"Trust me for a while."

What an opening line!

I started this last night to bleach away the ending of The Man in the Brown Suit. It's been sitting on my kindle for ages and I am very excited to finally read this book. 

One thing I have noticed before dropping off to sleep last night is that I cannot read this without hearing Hopkins' voice in my head. 

That is not a bad thing at all.

Also, I need to find the film again.

I just made it through the "romance" part.

As we are closing in on the Yellow Game and all elements have been identified, I claim two more cards:

# 1 - COD: Beaten in a Dark Alley:

I am using The Murder of Roger Ackroyd to collect this card. It was written in 1926 and satisfies the "written or set between 1925 and 1975" task.

# 2 - Crime Scene: Green Dragon Pub:

The task I'm choosing to complete with Unterleuten is a book with "green in the text". 

Two of the people who moved to the village of Unterleuten, Gerhard and Jule (both referred to as "the bird conservationists" by the other villagers) chose their new home because they fell in love with the house that was made of red bricks and green window shutters.

"Mit Jule war er sich schnell einig gewesen. Auch ihr hatte der einstöckige Ziegelbau mit grünen Fensterläden und großem Dach sofort gefallen."

‘You’re to have No. 28 on the port side,’ said the steward. ‘A very good cabin, sir.’

‘I am afraid that I must insist. No. 17 was the cabin promised to me.’

We had come to an impasse. Each one of us was determined not to give way. Strictly speaking, I, at any rate, might have retired from the contest and eased matters by offering to accept Cabin 28. So long as I did not have 13 it was immaterial to me what other cabin I had. But my blood was up. I had not the least intention of being the first to give way.

And I disliked Chichester. He had false teeth that clicked when he ate. Many men have been hated for less.

I'm really enjoying this one. Anne Beddingfeld seems like a heroine that I wish Christie had written another story for. 

I only hope that she doesn't do anything completely daft by the end of the book that would spoil my current image of her.

I reviewed this way back before I ever assigned anything star ratings, but judging by my review I probably would have given it 3 or maybe 3.5 stars. Now, though, I'm leaning towards 4.5, even with the occasionally stiff writing/translation. I loved Balsa, the found family aspect, and the way the ending depended on deciphering old stories and traditions (and the future depends upon keeping them alive).

I think this might be the last card that Tannat and I needed for the Red Group game, but I'm not entirely sure.