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ProfessorProf posted:All right, let's call this the moment of truth, then. Everyone, go ahead and read to the end! All spoilers above this one can now be unspoilt. I'd like to get in on this too, but I've read (listened to) nearly all the Christie stories. It's really fun watching you guys try to figure it out, but would also be fun to do a book I don't know the end to. So my suggestions for future books are: Murder Is Easy / By The Pricking of My Thumbs (Two of my favourite Christies) Something by Dorothy L Sayers (who I like but haven't read all of) Whatever book we go with I'll definitely be following the thread 
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Jan 22, 2013 10:41
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Ending spoilers:
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 18:58 |
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I don't have a copy of it where I'm currently living and I'd like to use a paper copy if I'm going to be taking over as clue archivist the way you were. I will check the nearest charity shop on my lunch break. Even if they haven't got Murder Is Easy they're bound to have some Agatha Christie I've read so I can pick up another one if that's alright? In short, hold off on buying anything for a few hours until I see what I can get my hands on. EDIT: Managed to pick up Murder Is Easy. Give me a little time after work to choose the best first stopping place and we'll be good to go. Maud Moonshine fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Jan 23, 2013 |
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Jan 23, 2013 10:20
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Not too seem too much like I'm copying ProfessorProf, but I think the end of Chapter Three is a good place to stop. I've give everyone a chance to get hold of the book / do some reading and then post some character lists and possibly clues sometime tomorrow.
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Jan 23, 2013 20:51
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Glad people are enjoying it! I'm always a bit anxious when other people read a book I've proclaimed as a favourite in case they hate it. I was going to do a alleged murders and a character list, but between Zola and Guy A Person, everything I would have posted has been thoroughly covered.
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Jan 24, 2013 20:20
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Guy A. Person posted:So I was going back because I remembered there had been suggestions of other books. Maud Moonshine, are there any books from either of these two writers that you have already read? I want to make sure we can get a book everyone can participate in, since it seems like you and Carbon Thief have both read a lot of Christie. I haven't read anything by Rex Stout, Ngio Marsh, Simon Brett or Freeman Willis Crofts - so that covers everything that's been mentioned, I think. There's also loads of other mystery writers I haven't read / haven't read many of (Ian Rankin, P D James etc). Glad everyone's enjoying the book so far 
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Jan 25, 2013 10:22
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As conversation seems to have died down, I suggest continuing! End of chapter seven seems a likely stopping point. Feel free to go back and remove spoilers for anything from chapters 1 - 3.
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Jan 28, 2013 15:43
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This book seems almost designed to be read in three chapter chunks, so I say we go on to the end of chapter ten.
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Feb 1, 2013 23:18
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Chapter Fourteen gives us another example of Luke summing up his opinion of the case, so I suggest we read to the end of that chapter.
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Feb 5, 2013 21:15
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Pretty sure Tommy had a red cassock, which is an ankle length robe worn by clerics of the Roman Catholic church. I honestly don't know whether a robe could be died by hat pant. Hat paint has kind of died out as a thing so goodness knows. Regardless, Tommy did not have a red hat (as far as we know).
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Feb 6, 2013 22:06
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Time for more chapters. Up to the end of chapter seventeen, if you please.
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Feb 8, 2013 15:56
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He is fun to read about. I particularly enjoy the scene in the Seven Stars where he utterly fails to make conversation in a non-awkward manner.
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Feb 10, 2013 11:27
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Sorry about the delay. Life's been busy. If you read to the end of chapter twenty, that would be lovely. These will be the last chapters before the final reveal so get your final guesses in
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Feb 12, 2013 15:38
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Final answers so far include: Miss Waynflete (with motive ranging from love for Lord Whitfield, resentment of Lord Whitfield and outright madness) Bridget (motive: money) Rose (motive: marriage) Anyone for anyone else? Or for any of those people again.
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Feb 14, 2013 14:17
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Yeah, let's go ahead and finish
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Feb 17, 2013 14:22
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Congrats everyone! I think we can call this one definitely solved. Between you all you hit pretty much every point - including speculating that it was actually Miss Waynflete who wrung her bird's neck. I've enjoyed this immensely, watching you all stumble towards the correct conclusions. I'm sorry you didn't all find the answer that satisfying. I've got a soft spot for Christie stories with atmosphere and the last chapters of this deliver that in spades. I was at home for the weekend and raided my mum's paperback collection for some of my other favourites, so after we've taken care of all these other books people are suggesting I can step in with: By The Pricking Of My Thumbs, Elephants Can Remember, And Then There Were None, Appointment With Death, Five Little Pigs or Three Act Tragedy. I'll get hold of the Ponson Case tonight.
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Feb 18, 2013 09:30
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I've ordered the book off Amazon. Hopefully it should come soon.
