Agatha Christie Book Reading Challenge

BOOK 32 :- JULY 2021

3.25 STARS agatha-christie mystery-thriller-horror138 s Anne4,201 69.9k

The Seven Dials.
An international secret society of super-villains?
Perhaps.
And it looks it will be up to Lady Eileen (aka Bundle) to step in and figure out just what the hell is going on after a houseguest is found dead in her family home.
Again.
Much to her father's dismay.



Remember good old Bundle from The Secret of Chimneys?
No? I do, but I think that's because I only recently finished the book.
Well, I d her a lot in that one, so it was nice to see her pop up and star in a story of her own.
Superintendent Battle is another of my favorites, and I loved the role he played in this story from start to finish.



This one is a murder mystery with a hint of spy thriller in it. That kind of gave this a bit of a different/cool vibe. I really d that Bundle was ready to go, willing to act, and not afraid to think outside the box people tried to stuff her in.
I don't want to say anything that could spoil the story, but I thought the reveal had that special touch of classic Agatha to it.



This was yet another of her books that I'd not heard of prior to actively seeking out everything that she's written.
If you're looking for something new, The Seven Dials Mystery might turn out to be one of the hidden gems in Christie's library for you.
Recommended.agatha-christie audio crime ...more95 s carol.1,623 8,784

Seven Dials is Christie's subversion of the 1920s style thriller, only with a plucky female heroine and a subtle commentary on English society. A manor murder, a secret society, a slummy club in the East End, and international espionage that make it seem artificially complicated, but it was enjoyable enough, with a few chuckles and a sweet little romantic angle to neatly round it out.

A group of young people gather at the English estate the Chimneys, rented out to steel magnate Sir Oswald and his wife, Lady Coote. One of the young men visiting has a propensity for coming late to breakfast, so the group forms a plan to plant eight alarm clocks in his room to wake him with a violent noise. Coincidentally, he never wakes again. Lord Caterham owns the manor, and his daughter, Lady Eileen Brent, "known to her friends and society in general as "Bundle," becomes involved when she realizes she knows several of the people involved. Besides, it'll be smashing good fun, right? Her father's an old dear straight out of Wodehouse--he might have been Bertie in 50 years. "They needn't die in my house,' said Lord Caterham... 'Naturally I expect Brents to die here--they don't count. But I do object to strangers. And I especially object to inquests.'"

Initially, Bundle is just satisfying her curiosity about poor dead Gerry as she pokes around the house. She finds part of a letter she feels she should deliver to his surviving sister. As she's taking the car out for a quick errand, she runs into a man in the road. Not long after, she joins forces with one of the men in the house party who works for the government, and then the sister of the murdered lad. Investigation takes them from the countryside to a seamy club to a political house-party. If you forget the murder, it's charming fun.

Therein lies my greatest problem with the story: tone. Murder mystery? Light-hearted romp through the English countryside? Mock-up of English society? Daring espionage thriller? It just doesn't quite work. A forward discusses Christie's similarity with Wodehouse, and while I can understand, part of Wodehouse's charm is the sheer daffiness of the capers, and the utter inconsequence of any of the events. However, with one murder down and state secrets at stake, her social commentary doesn't jibe as well as it could with the plot.

Characters, however stereotypical, are drawn with depth. Christie could be master of the subtle, and one of my favorite characters by far was Lady Coote who kept her aggressive husband firmly in check through seemingly daffy actions and her ability to cheat at bridge. Oh, and perhaps "the girl called Socks. Subtle was a word of which she was rather fond. She used it a great deal." Her lines were great fun as well, especially when she forces the use of subtle in a most unsubtle way:
"'We don't want a subtle clock,' said Socks. 'We want one with a good loud ring.'"

Overall, enjoyable without being gripping or especially memorable. One of Christie's more light-hearted stories.


*Note--read and owned as part of Murder At The Manor: An Agatha Christie Lost Classics Omnibusmystery thriller85 s Beverly882 337

A topnotch whodunnit and a bit of a thriller and comic novel too, The Seven Dials Mystery is a stand alone by Agatha Christie written in 1929. It has a marvelous cast of characters with my favorite being Bundles. She is the heroine and she's not one to stand around and let others do the sleuthing, Bundles had guts and smarts and is a tough cookie. I couldn't figure it out, but enjoyed the ride tremendously.73 s Veronique1,282 215

