Six by Agatha: PBS MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! [ Edited ]

[dulcinea3]

I haven't really gotten further in the list, but I have done a bit of research on what I had so far, and I guess the order you have seems correct.  I thought that The Man in the Brown Suit was written in 1925, but I guess it was 1924, and I must have been wrong about another date, probably Thirteen at Dinner.  Here is the list so far, with the U.K.-only short story collections and Osborne play adaptations removed, and the alternate U.S. titles that I have included (sometimes there were more than one alternate, but these are the titles on the copies that I have - as I said, if you are buying them new, I don't know if you will now be finding them in the U.S. reverting to the original British titles or not).

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The Secret Adversary

Murder on the Links

Poirot Investigates (short stories)

The Man in the Brown Suit

The Secret of Chimneys

The Murder of Roger Akroyd Ackroyd

The Big Four

The Mystery of the Blue Train

Partners in Crime (short stories)

The Seven Dials Mystery

The Murder at the Vicarage

The Mysterious Mr Quin (short stories)

The Sittaford Mystery (U.S. title - Murder at Hazelmoor)

Peril at End House

The Thirteen Problems (short stories) (U.S. title - The Tuesday Club Murders)

Lord Edgware Dies (U.S. title - Thirteen at Dinner)

Murder on the Orient Express (U.S. title - Murder on the Calais Coach)

Why didn't they ask Evans? (U.S. title - The Boomerang Clue)

Parker Pyne Investigates (short stories) (U.S. title - Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective)

Three Act Tragedy (U.S. title - Murder in Three Acts)

Death in the Clouds (U.S. title - Death in the Air)

The ABC Murders

Murder in Mesopotamia

Cards on the Table

Murder in the Mews (four novellas) (U.S. title - Dead Man's Mirror - there are only three novellas in the U.S. version; The Incredible Theft must be in a different collection, but I can't determine which one)

Dumb Witness (U.S. title - Poirot Loses a Client)

Death on the Nile

Appointment with Death

Hercule Poirot's Christmas (U.S. title - A Holiday for Murder)

Murder is Easy (U.S. Title - Easy to Kill)

And Then There Were None

The Regatta Mystery and other stories (short stories) not published in the UK

That should keep you busy for a while!

Message Edited by dulcinea3 on 07-23-2009 04:03 PM

[Ryan_G]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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dulcinea3 wrote:

I haven't really gotten further in the list, but I have done a bit of research on what I had so far, and I guess the order you have seems correct.  I thought that The Man in the Brown Suit was written in 1925, but I guess it was 1924, and I must have been wrong about another date, probably Thirteen at Dinner.  Here is the list so far, with the U.K.-only short story collections and Osborne play adaptations removed, and the alternate U.S. titles that I have included (sometimes there were more than one alternate, but these are the titles on the copies that I have - as I said, if you are buying them new, I don't know if you will now be finding them in the U.S. reverting to the original British titles or not).

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The Secret Adversary

Murder on the Links

Poirot Investigates (short stories)

The Man in the Brown Suit

The Secret of Chimneys

The Murder of Roger Akroyd Ackroyd

The Big Four

The Mystery of the Blue Train

Partners in Crime (short stories)

The Seven Dials Mystery

The Murder at the Vicarage

The Mysterious Mr Quin (short stories)

The Sittaford Mystery (U.S. title - Murder at Hazelmoor)

Peril at End House

The Thirteen Problems (short stories) (U.S. title - The Tuesday Club Murders)

Lord Edgware Dies (U.S. title - Thirteen at Dinner)

Murder on the Orient Express (U.S. title - Murder on the Calais Coach)

Why didn't they ask Evans? (U.S. title - The Boomerang Clue)

Parker Pyne Investigates (short stories) (U.S. title - Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective)

Three Act Tragedy (U.S. title - Murder in Three Acts)

Death in the Clouds (U.S. title - Death in the Air)

The ABC Murders

Murder in Mesopotamia

Cards on the Table

Murder in the Mews (four novellas) (U.S. title - Dead Man's Mirror - there are only three novellas in the U.S. version; The Incredible Theft must be in a different collection, but I can't determine which one)

Dumb Witness (U.S. title - Poirot Loses a Client)

Death on the Nile

Appointment with Death

Hercule Poirot's Christmas (U.S. title - A Holiday for Murder)

Murder is Easy (U.S. Title - Easy to Kill)

And Then There Were None

The Regatta Mystery and other stories (short stories) not published in the UK

That should keep you busy for a while!

Message Edited by dulcinea3 on 07-23-2009 04:03 PM

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[becke_davis]

If Agatha Christie is queen, I think we'll have to dub Dulcinea her handmaiden!