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Mar 20, 2013 08:54
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Finally got a chance to catch up. Have to say I'm enjoying the book so far. I love Carole already. I don't trust Jude. I don't know why. I think she's trying too hard. Who beats a carpet in the 1990s/2000s? Also her suggestion that they work together because the police aren't going to do anything wound sound reasonable in a Golden Age detective novel but sounds odd in this context. I could be entirely wrong. I'm probably entirely wrong.
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Mar 25, 2013 15:45
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Okay, there is definitely more to Jude than meets the eye. It seems to early and too obvious for her to be the murderer. My next thought was that she was a detective (police or otherwise) sent to investigate the smuggling that is apparently a problem in the area. But if she's a professional of any sort, surely she'd have an alias in place rather than constantly and obviously drawing attention to the fact that she doesn't want to give her last name? I really don't know what's up with her at all. As for the knife — it seems like J T Carpets is probably either dead body number one or else the girl who came to threaten Carole. I'm inclined to suspect the latter.
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Mar 27, 2013 10:12
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Autumncomet posted:Isn't it a 'rule' of mystery stories that the detective(s) not be the culprit? I like the idea of a professional myself, but I'm not sure how well that goes with the time period. I think I'd prefer it if she was just a slightly eccentric woman with a knack for mysteries. I suppose it is a rule... but not one that's never been broken before.  I dunno, I was suspicious of Jude from before she became one of our detectives but I don't think she'll be the killer. I do think something is going on, though. ProfessorProf posted:The knife was found in the boat. Drug Lady was looking for the knife. She knew it was missing, but didn't know where it was. From this, we can conclude that Drug Lady's last encounter with the body was AFTER it had already been removed from the boat - she knows the knife is missing, and the knife was in the same place as him until he was out of the boat. Is this necessarily true? If the knife fell out of his pocket and got frozen under the water the way it was when Jude found it, Drug Lady could have found the body in the boat and moved it to elsewhere without ever seeing the knife. Especially if she did it in the dark. Also, it seems weird to me that Drug Lady's first instinct wasn't to think the knife washed away while Body was in the river / sea. Did she see the body on the beach and know the knife was there then?
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Mar 28, 2013 08:57
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ProfessorProf posted:“I wonder,” said Jude. “Do you think there’s a kind of person who would give their boat the same name as their house?” <- What's this line about? Do we know of a house named Brigadoon II? The big house Jude went to for the church meeting (the dentist and his wife live there, I think, but I can't remember their names and I left my book at work) was called Brigadoon
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Mar 29, 2013 20:45
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Well, I'm baffled. The only really useful thing I picked up this chapter was that the ex-barmaid, Tanya, is possibly the person Carole saw on the beach the morning she found the first body. They had the same colour anorak, anyway, so it's either a (very subtle) red herring or they're one and the same.
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Apr 2, 2013 14:34
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Yay. Got to read the chapters on my lunch hour, now I can leave the book at work over the weekend. New theory: I think the original body on the beach was Nick's dad. This is more because he's someone who's missing that someone in our story can actually identify than from anything in the text, but I'm standing by it for now. If that's true, then surely Nick recognised his father, and told his mum who the body on the beach was? In which case, she's lying about not knowing where he is an the logical conclusion is to be suspicious of her. Less out-there theories: I think the boys probably made the cuts on our body's neck. Carole worked out they couldn't have been cause of death and were probably made post-mortem so that seems logical. This doesn't gel particularly well with my above theory. Would Nick have allowed them to desecrate his dad's body? Maybe they were trying to bring him back to life? Aaron seems to have got that idea from somewhere, after all. Probably irrelevant theory: I think Aaron did indeed try to hold up an off-license with his 'toy' gun. Or else Dylan did. It just seems a really specific thing for his mother to suddenly tell Jude he wouldn't do. No one was thinking he was before she said it! Can't really see how that fits in with anything else in the story, though.
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Apr 5, 2013 15:49
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Okay, so my 'dead body is Nick's father' theory didn't last long... Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. One thing I did notice in this bit was that Nick said they wanted to take the body from the beach and put it 'back in the boat' so no one would know what they'd done. It's not entirely clear to me if that is what they actually did but if it is then it seems possible that Rory, who owns the boat, probably found the body at some point? That might relate to his disappearance. Or he could be our murderer, in which case he probably put the body in the boat in the first place. Nick said that Dylan had to cut the rope to lift the cover and get into the boat which kind of suggests to me that it wasn't previously cut which points to the boat's owner being the one who put the body there? I don't know. I'm reaching a bit, I think. I'm just still confused we don't know who the drat body is.
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Apr 13, 2013 11:06
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I agree with Jude - Rory's not dead. I think he's cleaned out the savings account and skipped off with all the money. Beyond that, still not sure what to think. Who is the body? Where is the body? (In those fisherman's chests, probably) Who killed the body? I will be kind of annoyed if it was a natural death after all.
