Oh I had such
ambitions for the 1944 Club but as the saying goes, the best laid plans of mice
and men… I hope I do get to Dolphin
Street by Elizabeth Goudge one of these days and I have The Dangling Man
by Saul Bellow gathering dust here on my shelf. What I did manage to read was Towards
Zero by the inimitable Agatha Christie.
I love Agatha
Christie. All of her mysteries are fairly short and a total breeze to read. I always
desperately want to know who did the crime and I almost never guess right.
The book starts off
rather slowly and confusedly, starting first with a semi-retired octogenarian solicitor
named Mr. Treves ruminating on the many threads that lead up towards a murder,
‘“All the converging towards a given spot…And
then when the time comes – over the top! Zero Hour. Yes all of them converging towards zero…” He repeated: “Towards
Zero..” Then he gave a a quick little shudder.’
Then the scene moves
to a man who made failed suicide attempt now convalescing in hospital and then
to Superintendent Battle (one of Christies lesser known and lesser used
detectives) solving a boarding school theft involving his teenage daughter by
using psychology. The reader may wonder what is going on. Where are the dead
bodies?
But then the story
starts to move in to classic Christie mystery mode as a summer house party at Gull’s Point, home of widowed Lady Tressilian, starts to form. For the cast of characters there are living at
Gull’s Point Lady Tressilian, bedridden
but still formidable (and rich), and her companion, Mary Aldin who may not be
as willing to give up her best years to playing nursemaid to an old woman as
she seems. Coming for a fortnight’s
visit is Lady Tressilian’s former ward and heir, Neville Strange and his new,
rather vulgar (and much younger) wife, Kay, Neville’s ex-wife, the long
suffering Audrey and Thomas Royde who grew up with Audrey and has been carrying
a torch for her for decades. Finally, turning up like a bad penny is lothario Ted
Latimer who has the hots for Kay.
What could possibly go
wrong?
Christie does a good job keeping the tension high
and when the murder does happen, I was surprised at who was killed because it
really could have been any of them; everyone’s tempers were quite frayed by
that point.
The resolution of the mystery and romantic pairings
are perhaps a little too convenient but honestly I don’t mind that. I had a lot
of fun being duped by the red herrings and enjoying the upper class scene of
pre-war Britain.
Many thanks to Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings for starting the club. Even though I didn't get to everything I intended this time, it is always good fun thinking about the possible reading choices and checking out what other people read for the prompt!