As much as I love Poirot and Marple, it is refreshing to read stories without them. Somehow I feel Christie is "freer" in these. The Secret of Chimneys is one of my favourites and it was with pleasure that I followed Bundle's adventures once more. She is a brilliant character, and her conversations with her father, Lord Caterham, are hilarious! Actually, most of the dialogues are highly entertaining. A lot of "I say!" and such. There is a very Wodehouse-esque feel to many of the scenes. Even with these, Christie still succeeds in delivering an entertaining mystery/thriller :O)20thc favourites read2016 ...more41 s Simona B908 3,071

Not as intriguing as I thought it would be, but the surprising ending almost makes up for how uninteresting all the rest was.1900-1949 in-italian mystery-and-crime41 s Julie2,091 36

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and found it most entertaining. The writing is quite delightful and the pace of action and interaction constant, as there is always someone coming or going or an event happening. I enjoyed reading these descriptions of the characters involved:

“One of those large men,” said Lord Caterham, shuddering slightly, “with a red square face and iron-grey hair. Powerful, you know. What they call a forceful personality. The kind of man you’d get if a steam-roller were turned into a human being.”

“Bill is rather nice […] just a large, clumsy dog that wags its tail when it’s pleased to see you.”

“He was thin and weedy in appearance and looked anaemic and delicate.”

“This man sucks in soup and eats peas with a knife.”

“It struck her now, as so often before, how remarkably little camouflage there was about him. He was large and solid and noticeable. He was, somehow, very English.”

“Lady Caterham was a large woman – large in every way. Her proportions were majestic, rather than ample.”

There is a wonderful, dark, or subtle humor also. Here are some examples:

““I hope we shan’t go and shoot the wrong person,” said Bill with some anxiety. “That would be unfortunate,” said Mr. Thesiger gravely.”

One person announces to another, “By the way […] the fellow died in your room,” and then, follows up with, “Inconsiderate. Everybody’s damned inconsiderate nowadays.”

“Very spirited the young people of the upper classes nowadays, very spirited indeed, but not at all easy to understand. He turned with relief to attend to the vicar’s wife, who wanted a new kind of dripless teapot.”

A daughter states to her father, “You’re going to lose me.” His response is, “Don’t tell me that you’re suffering from galloping consumption or a weak heart or anything that, because I simply don’t believe it.” When he learns that his daughter is not dying, she is getting married, he further responds, “Very nearly as bad,” and adds, “I suppose I shall have to come to the wedding, all dressed up in tight, uncomfortable clothes, and give you away.”

Finally, a few examples of delightful phrases that I found pleasing:

“Most vexatious”
“Occasionally, she interpolated a comment of her own.”
“thrilled to the marrow.”
“He twinkled a little.”
“what awfully jolly flowers”
“those mauve thingummybobs”mystery37 s karen3,994 171k

Jimmy ThesigerThis entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full reviewmy-brains-junk-food37 s Katie LumsdenAuthor 2 books3,211

A great fun Christie mystery.35 s Rodrigo1,221 635

Me ha gustado más que el 1º que leí de Battle, ha estado más entretenido.
El final como siempre, increíble, me ha dejado totalmente descolocado y evidentemente he fallado estrepitosamente en acertar el culpable. Ha sido un giro de 180 grados.
Valoración: 6.75/10 casi le doy la 4 estrella...
Sinopsis: Siete esferas relacionadas con siete relojes constituyen la llave de esta misteriosa aventura que envuelve una extravagante organización secreta y pone en escena a tres deliciosos personajes de Agatha Christie:
El experto superintendente Battle de Scotland Yard, el simpático Lord Caterham, dueño del célebre palacio de Chimneys, y su encantadora y valiente hija Eileen. Juntos, tendrán que enfrentar uno de los más hábiles y crueles asesinos de que se tuviera noticias, creado por la imaginación inagotable de la “vieja dama” británica.kindle-bq misterio-y-suspense27 s Ginia194 41

I've decided that you cannot go wrong with Agatha Christie. Her books are character driven and sometimes I get confused about who's who, but she never fails to keep me reading on. This was a test in who-dun-it skills which I need to master. I thought that the Superintendent/police chief was the bad guy. I got it all wrong. The story is wrapped up in tons of funny, aristocratic dialogue. And then all of a sudden Christie adds a couple of sentences this:

There is no need to describe in detail the conversation of the next ten minutes. It consisted mostly of repetitions.

Classic! It's funny because before you get to this sentence there seems to be ten minutes of a gushy love scene full of repetitions.

