, others remain “Twilight
Zone” bafflers, including one of the last – and best – “The Dressmaker’s Doll.”
Christie would employ supernatural aspects in a number of her novels as well as her series of short stories featuring the mysterious Mr. Harley Quin, whose exploits I was surprised not to find in The Last Séance volume. Still, its eerie tales are enough to give readers a Halloween shiver.
