It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #2

A good week of reading and again it's 3 books. Though this week I had several days of non reading made up for by spending most of the weekend tucked up with a book. 

Read this week:

After WW1, childhood pals Tommy Beresford and "Tuppence" Prudence Cowley, lack money and prospects, become adventurers for the British Government. Rich American Julius P. Hersheimmer, powerful Mr Whittington, and an evil mastermind Mr Brown all seek Jane Finn who was given papers vital to peace by an agent at the sinking of the Luisitania. Tommy and Tuppence investigate ....

This is Agatha Christie’s second published book (1922) and introduces sleuthing duo Tuppence and Tommy (Inspector Japp makes a brief appearance as well). A while back I decided I wanted to read all the Poirot books in order but then thought it might get too samey so changed my objective to reading *all* her books in order - thus giving some variety in characters. After all two of my remembered favourites from reading Agatha in my teens were A Pocket Full of Rye and Sparkling Cyanide, neither of which features Poirot!

Prior to embarking on my Christie voyage I was not familiar with the Tuppence and Tommy stories. These two really must be the blueprint for a lot of ‘comedic’ amateur sleuthing duos that have followed in the 92(!) years that have followed. This book is a lot of fun to read; an action packed crime caper in the sense of all the cliché 1920s films that spring to mind. It is essentially  an espionage plot which is never Christie’s strongest subject, and it is a little over cooked by the end with a few too many double bluffs but it is a darn good story all considered.

I have given this a 4/5 because The Man in the Brown Suit (1924) is a much better girl + boy adventure amateur sleuthing story. NB: I realised I read this almost exactly a month after my last Christie, that seems to be a good pace , like anything you can get a bit bored if you go in too gung-ho.

The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares. 

This was a very interesting book, the major premise being: What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway?

I really enjoyed the setting and handling of the pre-apocalyptic world. There was a lot of cogitation on how society reacts to imminent death and destruction. What happens to behavior societal structure, rules, morality etc. Within this all the main characters expected in a believable and understandable manner. I also liked mixing this with a hard-boiled type of crime story. However the setting seemed to overshadow the storyline, and the crime plot seemed a little slow and unremarkable in comparison. I will still be reading on to the next in the trilogy and hoping it has a bit more oomph. 

I have given this a 4/5 because it is so different, well written and thought provoking.

Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a shy twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness when she meets Ernest Hemingway and is captivated by his energy, intensity and burning ambition. After a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for France. But glamorous Jazz Age Paris, full of artists and writers, fuelled by alcohol and gossip, is no place for family life and fidelity. Ernest and Hadley's marriage begins to founder, and the birth of a beloved son only drives them further apart. Then, at last, Ernest's ferocious literary endeavours bring him recognition - not least from a woman intent on making him her own...

I have passed this book up several times in charity shops because of the awful cover and title - there are too many The X Wife books in publication at the moment. It was only after reading Hemingway's A Moveable Feast recently and wanting to read more about Hadley that I realised that this wasn't a silly chick lit book. 

I was very impressed with this book. It seamlessly picks  up the tone Hemingway had in A Moveable Feast and works it into a very good 'story'. One of those blurred story/biography books because it's based on fact but embellished into fiction. This was so beautifully done and obviously with much interest and research involved.

The setting, plot and characters were all brilliantly crafted. There were no caricatures or stereotyping and as a reader I could forget that *the* F Scott Fitzgerald or Gertrude Stein was involved and accept them as just characters. I just got swept away in the story of Hadley and first love and when love alone is everything and not enough at the same time. I may even been close to tears at the end too ...

Gave this 5/5 because it was truly a book I lost myself in and didn't want to end.

Reading Next:

The 3rd Inspector Rebus book because after the emotion of The Paris Wife I needed something I knew I would find undemanding.