A Haunting in Venice – A Hercule Poirot Mystery by Agatha Christie, probably the best writer of crime novels, albeit The Daughter of Time sits at the top of The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time, according to The CWA aka Crime Writers Association, my note on the latter is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-daughter-of-time-by-josephine-fey.html where you find a few thousand more reviews - 8 out of 10

 

A Haunting in Venice – A Hercule Poirot Mystery by Agatha Christie, probably the best writer of crime novels, albeit The Daughter of Time sits at the top of The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time, according to The CWA aka Crime Writers Association, my note on the latter is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-daughter-of-time-by-josephine-fey.html where you find a few thousand more reviews

 

8 out of 10

 

Agatha Christie’s books have been exalting this reader when he was an adolescent, with titles like And Then There Were None https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/and-then-there-were-none-by-agatha.html called when I was a child Ten Little Niggers – that was the atrocious title, although in translation it lost its racism

 

While in high school, we have been blessed with a divine Professor of Literature, Anton Chevorchian, who insisted that the great magnum opera have a mystery plot, some sort of crime within, and we could think of Crime and Punishment as an example, one of the greatest books of all time, by the magisterial Fyodor Dostoevsky

However, the Agatha Christie novel that seems most impressive at this moment would be The Murder of Roger Ackroyd https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-murder-of-roger-ackroyd-by-agatha.html with one of the most unexpected killers, you read all the way through, and find that it was…the narrator, also the doctor

 

Granted, we could see Murder on The Orient Express as even more complicated, they all have a grudge, reason to kill the victim, but in the end, it is all of them, rather than an individual, they have made a coalition and the repugnant, vile dead fellow is dispatched by collective action, now how to guess that, think about it https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2023/12/murder-on-orient-express-by-agatha.html impossible task

 

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Fey beats the aforementioned Roger Ackroyd (which sits at number 5 on the CWA list) in the opinion of the writers of Crime Writers of Great Britain -in America, it is Arthur Conan Doyle who reigns in their Top 100 – and we could say for good reason, it is an astounding mystery and a great work

It looks at…Richard III https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/07/richard-iii-by-william-shakespeare.html the ignoble anti-hero, who has nevertheless a good story to tell, I think about the introduction –‘all the clouds that lured upon our sky, in the deep bosom of the ocean buried’, can you think of more resounding words?

 

Richard, the absolute bastard in the play, had killed this lady’s father and husband, and she is next to their coffins, where he is…trying to seduce the widow, who spits on the villain, but he claims it was for her, he loves her, ergo, it was impossible to avoid this, a long story short, she accepts to be his wife, how about that?

 

For me, it is a superb example and motivational situation, indeed, I used it some days ago – if Richard III, ‘deformed, unfinished, sent before my time / Into this breathing world, scarce half made up’, can convince this aristocrat, to wed him, after having murdered her parent and spouse, then…nothing is impossible

I talked to this young person, exuberant and infatuated with the (probably much augmented) presence and offered my great wisdom – ‘I am a river to my people’, just like that sheik in Lawrence of Arabia https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/07/lawrence-of-arabia-written-by-robert.html - to make the case at the museum…

 

Even found one, then another man to give some swimming lessons, only to be told to get lost (not brisk, like that, but still, the subliminal, implied message was obvious) and then I explained it with Richard III, if my invitations to museum, culinary temple, whatever, were absurd, it is like Richard III, it is all there, but to be blunt

 

-          She does not get what she has lost

 

Back to The Daughter of Time, Josephine Fey looks, through her hero, the detective, at the king and his infamous murders, only to discover that there was none of that, Richard III has not killed the poor nephews, those children sent to the tower, and he was not the demon described by Shakespeare, he was actually decent

His place within the royal family has been restored in fact, they have discovered his remains, that is the subject of a film  https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-lost-king-based-on-kings-grave.html The Lost King, his remains have been located in a…parking lot, he is now rehabilitated, though maybe 0.00001% know about that

 

A few words about The Haunting, before I end this note, it is not my favorite Agatha story, though it does have some interesting twists, from early on, we have this woman who claims she is a medium, but this is a scam – she does have a sensitivity and then with experience, she learns to read people, just like Malcolm Gladwell explains…

In his Outliers https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/outliers-by-malcolm-gladwell.html we get the 10,000 hors in ten years formula – Hercule Poirot is invited, and then he stars seeing…ghosts, and we are puzzled, how can this be, but there is a logical explanation and the detective, now retired, will find the reason…a death is followed by another, and then another, what will connect them all, well, it is all there, in the book, which became a film directed by Branagh, a rather ludicrous depiction of the Belgian investigator…

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”