1st bit of info: just an update on the ACRG. We've met now both primarily to figure out our 1st two books and other ideas of how we want to go about it all; and we've met after reading our first book. Our numbers were down for that meeting, but that's alright. Discussion went well. It's interesting discussing mysteries (which have been my favorite genre since long before I knew what the word genre meant...well I guess you can't really say long before I knew "genre" because I wasn't alive for too many years before I started understanding and using "genre") with people who haven't been as well acquainted with them.
The first meeting (post-book) was hosted by yours truly and we had tea and discussion on The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It is the first Agatha Christie to feature her most famous detective: Hercule Poirot and it is the first novel she published. It was my first time reading it and, although there were times I felt it was certainly her first novel, it was an enjoyable, strychnine-filled introduction to the great Belgian detective and his "leetle grey cells".
I'm afraid I can't really describe to you the way I read a mystery. There's a part of me that just enjoys being taken along for the ride. In fact, I think I would be able to honestly say that as I'm reading, especially one of Christie's works, I'm doing that, just enjoying the story. Or at least that's what I thought I was doing, but I found out that all the while my "little grey cells" are working, themselves. I blame (and thank) my mother for that, for teaching me about foreshadowing and how to look for it and not just how to look for it but to look for it. I'm certainly glad that even though this was Christie's 1st work, I was not able to pin it down. It shows that even from her early work, although it may have been a bit rough, she was and will remain the "queen of crime"! I can only hope to attain some of the ability she held!
All that said, I look forward to hearing the thoughts from my fellow readers on our next book: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd! As I've alread read it I am trying my best not to say anything about it. It's hard to not slip and start mentioning it at the wrong moment, though....Well, that's it for now...until then (then being the next time we're together again dear readers)!