[dulcinea3]

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becke_davis wrote:
If Agatha Christie is queen, I think we'll have to dub Dulcinea her handmaiden!

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I started reading Why Didn't They Ask Evans? last night (although my 95-cent Dell paperback is titled The Boomerang Clue).  I'm about a third of the way through, and really enjoying it and love the two main characters!  Of course, Miss Marple is not in it, as she will be on the next Masterpiece!

[becke_davis]

For some reason, I always think the other title for Why Didn't They Ask Evans? is Murder at Hazelmoor. I think there's an Evans in that book, too, which may be why. My copy is also The Boomerang Clue, although I later added a copy with the title Why Didn't They Ask Evans?, just so I'd have both.

[dulcinea3]

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becke_davis wrote:
For some reason, I always think the other title for Why Didn't They Ask Evans? is Murder at Hazelmoor. I think there's an Evans in that book, too, which may be why. My copy is also The Boomerang Clue, although I later added a copy with the title Why Didn't They Ask Evans?, just so I'd have both.

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Murder at Hazelmoor's original U.K. title was The Sittaford Mystery.  I think that Hazelmoor was actually the first Christie mystery I ever bought!  That's probably why I always remember a key part of the solution!  (Don't worry Ryan, I'm not giving it away!)

Does your edition of The Boomerang Clue have a picture on the cover with the guy's face with the handkerchief over it, a bird, a pair of glasses (maybe pince nez), and I forget what is to the left?  This is one of those covers that I like to look for where these items appear in the story!

Message Edited by dulcinea3 on 07-24-2009 11:33 AM

[becke_davis]

I always thought the twist in Murder at Hazelmoor was one of Christie's inspired efforts. Huh - I always thought The Sittaford Mystery was the British title, but that's the link I'm finding at B&N:

Sittaford Mystery   

This is the cover I have for the Boomerang Clue:

 

[dulcinea3]

How do you embed pictures in your post?  I only know how to do links - this is the cover I have: The Boomerang Clue

Yes, that is correct about The Sittaford Mystery; here is what it says on the page you linked to:

Annotation

The novel was published in 1931 as The Sittaford Mystery in London and as Muder at Hazelmoor in America.

As I said to Ryan, I am not too surprised, now with globalization and people buying things off the Internet, that they would now be just using the original titles, instead of trying to maintain two titles, one for the U.S. and one for the U.K.

[becke_davis]

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dulcinea3 wrote:

How do you embed pictures in your post?  I only know how to do links - this is the cover I have: The Boomerang Clue

Yes, that is correct about The Sittaford Mystery; here is what it says on the page you linked to:

Annotation

The novel was published in 1931 as The Sittaford Mystery in London and as Muder at Hazelmoor in America.

As I said to Ryan, I am not too surprised, now with globalization and people buying things off the Internet, that they would now be just using the original titles, instead of trying to maintain two titles, one for the U.S. and one for the U.K.

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That looked so familiar, I had to check -- and, guess what, I have that one, too. I have duplicates of a bunch of my Christies. I try to weed out those dups, but I hate to get rid of the old ones.

 As to images: right click and "copy image." Then just paste it in. This didn't used to work, but they must have changed something recently, because now it does!  

[georgesmiley]

Many years ago, when the world was young and broadcasters were employed because they had talent, BBC Radio ran a series of Plays at Christmas. I think the title was "Crime at Christmas" or "Murder at Christmas". I drove my then family insane by taping as many as I could, one of these was The Sittaford Mystery" I have saved them all these years and brought them all to the US.  Thankfully the technology now exists to allow me to transfer my aging cassettes to CD or MP3. I am slowly working my way through and enjoying each and every Play once again. The Sittaford Mystery really is a great piece of work both as story and as Radio Drama. I also have the whole series of the Philip Marlowe Dramatisations starring Ed Bishop as an unbelievably good Marlowe the whole cast of Expat Americans living and working in London at that time. No fake accents here, House take note!

[becke_davis]

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georgesmiley wrote:
Many years ago, when the world was young and broadcasters were employed because they had talent, BBC Radio ran a series of Plays at Christmas. I think the title was "Crime at Christmas" or "Murder at Christmas". I drove my then family insane by taping as many as I could, one of these was The Sittaford Mystery" I have saved them all these years and brought them all to the US.  Thankfully the technology now exists to allow me to transfer my aging cassettes to CD or MP3. I am slowly working my way through and enjoying each and every Play once again. The Sittaford Mystery really is a great piece of work both as story and as Radio Drama. I also have the whole series of the Philip Marlowe Dramatisations starring Ed Bishop as an unbelievably good Marlowe the whole cast of Expat Americans living and working in London at that time. No fake accents here, House take note!

