Tag: Second World War

Agatha Christie – N Or M? | Review

Title: N Or M?

Author: Agatha Christie

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 304

Rating 3.25/5

 

 

This book is one of Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence books, and while I’m a reasonably big fan of those books compared to the average Agatha Christie reader, I couldn’t help feeling just a little bit disappointed by this one. I think that’s because it had so much promise, dealing as it did with espionage during the Second World War. In particular, it dealt with the idea of The Fifth Column, German agents who were living in the UK in a sort of Trojan Horse type situation.

And the story itself was interesting enough, neither better than nor worse than the majority of the plots that I’ve seen from Christie and pretty unique because of the fact that it’s more of an espionage thriller than it is a cozy mystery, although the reality is that it has elements of both. I think that’s what made it worth reading for me, although the story itself was just fine and it was of course very well written, being a Christie book.

Other than that, I’m not sure what else there is that I can say about this one, because even just a couple of hours after finishing it, not much of it remains with me. The only thing that I will say is that I quite often find that Christie’s books either have excellent characters or an excellent setting, but rarely both. In this one, it’s mostly the characters that stand out, and indeed there were points at which I sort of zoned out of what was happening and couldn’t remember whereabouts we actually were.

Overall, it’s a decent enough little book and pretty typical for Agatha Christie. And that’s one more ticked off.

 

 

Click here to buy N Or M?.


Agatha Christie – Come, Tell Me How You Live | Review

Title: Come, Tell Me How You Live

Author: Agatha Christie

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 192

Rating: 4/5

This book was heavy going just because of the way in which it was written and the complexity of the subject matter, but it was also a lot of fun. In it, Christie writes about her experiences going on archaeological digs with her husband Max Mallowan before the outbreak of the Second World War, which makes this an interesting mix of memoir, travel writing and historical non-fiction.

Having already read An Autobiography by Agatha Christie, I have to say that this feels more like a missing chunk of the autobiography than a standalone memoir in its own right. Still, I was fascinated by what Christie had to share here, and while there was a little bit of a colonialist attitude from time to time, it didn’t ruin the thing.

For me, there’s a lot to love here, but I can also see why this wouldn’t be the perfect book for everyone. You’ll need to have at least a passing interest in archaeology, though.

Click here to buy Come, Tell Me How You Live.