On the whole, a good historic/espionage/who-dun-it. I'm a huge fan. Now onto the next one. Crooked House or Ordeal By Innocence?


classic favorites fiction ...more28 s Bill1,721 90

I enjoyed this Agatha Christie mystery very much. It had quite a different feel to it from the Miss Marple and Poirot mysteries. Dare I say, it was almost an adult Nancy Drew (ish) style mystery; mainly due to the fact that the protagonists were young people, rather than the more mature sleuths that Christie peopled her stories with. You find wealthy, carefree, Lady Eileen (aka Bundle) Brent and Jimmy Thesiger and their acquaintances trying to solve the murders of two of their friends. What it the Seven Dials group? Who are the mysterious members? I thought it was a pretty standard thriller/ mystery, but in the last section, there were many twists and turns and any guesses I had about the culprit and the mysterious group were turned on their heads. Excellent story.mystery-british suspense28 s Janete on hiatus due health issues754 414

I gave up at Page 199.dnf24 s Repellent Boy518 556

Pues me he encontrado una novela bastante diferente en la obra de Christie, al menos en comparación con las que ya he leído. Las historias de la autora siempre tienen un esquema similar, un grupo de personas, normalmente en un mismo recinto, son investigados sobre la muerte de uno de ellos.

En este caso, El misterio de las siete esferas se aleja bastante de este tipo teatral de búsqueda del asesino. Nos vamos a encontarar con la típica novela negra de gánsters y criminales, robos de objetos importantes, traiciones y amores.

No era consciente de que Agatha tuviera este tipo de historias dentro de su extensa obra y la verdad es que ha sido un grato descubrimiento. La investigación es llevada a cabo, en gran medida, por una joven mujer, cosa bastante atípica en el género, donde la mujer suele estar reservada para el papel de la femme fatale.

El final me dejó, una vez más, totalmente desconcertado. No me lo esperaba para nada. Espero encontrar en el futuro más libros de este tipo entre sus novelas. Christie es una reina y siempre lo será <3.1920-1929 europa lecturas-2019 ...more22 s Lata4,002 222

Secret societies, espionage, suspicious deaths, dark deeds in libraries.... This Christie has a number of fun elements, however, I never really got a good sense of what the plot was. I kept smirking at the antics of the upper-class twits and their blundering around country homes*, attempting to figure out who the Seven Dials society was.

* Lady Ellen had her moments (though I wanted to shake her for her initial insistence on a servant as criminal, because, of course, someone amongst her class could NEVER be bad, now could they?) I couldn't understand her eventual acquiescence to one of the twits' proposal; the basis for her decision felt weak. auth-f classic mystery ...more21 s Kaya Dimitrova329 72

????? ?????? ?? ??????? ?? ?? ? ???????????? ? ???? ????? ?? ????? ??????????. ??????? ?? ??????? ?? ?? ?? ????? ?? ?????? ?? ?????????? ?????, ????? ??? ????, ???? ?????????? ?????????????, ???????????, ???????? ? ?????????, ?? ?? ?? ????? ?? ????? ? ????? ???? ???? ????????.classic-literature read-in-201721 s Anoushka8 65

This book was astounding. It starts by describing Mr Wade, a respectable man who appears to sleep through earthquakes. Four children decide to buy eight alarm clocks, which start ringing immediately after each other. Surely no one can sleep through that! But when Wade is late to breakfast again,it’s up to the butler to wake him up. What happens next is the classic agatha Christie style.

Later, upon investigation the police realise that there were only seven alarum clocks present, but the kids are sure that there were eight. After some time,the police discover a letter addressed from seven dials.
SEVEN DIALS??THERE WERE SEVEN DIALS PRESENT ON HIS DEATHBED.

Bundle takes it upon herself to solve this enthralling mystery.


Warning spoilers in the next paragraph!


*I can’t believe that I used to think that seven dials was evil. Now when I think back I realise that apart from the detectives words, there was no proof at all that seveb dials was evil. JIMMY!*

Ps I’m sorry about the stupid review. Hey, it’s my first time after all.This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review19 s Lou238 131

My parents bought this for me on Christmas, but I was too interested in Poirot's adventures to care about any other book Christie had written.
Well, this is sort of an apology.
I literally cannot believe how Agatha Christie can write so many characters you feel for and care about - and a twisty plot that literally had me gasp when it was revealed. I will say that the plot was kinda slow paced, and the story d r a g g e d a bit in the middle - but the twist made up for that! I'm gonna have to read it again and spot things I didn't before!!

Also Bundle and Bill's relationship is so cute - omigoodnessomigoodnessomigoodness
i can't. i cannot even even #whenyoureunabletoeven4-stars adult books-i-love-or-used-to-love ...more19 s Eleni Ouzouni (Life is Art)280 146

? 3.5 ?

??????? ??? ?????? -- ??? ??? ?????????? ????????? ???. ???? ??? ?? ??????? ??? ??? ??????? ?????????? ??? ??? ?????? ? Agatha Christie
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