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Welcome to the Mystery board! Oh, that brings back memories. I used to listen to Suspense Mystery Theater on the radio when I was a kid, and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. It's funny, because I don't really enjoy audiotapes, but I used to love listening to radio broadcasts of mystery shows.

I would love to hear the shows you describe - they sound wonderful! 

[becke_davis]

“Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?”—Sunday, July 26, 2009 at 9pm 

Don't forget, tonight's the last episode of the new Agatha Christie episodes on PBS MYSTERY! I've enjoyed the Miss Marples, but I LOVED the new Poirots! I hope they will be making more of these soon!

Which was your favorite of the six new episodes? 

[dulcinea3]

There were one or two more Poirot episodes in the series that includes the ones we just saw, so hopefully they are a good candidate for the next Christies we will get!

I would vote for the ones that I thought were most faithful to the originals - Mrs. McGinty's Dead, and A Pocketful of Rye.  I did also like They Do It with Mirrors.  My least favorite was Murder is Easy, because they changed that one out of all recognition and it was really farfetched.  Tonight's remains to be seen - I'm a bit nervous because Miss Marple wasn't in the original, but I really liked the novel.

[becke_davis]

So, what did you think of WHY DIDN'T THEY ASK EVANS? I'm not going to comment yet, except to say it drove me crazy the whole time I was watching it, because I couldn't figure out where I knew the redheaded woman from. I smacked my head on the wall when I looked her up afterwards: Samantha Bond, otherwise known as Miss Moneypenny from several of the James Bond movies (all the Pierce Brosnan Bond movies). She's also been in episodes of Midsomer Murders, Poirot, Inspector Lynley - seems she's been in just about all the British TV series I watch!

[Ryan_G]

Haven't watched it yet.  I have it recording now on the DVR because I keep forgetting that it's on until 8:15/8:30 so I just record it later.  I will probably watch it tomorrow. 

Right now I'm finshing up The Mysterious Affair at Styles for my challenge.

[dulcinea3]

Well, once again they apparently thought that Agatha Christie didn't write very good mysteries and that they could improve on the original plot by twisting it out of all recognition.  But it was nice seeing Richard Briers and Rik Mayall.  I didn't recognize her at first, but at the end I recognized Bobby's mother from her recurring role in Absolutely Fabulous as Catriona.  I was confused, though.  It sounded like it had been Sylvia's idea to fake Jack Savage's will to leave the money to the orphanage?  But I thought that Roger and Moira were the 'bad guys'?  Were they all in it together, even though she didn't know who they really were?  And what was in it (the will faking) for them, if all the money went to charity?  And I was thoroughly confused during most of the show, thinking that Dottie and Tommy were Sylvia's children, and couldn't figure out whether she had been married to Jack, George, or both of them at different times.

[becke_davis]

 **spoilers**

I was  quite happy with the quality of the acting, with the costumes and sets, and even with the way they inserted Miss Marple into a non-Miss Marple story. But the plot contrivances totally lost me, and by the end I didn't have a clue who did what or even why they were doing half of it.

I used to watch Rik Mayall in The Young Ones years ago, and I don't think I would have spotted him at all if I hadn't seen his name in the credits. And Richard Briers was as wonderful as he always is. I first saw him in The Good Life with Felicity Kendall back in the day. It's now available on DVD, but for some reason they've changed the name to Good Neighbors. 

[dulcinea3]

When they were going to show The Good Life in the U.S., there already was or had been a TV show with that name, so they used The Good Neighbors in the U.S.  That's a great show; I have the complete series, although the DVD set is missing the last season, but I already had that on VHS (and it also includes a Royal Command Performance, which is very interesting because you get to see the Queen and her retinue arriving and then meeting the cast afterwards - all full of protocol!).

I have a few of The Young Ones on VHS.  Did you know that Adrian Admondsen (sp.? He plays Vyvian) is married to Jennifer Saunders?  I also enjoyed Rik Mayall as the recurring character Flashheart in the various Black Adder series, and he was a great King Herod in the more recent movie of Jesus Christ, Superstar.  Alexei Sayle used to sometimes be in The Young Ones, and I never could stand him; I think I saw his name in one of the recent Christies, too.

[becke_davis]

Thanks, Dulcinea! I've seen Alexei Sayle in something recently, too -- can't think what it was.

[Ryan_G]

I still havne't watched the movie from last night yet.  My son is back and my grandparents are here so I will probably get to it sometime tonight.

I did just post about my first finished book for my challenge though, if anyone wants to read it please do and feel free to leave your thoughts on what I had to say.

http://wordsmithonia.blogspot.com/