Tag: Harper Collins

Agatha Christie – Dumb Witness | Review

Title: Dumb Witness

Author: Agatha Christie

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 416

Rating 3.75/5

 

 

This was a pretty fun little Agatha Christie mystery, although I will also admit that my attention started to wander in a few places and so by the time that I got to the end, I’d lost all of the different threads and couldn’t really make a guess at what had happened. But with Christie, that’s almost not the point for me anyway – the journey is just as much fun as discovering the destination.

In this one, an old lady has a fall down some stairs, changes her will as she’s recovering and then dies soon afterwards. Of course, Hercule Poirot happens to be on hand and ends up poking his beaky little nose into things, and even though the doctor swears blindly that she died of liver disease, Poirot thinks otherwise. Of course, there’s always a chance that the doctor’s involved, too…

This book has everything that I’ve grown to know and love about Agatha Christie, and I really don’t think I can fault it other than the fact that it’s missing that vital little spark that turns an Agatha Christie novel into an Agatha Christie classic. It’s not too far off the mark though, and I also think it’s pretty accessible and not a bad place to start if you’re new to Hercule Poirot.

 

 

Of course, I’m not such a fan of Hercule Poirot as opposed to Miss Marple, and I’ve always found him a little annoying to read about. Here, though, he was bearable, and even though this copy of the book was over 400 pages long, it only took me a couple of days to whizz through it. It probably helped that I had a beautiful Harper Collins edition of it too.

There’s not too much more that I can say about this one, because it’s pretty bog standard for Christie and just what I’ve come to expect from her in the first place. It’s the kind of book where if you see it in a charity shop and you can pick it up cheap, I say go for it. It’s not a bad little introduction to Christie and her style, and it would work just as well as a standalone as any of her other novels.

All in all then, a pretty successful read and just what the doctor ordered. I like to read Christie books as palette cleansers. Hurray!

 

British writer of crime and detective fiction, Dame Agatha Christie (1891 – 1976). (Photo by Walter Bird/Getty Images)

 

Click here to buy Dumb Witness.


Antonio Manzini – A Cold Death | Review

Title: A Cold Death

Author: Antonio Manzini

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 308

Rating: 7/10

 

Antonio Manzani - A Cold Death

Antonio Manzani – A Cold Death

 

Disclaimer: While I aim to be unbiased, I received a copy of this for free to review.

I get to quote the blurb in its entirety for this book, because it’s short, simple and to the point: “Small town. Big secrets. Rough justice.” It’s pretty accurate.

This book is billed as an international bestseller and features Rocco Schiavone as he investigates what seems like a suicide at first but which rapidly turns into a murder. There are plenty of twists and turns along the way, as you’d expect from a crime novel, and Antony Shugaar – the book’s translator – has done a pretty good job of things.

That said, I get sent a lot of contemporary crime novels, usually from mainstream publishers (this one’s from 4th Estate, which appears to be one of Harper Collins’ imprints), and so I’m used to a high standard. This book was good, but it wasn’t great – that’s why I gave it a 7/10. It was professional quality, but nothing more.

 

Antonio Manzini

Antonio Manzini

 

The main criticism that I have for this book is the way that the police chief smokes weed throughout the book. It’s not necessarily that he does it, because I can imagine that a fair few policemen like to kick back after a busy shift with a cheeky smoke. It’s the fact that he’s the boss, and he smokes it while on duty, in his office at the station. His colleagues are aware of it, and they even directly refer to it whilst having meetings about the case, and it just broke my suspended disbelief. I just don’t think that would happen – no-one is that stupid, and if you get caught then that’d be an automatic suspension.

Other than that though, pretty good.

 

Antonio Manzini

Antonio Manzini

 

Click here to buy A Cold Death.