Queen of Crime

A week or two ago, my family was all gathered for Sunday Dinner aka Family Dinner. We had all attended different masses that day and so my mom asked us all to talk about what each priest said during the homily. My sister had just arrived from Louisville and started to tell her story, however, I wanted to know which church she went to in Louisville, so I would know what priest she was talking about.

"This church?" No. "That church?" No. "Oh, the church W's grandfather was murdered in!"

Mass apologies. Freudian slip. *had his funeral. But this was the moment I knew I may have been reading too many Agatha Christie novels.

It all started last month; I hit a "reading" brick wall. What should I read? Nothing looked good. And then I thought of it. February is red. Blood is red. I like detective stories... 
And so it began: Murder Mystery Month with the Queen of Crime. 
My sister and 3 friends joined me on this quest. Unfortunately, no one quite made it all the way through. To be fair, my list was rather ambitious....

Towards Zero
The body in the library
Elephants can remember
The man in the brown suit

They do it with mirrors

A Pocket full of rye

The murder at the vicarage

At Bertram's Hotel

The witness for the prosecution

The moving finger

Evil under the sun

Crooked house

Nemesis

10 Little Indians 

Death on the Nile

Mystery of the Blue Jar

Murder in Mesopotamia

The labours of Hercules

The secret of chimneys

Death in the clouds

Murder on the Orient Express

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Five Little Pigs

Endless Night

As I read these novel(la)s, I filled in the guilty parties next to the titles, and, with the exception of the two of the stories I read, this is what I learned:

If you have the misfortune of being the one killed,

1. It will be done by a family member
2. You will most likely be killed for money

If you are the murderer, 

1. You will spend a lot of time planning a series of what look like accidental occurrences as well as probably framing someone else to shift the blame off you.  *Bravo.* However, your time probably would have be spent pursuing more legitimate ways of acquiring money, because...
2. You will undoubtedly be foiled in your murdering endeavor by busy-bodies, and you should NEVER (for God's sake) commit a crime anywhere near St Mary Mead.

As a reader,

1. It is never who you think it should be
2. You realize AC gave you all the facts you ever needed and you were just too dense to put them together
3. You will want to travel the world on a whim
4. You bow down in homage, for Agatha Christie is a literary goddess. If she every wanted to kill someone, she'd have totally gotten away with it.

There was one mystery that I did solve on my own: Elephant Can Remember.
New Favorite: (previous being 10 Little Indians/ And then there were none) Man in the Brown Suit.
Average reading in February: 14 novel(la)s. Essentially one every other day.
Result: Have decided to go to Africa. Departure, October.

Tigwo na wega and Happy Murdering!