Magpie Murders

Recently when my friend gave me all these Agatha Christie’s books, he also gave me a book called Magpie Murders which was recommended by his sister. I have heard of it but wasn’t aware of the storyline and such. When I had finished Christie’s books, I started on this one. It took me a week to complete this but it kept me hooked the whole time. It is a very cleverly written book that has a story inside a story and is cleverly woven. It has so many viewpoints, not in terms of characters, but who the characters are. You see a story as an editor, as an author, as a reader, as a critic etc. It also satisfies readers who love to solve puzzles because that is what this is all about. I am trying to say so much without saying too much about the story because it will spoil the book for everyone. If you love mysteries, thrillers, well-written fiction, then this is a must-read. And to my surprise, I found out that there is a TV series that is being filmed which is premiering tomorrow. Yay!!! Can’t wait for it now that I have read the book. I don’t usually give 5 stars to books that aren’t from my favourite authors ( I am biased that way) but this one did.

Book updates

Our school started last week and the chaos has begun 🙂 Apart from computer science, I teach a little bit of maths this year but only for a small group. Have to see how that goes. I broke two brollies (umbrellas) yesterday. How did that happen? I have no clue. Mine was a souvenir from Singapore, so I removed the cloth and have saved it. I was trying to fold Mr M’s and ended up breaking that one too. I shouldn’t have tried that before I have had my coffee, you see. I should have followed the rules of procaffeination.

I realized that I haven’t told you about some of the books I read over the break (am yet to read one non-fiction, which was my goal for this year). So here they are.

a) Animal Farm – George Orwell – Mr M bought this book some time ago and kept it on my to-read list once he finished it. It took me more than 3-4 months to pick it up. I finished reading it in 2 days during my trip to Carmarthen. It is surprising how that story can be applied to any timeframe of humankind. Mind blowing isn’t it? Is there any point to even talk about it when everyone knows how great that story is? 5/5

b) The Woman on the Orient Express – Lindsay Jayne Ashford – A very interesting premise. A fictional story (with some true events woven in) about the woman who wrote the famous “The Murder on the Orient Express”, Agatha Christie. How her life adventures led her to write those amazing stories with Mr Poirot. A very interesting take and done well. The author also gives us the list of true events which she picked up from Agatha Christies biography. I enjoyed it a lot. 4/5

c) The Good Widow – Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke – A Kindle Unlimited book which starts all nice and sad about two people who are grieving for their spouses who were found dead in Maui whilst having an affair there. Slowly and steadily they retrace their steps to try to find out what made them cheat and why. I was totally into it until the very end. That final surprise came out of nowhere and kept me awake during the school night last week to complete the book. 4/5

d) Strike (TV Series) – I had read all the Strike series books but have forgotten the stories over time. We weren’t sure of how this was going to be and given that it is only a three series adaptation. Of course, the whole story is condensed and even though Tom Burke didn’t match the Strike of my imagination, he was OK. It was short and was done OK. Felt a bit rushed though. The personal touch to the involved characters was missing for some reason. Would give a 3/5 for sure.

 

 

Waiting for a clue.

Ever since I got my Netflix Account, I have been having a blast, irrespective of the fact that work is pulling me down. I love watching mysteries. So I started with Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (Season 1 & 2) and now I am onto The Bletchley Circle. When you are not able to solve a particular problem (mine … related to work) it is so satisfying when someone else solve a problem, especially related to a murder (much more important I should say) and be successful at it too.

Miss Fisher is sassy, jazzy and fun in her methods. I enjoyed watching each and every episode in that series. I think there are one or two more seasons. Have to get around to that sometime. The jazz songs were a bonus.

And The Bletchley Circle is getting interesting just now. They talk about pattern recognition, analysis of data etc etc…something that I can relate to at times. But I am glad that at least they are able to figure out something to work on. I am stuck on this work issue for the past couple of days. Urggh! I even went for an hour long walk to clear up my mind….Hope I see the light of this problem in a day.