Stirring up a cup of Spring Into Horror sleuthing tea

This year I have to say my progress with the first two readathons from Seasons of Reading has gone very well in that I was able to finish my small sets of TBR selections on time!

Granted, the books that I chose for Spring Into Horror were not lengthy reads(I did give myself a brief pause over Easter weekend) but there is still joy to be found in achieving such a fun goal nonetheless.

My old fashioned mystery theme began with The Maid by Nita Prose, with the title character being the type of person who takes pleasure in her work as a hotel maid yet is easily taken advantage of by those mistaking her lack of social nuance as a weakness to be exploited than  a trait to be respected.

Molly does have trouble recognizing the precarious situations that others have put in her(particularly since her beloved grandmother died) and when she’s framed for the murder of a brutal businessman, none of those “friends “ are there to help her.

Fortunately, Molly does have some unexpected allies to lend her a hand but when all is said and done, finding the real killer is more complicated than it seems.

This is a wonderful debut novel that more than lived up to the hype there. Smart, engaging and a few touches of humor and heartbreak abound on the pages, much like a good episode of Molly’s favorite mystery show, Columbo:

After that, I dove into Marie Benedict’s The Mystery of Mrs. Christie and what a wicked treat that was!

The story is told in two parts, one through the eyes of Archie Christie, who is planning to leave his celebrity author wife Agatha for a younger woman that will cater more to his particular needs.

Agatha’s suspicious disappearance makes that rather difficult for him and thanks to a mysterious note that she left for Archie(which he quickly destroys before the police can read it), his agony over being in the spotlight becomes a slow motion torment.

Agatha gets her viewpoint in as a “manuscript “ written by her details her relationship with Archie, who grows controlling and cold towards her over the course of their marriage. Her reasons for why things have happened this way become clear but not without that clever twist of the proverbial knife that her best mystery stories are known for.

While I do know that Agatha Christie emerged from her eleven day disappearance just fine, claiming to have no memory of what occurred, this fictional version of that event was a thrilling suspense ride well worth taking.

Benedict gave this story a Gone Girl energy that was very justified (Archie was a total creep) and eerily entertaining indeed:

Finally, I wrapped things up with a Miss Marple mystery, At Bertram’s Hotel. It was good but not great, I have to say.

The main setting is a seemingly old style hotel in London that Jane Marple visits to do a little shopping and recall some fond memories from the past.

However, the disappearance of a confused clergyman and the schemes of a long estranged mother and daughter shake the place up to say the least. Miss Marple does lend a hand with the authorities via her keen observations but her role in these matters is rather minor for the most part, sad to say.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a decent read for a rainy weekend (which I finished the book during) but not one of the better Agatha Christie/Miss Marple books out there. Then again, a little Miss Marple can go a long way:

My thanks to Michelle Miller at Seasons of Reading for giving everyone who took part here a good opportunity to whittle down those looming TBR piles! I also hope that those who joined in here had a good time with their books as well.

While I am happy to have completed two readathon stacks in a row, my chances of doing that in June for the next challenge, Sci-Fi Summer , are slim to be sure. At least two of the books I plan on reading for that are quite hefty when it comes to page count. Since one of them is an out and out science fiction book, I really can’t switch it out for a smaller one(nor do I want to, actually).

The other pair of books are fantasy (which is allowed) and one of them is the third in a fairytale themed trilogy that ought to be a real show stopper in the best sense of the term. Well, at least they’re big enough to offer plenty of shade this summer!: