The famous Orient Express! As always, Christie has a gimmick and follows it to the end, but this time she adds several good ideas on the side! I particularly liked the Cyrillic writing on the handkerchief that threw everybody off and yet was perfectly visible to the reader.

This was one of the few Miss Marple mysteries that I remembered for years. It didn't vanish into the blur of "eh, somebody died and Miss Marple solved it". Partially because I found it genuinely creepy, and partially because it's an unusual setup: New homeowners feel creeped out, and particularly Gwenda feels bad vibes, is scared of the dark, remembers doors where none are etc. Good setup, and a neat solution.

Truly fun book with low re-read value, because you'll remember the gimmick. Christie does that a lot: she picks one thing, and then she runs with it until the very end. Some books are good because the thing is good (like this one), and some are disappointing because the thing is disappointing. Oh, and then there are some books that don't have a thing.

After reading the first Poirot the other day, I thought I'd continue with the last one. Agatha Christie takes Poirot full circle, with the last novel playing in the same place as the first one, with plenty of reminiscing going on.

This collection of short Miss Marple stories was enjoyable. While Agatha Christie mostly follows her pattern of "the most vulnerable-looking person is most suspicious", I don't read mysteries for the plot, so I didn't care all that much. But the characterisation of poor old Miss Marple was very entertaining to read! I remember how this narration device got boring and even annoying when I read most of the Miss Marple books in one go, but over longer intervals, it works very well.

I'm not really one for mysteries, and I enjoyed this book more than I expected. This is the first of the Poirot books, and it is already a near-perfect example of its genre. It opens by describing, at length, the initial setting, implying heavily who will die, and shows off how everybody has means and/or motive to become a murderer, all the while being very proper and British about it. Then, the murder, then, the curious Belgian detective, then, an unbelievable amount of clues and red herrings. Final clarity to be delivered on the last pages in a dramatic manner, exit villain left, curtains.

Generic Miss Marple mystery – can't really remember anything about it except for the beginning. The beginning was a lot of fun, but it continued as a run-of-the-mill mystery.

This is where it begins: The tons of Miss Marple book start here, introducing the gentle but sharp old lady who can solve every crime by reducing it to some small village squabble. I generally enjoy the Miss Marple mysteries more than the Poirot ones, mostly because Hastings is so incredibly obnoxious. But both series have in common that the bulk of the mysteries are not particularly noteworthy and I often can't remember any details.

There's no way I can think of this book without seeing and hearing the movie. The book veered a bit too far into the "here, have some train schedules" direction – I'm not much of a mystery reader, the details bore me and I never try to puzzle them out on my own. For good reason: Miss Marple books often work with hazy clues and psychology magic.

One of the generic Miss Marple mysteries, but a rather good one. I liked the premise – and there's not much more to like. It's one of those books where the author had one good idea (see title), and then follows through. Christie does that very well, and that is that.

Another Poirot mystery. I liked how self-aware Christie is in this book – Poirot routinely mocks (gently, even!) mystery stereotypes in hilarious ways. Hastings as a narrator continues to be stupid in an intentionally pompous, upper-class way, which is tedious if you read too much of it. The case in itself is not terrible, but nothing great either.

The setup for this is so generic that even the book (and literally every other mystery author at the time) had to make jokes about it. That's … about all I remember, to be quite honest. Most Miss Marple mysteries are somewhat of a blur to me.