Peril at End House, by Agatha Christie

In Peril at End House, Hercule Poirot and his friend Captain Hastings try to prevent the murder of a young woman, Nick Buckley, who has recently experienced three close calls that were interpreted as accidents. When they meet her, she waves off what she thinks is a wasp, but Poirot determines that it was a bullet that went through the brim of her cap. To protect Nick, they inspect the sites of previous accidents and caution her to be careful, but in a case of mistaken identity, Nick's cousin Maggie is murdered in her stead. Poirot hides Nick away in a nursing home for her own protection, but even there she nearly dies from poisoning. Eventually, Poirot divines what's really going on at End House, but what I found interesting about this novel is that he is tripped up over and over again and truly doubts his own abilities, something that I haven't seen in the earlier books. This one also included several antisemitic comments that really stand out today.  I  enjoyed this book, although I missed the supremely confident Poirot I'd become used to, and I would say that it's not one of Christie's better books.
 

Beautyland, by Marie-Helene Bertino

 

I really enjoyed this novel about a young woman, Adina, who believes that she is an alien sent to earth to gather information about humans and share it with her superiors whose own planet is becoming unlivable and who have to relocate. She uses a fax machine to communicate with them, and they also appear in her dreams at night. She comes out as an alien to friends and family, then the world when her closest friend convinces her to publish her observations as a book which becomes very popular and makes her a literary sensation. When Adina's dog dies unexpectedly and she loses her best friend to cancer, she spirals into a depression that takes her a long time to recover from. Her boyfriend had already left her and her superiors stopped communicating with her, leaving her adrift. The novel follows her from childhood through her 40s, all the while documenting her deadpan reflections on human society. She takes a similar approach to all aspects of her life leading me to wonder if she is actually a neurodivergent or schizophrenic person who has simply fantasized her alien experiences. The final communications from her superiors and the book's conclusion leave everything up in the air, providing a lot of food for thought.

The Sittaford mystery, by Agatha Christie

 

The Sittaford Mystery is a standalone story that doesn't include any of Agatha Christie's usual detectives. After a séance in which the message is received that Captain Trevelyan has been murdered in his cottage six miles away, Major Burnaby walks to the cottage only to find that Captain Trevelyan has indeed been murdered. Trevelyan's nephew James, who visited him that afternoon, is arrested for the murder, but James' fiancée, Emily, is unwilling to accept his guilt and travels to the village to ferret out the true murderer. The six people who attended the séance seem innocent by default, but could one of them have had preknowledge of the crime? What about Trevelyan's sister, niece, and other nephew? Or his assistant and his new wife, of whom Trevelyan didn't approve? Emily teams up with a reporter, Charles Enderby, to investigate other potential suspects, and both work occasionally with Inspector Narracott who also shares information with them, eventually leading up to a surprising but satisfying conclusion.

Fencing with the king, by Diana Abu-Jaber

 

I enjoyed this novel set in 1995 Jordan about a 30-something woman traveling with her father to visit his family in Amman, Jordan. Amani is a professor and poet who has been at loose ends since her divorce. When her father, Gabe, is invited to go to Jordan for King Hussein's 60th birthday, he's reluctant, but she persuades him to go. Amani has found scraps of a letter that Gabe's Palestinian refugee mother left in a book for him, she's intrigued by what seems to be a mystery of a missing person; clues about a castle and cemetery are all she has to go on to find him. Once in Jordan, Amani and her father are caught up in their extended family, including Gabe's two brothers and Amani's cousin Omar, who squires Amani around Jordan trying to find the castle and cemetery from the letter. Eventually they track down the missing boy, now a man in his 60s, but they still don't have all the pieces of his story. Told from alternating viewpoints of both Amani and her uncle Hafez, Amani learns what happened in the past and, with her father and Omar, rights the wrongs committed so many years ago. In addition to family, Amani meets a handsome fencing instructor, and a romance slowly develops between the two, although this plot line takes a definite back seat to the family drama and historical setting. Like Amani, author Diana Abu-Jaber is of Palestinian, Jordanian, and American descent. She has written five novels, two memoirs, and a YA novel, many of which reflect themes about Arab-American culture.