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Apr 17, 2013 15:20
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Is everyone in Fethering on drugs? Maybe it's not that many, but it seems like it. At least one of the Turnbulls, Sam (before he died, obviously), the boys (not addicts, but they may have used) and now Tanya. And yet we have only one confirmed drug dealer - Dylan. I feel like we haven't heard the last of Dylan, to be honest. He hasn't been mentioned in a while and everyone seems to have forgotten him. Did we ever confirm that it was Aaron who gave Carole's description to Theresa? Or was it Gordon? Is that significant? The only people directly connected to Sam are Nick and Nick's mother. I don't believe Nick killed his father, though he may believe he did due to 'black magic'. Did his mother? Nick hasn't told her it was him but she might know... Was Dylan selling Sam drugs? That's another connection. Did Tanya know him? ...This post is very rambling. I need to think it over some more.
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Apr 22, 2013 17:10
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ProfessorProf posted:poo poo. This is the last section? Barely any new information, and what is here I'm struggling to remember the relevance of. Who the hell are Denis and Bill? Dennis and Bill are the neighbours who hate each other and have signs pointing to one another's houses and stuff. Dennis is the vice-commodore of the yacht club and Bill is a 'weekend sailor' who is not a member of the yacht club. Or, possibly, their names might be the other way around.
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Apr 23, 2013 22:14
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ProfessorProf posted:Did we ever get an account of what Nick was up to following the corpse visit? I'm not buying the theory that the body was Nick's dad, because how would that not come up when Nick, Aaron and Dylan found it together? That really seems like something that would have been mentioned. I think it was too dark when they found it at night and he didn't know who it was. Then when he saw him on the beach in the light of day he recognised him. That explains why he was so much more freaked out after the trip to the beach than he was before it. My instinct is that it was one of the Turnbulls and either Dylan or Tanya. I don't know why any of those people would have done it, which is frustrating, but I don't really see who else it could have been. Unless it was Nick's mum... but I don't think the book is that dark.
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Apr 24, 2013 07:54
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I'm still trying to unsnarl it all in my head enough to make a theory, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to. I'll try to post at least a 'I think X did it' tonight, even if it is a wild guess with nothing to back it up.
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Apr 29, 2013 18:38
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I don't think Rory is the murderer. I think he's run off with his wife's money to live with Tanya, though in that case why they haven't left the area yet is beyond me. Maybe he got her pregnant? I don't know. Actually, typing this I'm starting to reconsider... Why would Rory need to deal drugs if they have money? Why would he need to nick money from the yacht club and the NHS? Maybe supporting Tanya's drug habit? Or his wife's? I'm going to go with it being Tanya, with Dylan as accomplice (helping her move the body, etc). I'm pretty sure I'm wrong, but I said I'd get a definite suspect's name in so I have.
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Apr 30, 2013 09:23
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Bit late for the discussion of the previous book, but I only got around to finishing it this morning. Man, I can't believe I didn't guess that Tanya was pregnant. Other than that, I was sort of half-right in that Tanya was involved. Will order new book from Amazon today
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May 5, 2013 09:21
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Fraid I won't be joining you guys for this one - my e-reader screen got distorted somehow. Hopefully it'll be fixed in time for the next one. Or, if people are in the mood for another Agatha Christie, I could take the lead on the next one. In the meantime, I'm reading Finding Nouf (uk title The Night of the Miraj) and assessing whether it would make a good book for this kind of thing. Only one chapter in so I don't know yet.
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May 15, 2013 12:08
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Hobnob posted:I'm just lurking here (mostly because I've already read the majority of these books, and I'm bound to remember bits when re-reading them even if I've forgotten the plots), but if you guys want something other than another Christie, could I suggest Dorothy L. Sayers' Clouds of Witness? (Arguably her Gaudy Night or Murder Must Advertise are better books, but CoW has pretty much everything you want from a mystery - a Duke accused of murder at an English country house, a dead fiancé, tons of red herrings, etc.) Dorothy L Sayers is excellent. I've read some of them, but not as many (proportion-wise) as I have Christies. I really enjoyed Five Red Herrings as well as Gaudy Nights (though I'd say the latter should not be anyone's introduction to Dorothy L Sayers). I also still have several Christies on hand, if the thread decides they're in the mood for that. (I've got Three Act Tragedy, Five Little Pigs, By The Pricking Of My Thumbs, Elephants Can Remember, And Then There Were None and Appointment With Death.) Finding Nouf/The Night of the Miraj (different titles for different places) was enjoyable but I'm not sure if there's enough clues in it to actually work out the answer. I certainly didn't. Maybe if people fancy a challenge?
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Jun 3, 2013 09:20
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I've read it, but I enjoy reading along watching you guys try to figure it out :-) Or I can run it, if no one else wants to. Just need to get ahold of a copy. Shouldn't be difficult.
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Jun 6, 2013 16:28
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 18:58 |
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ProfessorProf posted:Last segment time! Read everything up through the Epilogue. Everything above here can be unspoiled. This is going to be so much fun to read for those of us who know the answer...
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Jun 28, 2013 16:11
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