2021 Book #64 – Murder Under the Sun

Episode 6 – fantasy and murder, the end of the reading challenge – Jen's Book Blog

End of the reading challenge and the books that have taken me there…

1. Episode 6 – fantasy and murder, the end of the reading challenge 23:52
2. Episode 5 – Children's Books, Graphic Novels, Travel, History and Mysteries! 28:59
3. Episode 4 – Murder Mysteries, Tibet, Shadow Skye and Ancient Greece 27:51
4. Episode 3 – Poirot, Shadowplay, Kamala Harris and Yours Cheerfully 24:19
5. Episode 2 – Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Scythe 14:56

Medium – Audiobook

About the Book – Narrated by Hugh Fraser (who plays Captain Hastings in the ITV Poirot stories), the thirteen stories in this collection are summery, holiday tales filled to the brim with murder and deception. The stories include the detectives Parker Pyne and Hercule Poirot, as well as a few stand alone mysteries. The stories all take place in English seaside towns or in far-flung destinations like Egypt or Baghdad, and the stories are peak Christie – entertaining, enjoyable and full of plot twists and turns.

My Rating – 4/5

My Thoughts – When I was a teenager, I fell asleep to the voices of Hugh Fraser and David Suchet reading me murder mystery stories as I drifted to dreamland – no wonder I had some pretty interesting dreams. So these stories are really nostalgic for me and I got through the audiobook really quickly. I mean, there was also a massive storm and I’ve had my second Covid jab and ache all over, so there’s that too. The stories are set all over the world, and include some familiar characters, like Poirot and Hastings, as well as some characters who are not seen as often, like Parker Pyne. Parker Pyne is actually one of my favourite Christie characters. He is a huge, quiet ex-civil servant, who doesn’t really solve crimes (although sometimes he does) but tries to solve ‘problems of the heart’.

The stories are all interesting and apart from the last, which I found dragged a bit, all about 20-30 mins long. The settings are wonderful and you really get the sense of travelling abroad to all of these different, summery places. The stories are fun and you generally don’t know ‘whodunnit’ until the end. I would particularly recommend ‘Death on the Nile’ which is not the Poirot case of the same name, but instead a much shorter tale starring Parker Pyne. It’s not one I have heard before, and I really enjoyed it!