The babes in the wood, by Ruth Rendell

Inspector Wexford and his partner are drawn into the investigation of a potential kidnapping of two teenagers and their babysitter. Initially uncertain whether any crime has been committed, Wexford nevertheless does due diligence and follows up on a variety of leads to find out what happened to them. Talking to the people who were close to the babysitter, Wexford gets conflicting impressions of her character and slowly begins to put together possible scenarios that would explain the disappearances. After a body is found in the woods, he is able to narrow down the possibilities to identify what happened. So far, I've only read Ruth Rendell standalone mysteries and novels, some of which I've liked but others less so. This is the 19th book in the Inspector Wexford series, but the first one I've read. I enjoyed it quite a lot, so I'm going to tackle the list starting with the first. 
 

The murder at the vicarage, by Agatha Christie

This is Agatha Christie's tenth mystery and first one featuring Miss Marple. Colonel Protheroe was shot dead in the vicar's office, but no one mourns him because he was universally disliked. Two people come forward quickly to admit guilt, but Miss Marple and Vicar Clement don't seem satisfied with their stories. While Colonel Melchett and Inspector Slack are officially investigating the case, the vicar (who also narrates the story) conducts his own investigation, and Miss Marple pops up regularly to provide information and steer the men towards clues and scenarios that she believes are relevant. There are a lot of characters here, including villagers, Protheroe's family, an archeologist and his assistant, and the investigators, and the plot includes several subplots and intrigues that interfere with the investigation and lead everyone on false trails. This is a pleasant and engaging page turner of a mystery!

Tehran at twilight, by Salar Abdoh

 

I picked up this book to read a few days before the recent hostilities between Israel, Iran, and the U.S., but it's a stark reminder of the difference between the Iran we see on the news and the day-to-day life of real human beings. In this book, Iranian-American Reza Malek is asked by a friend to return to Tehran to help him with an unnamed task. Once he gets there, he realizes that he's being used in a larger scheme to help the friend disappear so that he can get away from the terrorist group that he's been helping. In return, he gives Reza information that will help him locate Reza's mother who was thought to have emigrated to Australia decades prior. The action in the book takes place over the course of a year and a half. Reza is helping to sell off his friend's family holdings, lost originally in the 1979 revolution but which he still has a claim to, so that he can get his mother a visa to leave Iran and return to the U.S. with him. Author Salar Abdoh packs a lot into this short 236 page novel. In addition to his family drama, Reza also helps his mother and her friend Anna, a Polish Jewish refugee who has been in Iran since the second world war. Apparently, many Jewish refugees fled to Iran first before making their way to the new state of Israel, but some stayed behind. I had read Abdoh's more recent book about 18 months ago, A Nearby Country Called Love, which I really liked a lot. I'm looking forward to reading more by him.

Before the coffee gets cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

 

This is a slight but charming book about a cafe in Japan where customers can travel though time. There are a lot of rules about time travel; you can only do it from one seat in the coffee shop, you can only do it once, you can't actually change history, you have to stay in your seat, and you can only stay as long as it takes to drink one cup of coffee. This book includes four interrelated vignettes that show how four people traveled through time to address regrets they have. I enjoyed the stories, although they would have benefited from some editing; there's a little too much repetition with each story including the set of rules. There are now five books in this series, attesting to its popularity; however, even though I enjoyed it, one was enough for me.

Vietnam: a history, by Stanley Karnow

This is a substantial (750 page) deep dive into the Vietnam War with a heavy focus on the politics surrounding most of the major U.S. decisions about the war along with the various factions within South Vietnam that made the South particularly difficult to partner with. One of its strengths is how the author sets up the story by delving into the history of French colonialism leading to Vietnamese nationalism and later embrace of communism by many. Another strength of the book is the author's inclusion of his personal experiences as a reporter in Vietnam, allowing him to share his front-row perspective with readers. This edition was published in 1983, and some of the commentary reflects the situation in Vietnam in the early 1980s. There is a 2nd edition available from 1997, and I would recommend going with the later edition.
 

The burnt house, by Faye Kellerman

 

After an airplane crashes into an apartment building in Los Angeles, one of the supposed passengers is missing, but in the wreckage of the building a different body is found. It's not certain that the missing passenger was every on the doomed flight. Detective Decker and his team work both crimes, eventually identifying one man who links both the missing woman and the body. This is a page turning detective story that is well written and engaging. My only beef is the huge coincidence of having one person linked to two crimes decades apart.

