Ariadne Oliver
If a woman were the head of Scotland Yard… Ariadne Oliver appears in a total of 8 books and not only in Poirot stories. The writer is Agatha Christie’s own caricature, Ariadne’s detective Sven Hjerson represents Poirot, towards whom Ariadne has the same kind of ambivalent feelings as Agatha Christie has towards her most famous detective. The Finnish detective, who is a fictional character of a fictional character, was recently made into a series under the title Agatha Christie’s Hjerson, which moves the story to present-day Sweden. Mrs. Oliver first appears in a story in the Parker Pyne Investigates short story collection and is mentioned in one other story. (Interestingly, Miss Lemon, Poirot’s secretary, also appears alongside Pyne first.) She then investigates with Poirot in the Cards on the Table, Mrs. McGinty’s Dead, and the Dead Man’s Folly, and then appears alone in The Pale Horse. She then accompanies Poirot…
The little witch
Anna Zobel: Little Gem (Puffin 2021) Anna Zobel :Little Gem and the Mysterious Letters (Puffin 2021) Anna Zobel is a Melbourne-based author, illustrator and teacher. Anna wrote and illustrated her own books as a child and has continued to do so ever since. Her middle grade series Little Gem has been nominated for several book awards. She is the illustrator of the award-winning story Who’s Your Real Mum?. Anna is inspired by the children she works with and hopes to represent them in her work. Her latest book is This Camp is Doomed, a children’s mystery. Anna runs art programs and workshops in various locations across Australia. Gem just wants to practice a teleportation spell at Witchcraft School, which will allow her to conjure herself from one classroom to another. But her spell goes wrong, and Gem finds herself in an unknown location. It turns out that she has not…
Tommy and Tuppence’s last adventure
Agatha Christie: Postern of Fate The Secret Adversary was first published in 1922 in England, as the second book of Agatha Christie. Tommy and Tuppence Beresford appear in four novels and one short story collection and they differ from Poirot and Miss Marple by the fact that they actually age alongside with their creator in the novels. In the five books, we can practically follow their entire lives. Unlike Agatha Christie’s other books, despite the serious subject matter, the stories have a very pleasant atmosphere; the conversations are punctuated by humorous remarks. The two main characters make an excellent pair, they complement each other well: Tuppence is recless and has good intuitions, while Tommy is serious and thoughtful, but both of them have sharp minds. The Postern of Fate is the last novel published about the couple. Tommy and Tuppence are in their 70s and have retired to a quiet…
Artezans
L.D. Lapinski: Artezans – The Forgotten Magic (Orion Children’s Books 2024) The northern wilderness has always been the place where magic lives. The northern lights prove this. Because magic doesn’t need a warm home and a soft bed, it needs wildness and freedom. Edward Crane and his twin sister Elodie live with their parents in Scotland, where you can often see the lights dancing in the sky. The Crane family has always had magic, and now it’s Ed and Elodie’s turn to receive their power. However, Ed fears that in this too – as in everything else – he can only exist in Elodie’s shadow. As much as he loves his sister, he has always been a little jealous of her because she is so good at everything. Now, however, they both will have a big surprise. Although the story is fantasy, it deals with very serious topics: What defines…
The first and last case of Hercule Poirot
Agatha Christie: Thy Mysterious Affair at Styles Agatha Christie: Curtain Agatha Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published in 1920 and soon brought fame to the author and also to her fictional detective, Poirot. Hercule Poirot investigates in a total of 33 novels and 7 short story collections. Since The Mysterious Affair at Styles, there have been many movie, theater, cartoon and graphic novel adaptations. There was even a video game made about the Belgian detective, and his most famous movie actor is David Suchet. Adaptation of the stories is still happening in the form of movies and series. Thanks to Sophie Hannah, we can see the world’s most famous detective investigating again in book pages. Poirot arrives in Styles St. Mary as a refugee, where he soon has to investigate the death of his benefactor in a house where no one lived happily. The author was…
The last chapter of the last story
Tove Jansson: Moominvalley in November (Sort of Books 2018) This is the last, strangest and most adult volume of the Moomin series. There have been many stories about the Moomins over the years: they sailed through a flood, they expected the end of the world due to the approach of a comet, a wizard’s top hat changed everything around them, they lost their home, they woke up from their winter sleep and saw the frozen world and sailed to a lonely island. However, what was common in all the stories was that they made many friends because everyone loved them. Not only were they nice, but they listened to everyone. This does not mean that they always pleased their guests, but they knew that they often did their best to leave the other person alone. Everyone who met them loved them. However, they did not appear in this book… It…
Lost Worlds
Shannon Messenger: Keeper of the Lost Cities (Simon &Schuster 2012) Many thanks to Maxim Könyvkiadó for sending me the book! Sophie never found her place. At the age of 12, she was already attending high school, but she couldn’t fit in there either. Moreover, she can hear everyone’s thoughts. One day, however, she meets Fitz, whose mind she can’t read. The boy also has this ability and reveals a secret to Sophie: the girl doesn’t actually belong in our world. Sophie now has to leave behind her previous life, which she didn’t love, but was the only one she knew. Now she has to face dangers that could determine not only her fate, but also the fate of others. The book features friendship as well as rivalry between children, which is provided by the excellent background of the school where elves with special abilities study. Secrets play a very important…
The inhabitants of Moominvalley
Tove Jansson: Finn Family Moomintroll (first published in 1948) Tove Jansson: Moominland Midwinter (first published in 1957) Tove Jansson: Tales from Moominvalley (first published in 1962) Tove Jansson is Scandinavia’s best-known children’s author (along with Astrid Lindgren), whose work is also significant as an illustrator, comic book writer and adult’s book writer. She finished her first book, The Moomins and the Great Flood, which was published exactly 80 years ago, in 1945, but unfortunately not in Hungarian. The book was followed by eight more, which were not only exciting because of their stories but also for their translations. The author belonged to the Swedish minority living in Finland and wrote her books in her native language, Swedish. However, the world got to know the Moomins from translations made based on the Finnish adaptation not from the Swedish original. The first Hungarian translation of the Tales from Moominvalley was published by…
Witches and Ghosts
Phil Hickes: Shadowhall Academy – Ghost Story Society (Usborne Publishing 2025) Suffolk, England January 1988 Mysteries needed to be solved. Or are there secrets that are better left untended? Lilian Jones and her friends should have learned from what happened to them last term, but of course they didn’t… As if the school wasn’t creepy enough, they started a Ghost Story Society where they can scare each other and themselves. Of course, only gently. The club turns out to be fun until they hear a story about a mysterious book that has caused a lot of trouble long ago and is supposedly still in the school. Lilian wants nothing more than to find out what the truth is. This puts not only herself, but her friends and the entire school in danger. The special atmosphere of the boarding school is felt in this story, which successfully balances on the edge…
Here comes the apocalypse
Tove Jansson: Comet in Moominland (originally published in 1968 under the title Kometen kommer in Swedish) Moominvalley, the home of the Moomins, is perfect. Nothing disturbs the peace of the summer afternoon, everyone spends their time as they please: Moomintroll and Sniff explore new places, Moominmamma does the gardening, and Moominpappa writes a book. But suddenly the weather changes strangely and they learn that a comet is approaching Earth. Moomintroll and Sniff departed to find out if the news is true and if they can survive the impact? The characters in Tove Jansson’s Moomin stories embody different types of people, but they are all kind and lovable. They seem like children’s books, but in fact adults are who can really understand them. The story itself is serious, as the Moomins are waiting for the end of the world and they don’t know if tomorrow will exist. They are looking for…