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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2099 KP) rated Staged 4 Murder in Books

Oct 6, 2022  
Staged 4 Murder
Staged 4 Murder
J.C. Eaton | 2018 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Murder is a Catwalk
The Booked 4 Murder book club is thrilled to find the local theater is putting on a production of The Mousetrap and asking the residents of the local retirement community to participate. Naturally, everyone is excited to be part of the cast and crew. Since Sophie Kimball’s mother lands a part in the play, she expects she will hear all about it in detail. What she doesn’t expect is that someone will find the dead body of Miranda Lee, the star, on the catwalk above the stage one day. Yes, Miranda was being a diva with a capital D, but who would want to kill her?

I was glad I finally found time to return to Sophie’s world. Fans of the play will appreciate references to it and other Agatha Christie works, but knowing the play isn’t a requirement, and nothing is spoiled. There is plenty of action to keep things going. The climax was fun, but there was a bit too much to it. The Booked 4 Murder ladies were mostly balanced between funny and annoying, and I laughed as I read. Sophie is a great main character, and I enjoyed the bit of romance. Hopefully, it won’t be as long before I get to the next book in the series.
  
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Mark Halpern (153 KP) rated Murder on the Orient Express (2017) in Movies

Jan 26, 2018  
Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
2017 | Drama, Mystery
8
6.9 (90 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
CAST (0 more)
Exceptional remake
Based on the famous book written by Agatha Christie Novel Murder On The Orient Express. The story of thirteen different strangers and one famous Detective are on one of the most luxurious trains in the eastern hemisphere. One man gets murdered and it is up to famous detective Hercule Poirot to solve the case. The train passengers contain a mixture of classes from a Princess, to countess, a Doctor, a Dancer, The valet, The professor, the gold digger a antiquities dealer and a nurse, a governess, a Count, the Italian fan and the Conductor. They are the suspects in this cold blooded murder. During the murder the an avalanche knocks the train off the tracks and during this is when the body is discovered. It is this stoppage of time that allows our Hero to question the suspects and try to make sense of all the evidence what ever there maybe.
    I can't divulge more because there are so many different plot points that it would ruin the chance for you to see the movie and enjoy it.
  The Book can never be beat, The first movie was ok but, the remake was fantastic. Stars Melanie Griffith, Judi Dench, William Dafoe, Daisy Ridley, Johnny Deep, Josh Gad, Penople Cruz and Kenneth Branagh. This is an excellent cast for this movie and it is amazing. I do suggest you read the book first but, that is just a suggestion
  
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Sarah (7798 KP) rated Knives Out (2019) in Movies

Dec 4, 2019  
Knives Out (2019)
Knives Out (2019)
2019 | Comedy, Crime, Drama
8
8.3 (84 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Fun modern sleuthing
I've been wanting to see this since I first saw the trailer, with such a stellar cast and Rian Johnson behind the helm I had high hopes and this did a fairly decent job of living up to my expectations.

The cast are brilliant. There are some great names in this and they all do well and for the most part they're all fairly equally featured. Nobody really stands out above the others, except for maybe Daniel Craig's southern accent. The film itself looks great and the way the story unfolds is interesting, it's very much like a modern day take on an Agatha Christie story - but a hell of a lot better than the bore that was 2017's Murder on the Orient Express. I do think it seemed to flag a little during the middle (after the midway twist but before the big reveal at the end), but it picked up at the end. I don't want to say the ending was predictable, but more like it wasn't entirely surprising. Still a good ending though and let's face it, with the amount of twist endings in books and crime/thriller films, it takes a lot to come up with a truly unpredictable and shocking denoument so this gives it a good go.

Overall a pretty entertaining and fun sleuthing caper, definitely worth a watch if you're into your murder mysteries. Maybe a little more Chris Evans next time...? 😉
  
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Emma (519 KP) Dec 4, 2019

I loved this, and maybe I'm just totally naive, but I didn't guess the ending lol. Definitely more Chris Evans needed
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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2099 KP) rated Poirot: Hallowe'en Party in Books

Feb 2, 2023  
Poirot: Hallowe'en Party
Poirot: Hallowe'en Party
Agatha Christie | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Drowned in the Apple Bobbing Tub
Poirot is called to a small British village after a tragedy at a Hallowe’en party takes place. Someone used the tub that the guests had bobbed for apples in to drown Joyce, a thirteen year old girl who was helping with the event. Earlier in the evening, she had bragged that she had witnessed a murder, however the residents of the village didn’t take her seriously since she was always embellishing if not outright lying about things. If that wasn’t the motive, what happened to her?

Yes, I picked this particular book to read this year because of the upcoming movie “inspired” by it. I suspect the movie will be vastly different, but we will see. The book originally came out in 1969, and you can tell with some of the theories that Poirot hears about what happened. It was interesting to see how society was thinking about some of these issues back then. My biggest issue was the victim’s age, it’s just not something I’m used to. However, I was drawn into the story, interested in finding out exactly what happened. The characters could have been a little sharper, but they did help make me care about the story. I was on the right track, but didn’t have everything pieced together when we reached the climax, which was pretty thrilling. It’s easy to see why this is a lesser-known book from Agatha Christie, but it is definitely enjoyable.