The St. Zita Society, by Ruth Rendell

 

Like many of Ruth Rendell's books, this one is filled with zany characters who make incredibly poor decisions. The St. Zita Society is an informal gathering of the servants who work in one block of a wealthy London neighborhood. The Society serves as a way to bring many of the characters together and provide a backdrop for the many subplots going on throughout the book. There is a "crime" early on, which was really an accident but becomes a crime when those involved decide to cover it up; this leads to a much more serious and premeditated crime later in the book. I found myself thinking that almost every character in the book is eccentric in some fashion. They all have desires, goals, and motivations that lead them to act in bizarre ways. While the book comes across as wildly improbable, it is nevertheless entertaining.

The last one at the wedding, by Jason Rekulak

 

I really enjoyed this suspenseful thriller about a man who's trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter. Frank is a middle class guy who hasn't spoken to his daughter in three years. He's thrilled when she calls and tells him she's getting married and wants him to come to the wedding. He travels to Boston to meet her fiancé, but from the beginning he senses that something is wrong with the situation. Soon after, he receives a letter indicating that her fiancé may be implicated in the disappearance of a local woman. As Frank travels to the wedding with his sister and her foster daughter in tow, he follows the clues to find out that the entire family may be complicit in at least one murder, and he desperately tries to find a way to extricate his daughter from the situation. But his daughter is reluctant to leave, and Frank must accept her decision until he finally has the evidence he needs to convince her. This was an excellent thriller with a unique protagonist whose character is unlike any that I've seen before. It's a bit funny, but also deadly serious. I couldn't stop reading this book, and recommend it to anyone who likes thrillers.

The Seven Dials mystery, by Agatha Christie

The Seven Dials mystery is Agatha Christie's ninth novel and second starring Superintendent Battle. Like The Secret of Chimneys, although Battle is the primary detective on site, much of the detecting is done by amateur sleuths who work with Battle to reveal the killer. In this book, a murder takes place at Chimneys, the estate that also figured in the earlier book, and it is followed by another suspicious death of a man who had been one of the guests at Chimneys when the first murder occurred. Bundle, the daughter of the owner of Chimneys decides to investigate the murders, and discovers the existence of a secret cabal located in a nightclub in the Seven Dials neighborhood of London. Bit by bit, she and her friends follow clues to identify the murderer. This book is both intriguing and amusing, with plucky characters and a lot of humor.
 

Avenger, by Frederick Forsyth

I really enjoyed this thriller by Frederick Forsyth, an author I had read more regularly back in the 1990s. I had enjoyed his work such as The fourth protocol, The devil's alternative, The day of the jackal, and The Odessa file. Avenger is a fast-paced thriller that takes place in the months leading up to 9/11. It kept me on the edge of my seat and was compulsively readable.
 

The Complaints, by Ian Rankin

I really enjoyed this detective story by Ian Rankin, the very popular author of the Inspector Rebus novels, set in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Complaints is the first book in a new series, also set in Edinburgh, which focuses on detective Malcolm Fox. He works in the Scottish equivalent of an Internal Affairs department, investigating other police officers for corruption and other crimes. Fox is asked to investigate another officer under suspicion of child pornography, but from the start something doesn't seem right. Fox is tenacious and won't drop his inquiries even after both he and the other officer are suspended. This is a compulsive read that I just couldn't put down.
 

Knife: meditations after an attempted murder, by Salman Rushdie

 

I've been following Salman Rushdie's story ever since he made the news with the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988. Its publication was followed by a 1989 fatwa issued by the leader of Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini, and Rushdie lived in seclusion with 24/7 security for many years. In 2022 the fatwa resulted in a murder attempt at the famed Chautauqua Institute in front of approximately 2,500 people. Left blinded in one eye and with permanent damage to his left hand, Rushdie recovered with the help of his family, including his new wife, poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths. In Knife, Rushdie tells us about how he had come to leave behind his security detail and move to New York. He had remarried and had just completed his most recent novel, Victory City, when he was attacked. He writes about his physical recovery and many surgeries, along with his desire to tell his story as a way to heal psychologically. This is a heartfelt and sincere exploration of his experience. I was struck by the vulnerability that he demonstrates, both in detailing his personal life and relationship with his now-wife, and in his recovery from the attack. This is a touching and moving book that I would recommend to anyone who has followed Rushdie's story over the past 30-plus years.