All of Agatha: Star over Bethlehem & The Third Girl

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

This series of entries is commentary on my lifelong quest to read all of Agatha Christie's works in UK publication order. It was begun in January 2021.

Star over Bethlehem (1965) is a small collection of religious Christmas stories and poems. No one reads Christie for her sermons or her poetry, so this was difficult to get though even though it was short. The only highlight was a short tale called "The Naughty Donkey" which I think might make a cute play (with puppets) for my friend smallhobbit and the Children's Christmas service at her church.

The Third Girl (1966) is also not Christie at her best although I think there are nice bits to it. It is Ariadne Oliver and Poirot. And a girl comes to Poirot wanting help and when she sees him she decides he's too old to help her and he gets involved in a family drama which extends to an apartment/flat shared by a trio of intertwined young ladies. Lots of old-woman complaining about how the kids don't wash these days and you can't tell the girls from the boys and a double identity (think BBC Sherlock's Eurus Holmes) which wasn't convincing to me.

Next up: Endless Night, which I can't remember at all, and it's not at my library so I shall have to read in on archive.org. So maybe putting it off 'til June or later.

Comments

[regshoe]

I remember Endless Night having a really good dramatic twist, but that was a long time ago and I'm not sure what I'd think of it now. Looking forward to your thoughts when you get to it :D

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Ah, yes? Interesting!!

[debriswoman]

I salute your thoroughness 😊

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you!

[smallhobbit]

It turns out we do have 'Star over Bethlehem' in our library system, so I shall check it out later in the year!

I wasn't that impressed with Third Girl - definitely too much old woman complaining.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I think The Naughty Donkey has possibilities. The rest...not so much.