Book: The 13 Problems
Author: Agatha Christie
Pages: 315
How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 hours
Plot Summary: A group of people gather for a post dinner chat and in order to pass the evening pleasantly, each member of the group tells a mystery story and the rest of the group has to guess the culprit. As each story is told, no matter how grisly or perplexing, it's the old biddy knitting quietly in the corner that guesses the perpetrator and his/motive accurately. This old lady is none other than Miss Jane Marple.
General Thoughts and Review:
I have discovered Agatha Christie books with a vengeance this year. Prior to this year, my only exposure to Christie's work were the TV adaptations of her books. I LOVE the Poirot and the Marple TV shows and have watched and re-watched them over the years. And since these TV shows are extremely true-to-text it didn't make sense for me to read the books, or so I foolishly thought!
Late last year, during a Christmas booksale, I found myself in a crowded Crossword bookstore, with poorly arranged shelves and chaotic sales section. I found amidst this chaos a table full of Christie books...at a great price and with great cover art. So I thought why not. The sister and I picked 6 books for a steal and thus began my love for the written Agatha Christie work.
Over the year, I read a couple of her books and bought a few more as the year went on.
The 13 Problems is a novel that almost could pass off as a short story collection. Each story, told by a guest is a tale on it's own. A proper mystery wrapped-up neatly and solved by Miss Marple. The way Miss Marple deduces things and solves the mysteries is a work of art.
All the stories in this book were great, except maybe one which I found a little boring- it was a story about spies and smuggling rings, I prefer murder mysteries any day! But in a collection of 13 stories, one bad/boring tale is no biggie.
I enjoyed this book immensely and read in one sitting. It moves quickly and I loved the murder and mayhem in the pages of this book.
If you haven't read Christie before, I cannot urge you enough to read her. She is a literary legend for a reason. And this book is a perfect starting point for a Agatha Christie book, read this before you pick up a full length novel. Most of Christie's books are fast paced quick reads and I assure you they are very enjoyable and satisfying reads.
Rating: 5/5
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