Hallowe’en party
Agatha Christie: Halloween Party (Originally published in 1969) ’Old sins have long shadows.’ One evening, Poirot is called by his dear friend, Ariadne Oliver. She was visiting a friend in Woodleigh Common when a tragedy happened at a Halloween party for children. Joyce Reynolds, a 12-year-old girl, was drowned. The police suspect a mental patient, as the number of crimes against children has already increased. However, something worries Mrs. Oliver: the child declared during the evening that she had already seen a murder. Apparently no one believed her, but at the end of the evening she was found dead. Was anyone scared by what she knew? Poirot is nearing the end of his career (he will only have two cases after that) when he sets out to investigate this case. As usual, he starts from the personality of the victim and the testimonies of eyewitnesses, but here he will also…
Evernight
Ross Mackenzie: Evernight (Andersen Press 2020) Ross Mackenzie is a multi-award winning author. His most famous book is The Nowhere Emporium. He currently lives near Glasgow with his wife and children, but often spends his time in other worlds. Stories have always played an important role in his life: he still vividly remembers when, in his childhood, he looked forward to the next exciting adventure in the evenings. He became a children’s book writer because he always loved great stories and hopes that one day his books will evoke similar feelings in readers. Evernight definitely has a chance for that. Shadow Jack is an ancient djinni who hunts witches. Mrs. Hester is the king’s chief adviser and a witch herself who wants to rule the world. Larabelle Fox is a tosher who searches the city’s sewers for lost things. Joe Littlefoot is also a tosher, second best after Lara by…
Nancy Drew and her friends
Carolyn Keene: Nancy Drew Diaries Holly and Kelly Willoughby: School for Stars Stacey Gregg: Pony Club Rivals Many thanks to Digitanart Studio for sending me the books! The Nancy Drew character was invented by publisher Edward Stratemeyer as a counterpart of the Hardy Boys detective series. The stories are written by a group of ghostwriters under the collective pseudonym Carolyn Keene. She first appeared in 1930 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series, which lasted until 2003 and included 175 novels. In the meantime, the character and stories changed to suit current American tastes. In the 80s, an older and more professional Nancy appeared in the pages of the Nancy Drew Files series. In 2004, the protagonist of Nancy Drew: Girl Detective already drove an electric car and had a mobile phone. This series ended in 2012 and in 2013 the first volume of the new series Nancy Drew Diaries…
Classics – Persuasion
Jane Austen – Narinder Dhami: Persuasion (Hodder and Stoughton 2022) Jane Austen published four novels during her lifetime: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. Northanger Abbey and Persuasion are posthumous works, and her unfinished novel, Sanditon, was recently republished, from which a series was also made. There are many adaptations of each of her books. In the Awesomely Austen series, the stories were rewritten for the younger age group. Persuasion can be read in the interpretation of Narinder Dhami, whose favorite is Jane Austen and who is also the author of many children’s and young adult books. Anne Elliot spends her days quietly reading in the company of her family. She doesn’t even need to say much, as her father and sister do enough of it… Anne is still sad that she broke off her engagement years ago to the man she loved so much, but…
Autumn Chills
Agatha Christie: Autunm Chills (HarperCollins Publishers 2023) After the Bible and Shakespeare, Agatha Christie’s books have sold the most in the world. She was a very fruitful writer: from her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which was published in 1920, until her death in 1976, she published a total of 66 novels, 14 volumes of short stories, 17 plays, 3 books of poetry and 2 autobiographies. She was one of the authors who made the mystery genre great. Her literary importance is shown by the fact that her books are still read with the same enthusiasm as when they were first published. Her works have been adapted into numerous TV shows and movies, radio plays, comics and even video games. Since 2020, thematic collections of her short stories have been published in English by HarperCollins Publishers and in Hungarian by Helikon Publishing. In 2019, the collection of short…