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This year, I discovered Agatha Christie. A few years back, when I was temporarily advised bed rest for a month, my sis loaned me a collection of Hercule Poirot
by sharmi 8y ago
This year, I discovered Agatha Christie. A few years back, when I was temporarily advised bed rest for a month, my sis loaned me a collection of Hercule Poirot short stories.
I was always a Sherlock Holmes fan and really enjoyed the logical detective work. Hercule Poirot felt like just like a pretentious quirky old man, making denouements based on evidence that is flimsy and tenuous at best.
This year, I came across the novels, and boy are they different! The novels give more space for characters to develop and for us to observe the proceedings and deduce clues. Each book felt more like a Whodunit game wrought as a novel. I tried to play detective as the story proceeded. Often the ending was radically different from what I expected, a few were a letdown and a bit lacking in proper evidence. But always, there are entertaining and I had so much fun and I was even right once or twice.
Of course they were written a long time back, but I am happy to discover them now.
If HN community can give me point to even better literature in the same vein, it would be heaven!
- wenc 8y agoSherlock and Poirot are great detective genres. I'm not sure if they really have parallels. The French people however love their Inspector Maigret (by Georges Simenon). The Maigret books are apparently some of the best selling books in the Francophone world of all time. Inspector Maigret however is more procedural, and doesn't go for climatic reveals and does not have the flawed omniscient genius character that most of us are instinctively attracted to. On the opposite end of spectrum, you might enjoy Arsene Lupin (by Maurice Leblanc), a gentleman-thief.
- robin_reala 8y agoI’ve been gradually working through producing the Arsène Lupin stories and they’re fabulous, especially when you include his relations to Herlock Sholmes :) Libre Arsène ebooks I’ve produced so far (the remaining PD corpus is gradually following): The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/maurice-leblanc/the-extraordinary-adventures-of-arsene-lupin-gentleman-burglar/george-morehead https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/maurice-leblanc/the-extrao... Arsène Lupin Versus Herlock Sholmes https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/maurice-leblanc/arsene-lupin-versus-herlock-sholmes/george-morehead https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/maurice-leblanc/arsene-lup... The Hollow Needle https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/maurice-leblanc/the-hollow-needle/alexander-teixeira-de-mattos https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/maurice-leblanc/the-hollow... 813 https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/maurice-leblanc/813/alexander-teixeira-de-mattos https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/maurice-leblanc/813/alexan... The Crystal Stopper https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/maurice-leblanc/the-crystal-stopper/alexander-teixeira-de-mattos https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/maurice-leblanc/the-crysta...
- GlobalFrog 8y agoI would say that Maigret is a kind of psychological detective : even if there are clues and detective work, his main characteristic is that he tries to get to the bottom of the personnalities he encounters, what motives drive the criminal and who they really are, so he is more concerned about the "why" than the "how".
- sjellis 8y ago> Inspector Maigret Maigret books are really great time-fillers: there's a large number of them, they are short and self-contained, and I've yet to read a bad one.
- vollmond 8y agoI'm sure they don't compare (I haven't read Doyle/Christie/Poirot), but as a teen I really enjoyed the Dick Francis books my parents had.
- sharmi 8y agoSeriously, I envy you. I would give so much to be able to forget all I have read, just to read it all over once again.
- scottdw 8y agoMaybe not "better literature" but I always look forward to a new Rebus novel by Ian Rankin (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector%20Rebus https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector%20Rebus). Though, the best (IMHO) whodunnit of 2018 is Stuart Turton's "The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle" (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36337550-the-7-deaths-of-evelyn-hardcastle https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36337550-the-7-deaths-of...)
- _emacsomancer_ 8y agoDorothy L. Sayers, perhaps.
- dcminter 8y agoIf you like depth of character in your 30s detective fiction I warmly endorse this recommendation. If you're only going to try one then "The Nine Tailors" is arguably her finest work.
- the_jeremy 8y agoNot Poirot, but still Christie: And Then There Were None / 9 Little Indians (same novel) was one of my favorites
- rockinghigh 8y agoGreat book for all ages. It's "Ten Little Indians" by the way. It was first published under the name "Ten Little Niggers" based on the eponymous song.
- LgWoodenBadger 8y agoThe Nero Wolfe novels by Rex Stout fit the bill. Archie is one of my favorite characters, and I don't think any author writes dialog as well as Stout. Just don't start with "Before I Die," it's a stinker.
- philers 8y agoMy two favourite detective series are: - Bernie Gunther series by Philip Kerr (March Violets is the first) - Marcus Didius Falco series by Lindsey Davis (The Silver Pigs is the first) They may be a little noirish for your tastes (more focused on character and society) but I loved the detailed historical settings and the level of depth to the detective characters. They're also both still propelled by a mystery / solving a crime.
- ruraljuror 8y agoWilkie Collins's The Moonstone and G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories.
- sjellis 8y agoMargery Allingham was active at about the same time (her last book was in the '60s), and ought to be much better known. Her writing is great, she's a really sharp observer of human psychology, but there's always a lightness to her stories. She wrote a long series centred around the character of Albert Campion, and the books evolve as the times changed. The very first books are murder mysteries, but have a 39 Steps feel to them, then they evolve into Golden Age mysteries, and the post-war novels become more grounded crime novels, although never really bleak. The very last book, set in the 1960s, has a touch of science fiction.
- barry0079 8y agoNot quite the same vein but I found Higashino Keigo's works really enjoyable.