Haha, yes! She was my grandmother's favorite author, but I've only read a few of her titles. But it's such sweet comfort every time! I'd love recommendations for other authors of a similar style too!
Josephine Tey! She also has quite a following here. I've loved two of the books I've read by her, and liked the third. The two I loved were Brat Farrar and The Franchise Affair, and the one I liked was The Singing Sands. She has a short list of works b/c she died young, but she's beloved nonetheless.
I (belatedly) second the Tey recommendation -- and I also think you'd enjoy Dorothy L. Sayers (if you haven't already read anything by her anyway). Book #1 of her Lord Peter Wimsey novels ("Whose Body?") is a bit of an oddity, but as from book #2 ("Clouds of Witness") onwards, she's in great form and hardly ever lets up again.
Ditto, Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver series. Miss Silver has a few superficial similarities with Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, in that she is an elderly lady (and former governess) who solves crimes, always with her knitting needles at the ready, but unlike Miss Marple she is actually a professional detective -- office, files, and all. Also unlike Miss Marple (who has a great fan in the former Scotland Yard chief Sir Henry Clithering, as well as in one London police inspector named Craddock, but is loathed as a meddlesome interloper by St. Mary Mead / Milchester county police, chiefly, one Inspector Slack), Miss Silver is held in high respect by the policemen whose paths she crosses regularly; particularly, a Scotland Yard detective named Frank Abbot and Randal March, a leading officer (later Chief Constable) of the more rural Ledbury, who is actually one of her former pupils from her governess days. -- Again, it's probably best not to start at the very beginning (books ##1-5 -- "Grey Mask", "The Case Is Closed", "Lonesome Road", "In the Balance", and "The Chinese Shawl"), but of the books I've read beginning with book #6 ("The Clock Strikes Twelve": actually, one of my absolute favorites so far), there hasn't been a weak one yet. -- The resident Miss Silver expert is Tigus (http://tigus.booklikes.com/); I'm pretty sure he'll be happy to answer any questions, elaborate on the above, and / or convert yet another BL member into a Miss Silver reader ... he's been quite successful with Moonlight Reader and me!
Let me add to the chorus of recs for Tey and Sayers. :D
Also, if you come across him, I'd recommend J. Jefferson Farjeon also - but not his "Ben the Tramp" series. His stories are a bit darker, but so well done.
I'm very glad you enjoyed it so much. Have you read much Christie? I'm thinking of reading another one of her novels soon. I've only read And Then There Were None. What would people recommend I go for next? Thanks.
"Murder on the Orient Express" or "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" -- IMHO Christie's best novels, bar none (I actually even prefer both of them to "And Then There Were None", though that one is sitting very close to the top as well).
Yes, Roger Ackroyd! That was one of the first I read, and it blew me away. I definitely need to read more Christie. I've stuck to Poirot so far, but want to check out Miss Marple and other characters.
For Miss Marple, start with "Murder at the Vicarage" -- not only / or not necessarily because it's the first in the series, but because it, and Miss Marple's creation, was actually inspired by Caroline Shepard from "Roger Ackroyd" ... Christiei wanted to write more about a character like her.
^^^ What TA said. Tho, I'd recommend Murder at the Vicarage over Roger Ackroyd ... even tho the twist in Roger Ackroyd was a game changer for the genre.
Orient Express is my favourite, tho.
And I'd like to add Five Little Pigs to the list. It's further along in the Poirot series but the structure of the mystery and the story is just brilliant.
But then, Dame Agatha wrote a lot of brilliant books.
Orient Express is another favorite. I re-read it this past summer, because I had half-watched the latest movie adaptation (during a train journey, no less), and was less than impressed with the film (because Branagh is not Suchet, what can I say). So I felt the need to do a "detox" by reading it again. :D
For an even more thorough detox (in case it's needed -- or, what the heck, just because) I heartily recommend the audio of "Murder on the Orient Express" performed by ... (drumroll) .. David Suchet! He's clearly having a ball with that particular cast of characters -- and to anyone who ever may have doubted that he could do Lady Bracknell (in Wilde's "Importance of Being Earnest", on stage, a few seasons ago) I'll just say, listen to him doing Mrs. Hubbard in "Orient Express"! Case closed. (Not to mention, of course, that this is Poirot doing Poirot as he should be done.)
ETA: And I also second the "Five Little Pigs" recommendation.
I totally second TA's comment on Suchet's narration of the audiobook - It is FABULOUS!
I finished my annual re-read of the book last weekend listening to the Suchet narration and his Mrs Hubbard's "My daughter says..." still cracks me up.
I still have that bouncing around in my mental echo chamber, too ... once you've heard it (multiple times within a very short space of time, at that), it's impossible to unhear.
I'm going to suggest a Crooked House buddy read, since it's a stand-alone, is one of her cleverest, and would be fun to revisit as a group. I've been meaning to do a reread in any case. Plus, there's a decent adaptation to watch after we read - it hews closely to the book, unlike that abominable adaptation of Ordeal by Innocence. Is anyone else up - maybe in April? Fellow Agathytes, what say you?
Ditto, Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver series. Miss Silver has a few superficial similarities with Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, in that she is an elderly lady (and former governess) who solves crimes, always with her knitting needles at the ready, but unlike Miss Marple she is actually a professional detective -- office, files, and all. Also unlike Miss Marple (who has a great fan in the former Scotland Yard chief Sir Henry Clithering, as well as in one London police inspector named Craddock, but is loathed as a meddlesome interloper by St. Mary Mead / Milchester county police, chiefly, one Inspector Slack), Miss Silver is held in high respect by the policemen whose paths she crosses regularly; particularly, a Scotland Yard detective named Frank Abbot and Randal March, a leading officer (later Chief Constable) of the more rural Ledbury, who is actually one of her former pupils from her governess days. -- Again, it's probably best not to start at the very beginning (books ##1-5 -- "Grey Mask", "The Case Is Closed", "Lonesome Road", "In the Balance", and "The Chinese Shawl"), but of the books I've read beginning with book #6 ("The Clock Strikes Twelve": actually, one of my absolute favorites so far), there hasn't been a weak one yet. -- The resident Miss Silver expert is Tigus (http://tigus.booklikes.com/); I'm pretty sure he'll be happy to answer any questions, elaborate on the above, and / or convert yet another BL member into a Miss Silver reader ... he's been quite successful with Moonlight Reader and me!
Also, if you come across him, I'd recommend J. Jefferson Farjeon also - but not his "Ben the Tramp" series. His stories are a bit darker, but so well done.
Orient Express is my favourite, tho.
And I'd like to add Five Little Pigs to the list. It's further along in the Poirot series but the structure of the mystery and the story is just brilliant.
But then, Dame Agatha wrote a lot of brilliant books.
Have fun fellow Agathytes! :)
ETA: And I also second the "Five Little Pigs" recommendation.
I'm so glad I was not the only one who needed to "detox" after watching that ... that ... disaster of an adaptation.
I'm sorry to say, tho, that that adaptation was still marginally better than the latest ABC Murders one.
I finished my annual re-read of the book last weekend listening to the Suchet narration and his Mrs Hubbard's "My daughter says..." still cracks me up.