The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Hercule Poirot : Third Girl – Agatha Christie – PBS NEW Masterpiece Mystery!

Here’s another friendly reminder >>> Don’t forget Hercule Poirot (aka David Suchet) is again going to grace us with his phenomenal little gray cells… tonight, July 18, 2010. Yes, it’s that time again… Someone has done a very terrible “something”… and our favorite Belgian detective is going to tell us who, what, when, and why!

This adaptation of Third Girl  (based on the 1966 Agatha Christie mystery) will star David Suchet… but here’s an extra treat: both the wonderful actress Zoë Wanamaker and the always-great David Yelland will be in tonight’s episode. I won’t list all of their credits, but am guessing you will recognize their very familiar faces… a real treat!

So, I urge you to set up whatever type of recording device you “depend on” for tonight’s showing of Agatha Christie’s Third Girl (check your local PBS schedule for the exact time)… unless you plan on being in front of your television set at the appointed hour!

Four New Mystery Authors on the Cozy Mystery Site: Barry S. Brown, Denise Osborne, Allison Cesario Paton, & Sheila Radley

Thanks to several Cozy Mystery site readers, I have four new mystery authors who I have included on the site:

Barry S. Brown: Brown writes the Mrs. Hudson of Baker Street Mystery Series which features the housekeeper of Sherlock Holmes as the sleuth at 221-B Baker Street…

Denise Osborne: Osborne’s Feng Shui Mystery Series features Salome Waterhouse, a California practitioner of Feng Shui. Osborne also pens the Queenie Davilov Mystery series which features a California screenwriter.

Allison Cesario Paton: Paton writes the Mrs. Bundle Mystery Series which takes place in Vermont, and features a “mature woman” who starts up a private detective agency.

Sheila Radley: Radley writes the Inspector Quantrill Mystery Series which features both the inspector and his sergeant, Hilary Lloyd. the series takes place in England and provides a contrast between a rather antiquated inspector and his modern sergeant.

Comments Re: Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express with David Suchet as Poirot -PBS Masterpiece Mystery!

There were a few comments that were posted about the recent Murder on the Orient Express television movie – starring the wonderful David Suchet (as Hercule Poirot), which aired on Sunday, July 11, 2010. I enjoyed the comments so much, that I decided to write a response in this entry. Here are some of the comments:

Lisa – July 12, 2010 at 5:26 pm
“After seeing the special with David Suchet on the magnificent train I was quite excited about last night’s broadcast. I must say I was disappointed. Very little character development for any of the suspects, Poirot didn’t seem his regular self either. As a Catholic, I was confused by this infusion into Poirot’s character. Suchet is and was marvelous, the production brilliant, but the screen play-script! Why make adjustments to Agatha’s Christie’s magnificent story? I recommend buying the dvd of Suchet’s actual trip on the historic and romantic train. I hope the others in this series are better written.”

Kim – July 12, 2010 at 9:03 pm
“I also was disappointed in the version on PBS, and I was so hopeful because I love David Suchet as Poirot. But I guess when you leave out a character, you have to make someone else one of the killers. Really?? And the 2 scenes showing us Poirot’s thoughts on justice…really not necessary. I have noticed tho, that the newer episodes don’t adhere to the books, and that is what I am watching for. I love the books and want to see those dramatized.”

So, here are my comments:

I, too, was disappointed with this last Masterpiece Mystery! show… Murder on the Orient Express. Don’t get me wrong, I think that it was a good movie on its own merit… I simply don’t think that it belonged with ALL of the other episodes in the David Suchet Poirot series. This one was DARK>>> Much darker than all of the other episodes. And, much darker than the Agatha Christie mysteries I have read… including Murder on the Orient Express! I totally agree with Kim: “the newer episodes don’t adhere to the books, and that is what I am watching for. I love the books and want to see those dramatized.”

I know that budgets have been cut on a lot of television productions, and I am assuming this show has felt the cuts BECAUSE, after seeing the magnificently opulent train in the 1974 movie version of this same mystery novel (Yes, yes, I realize that “real” movies spend millions of dollars on their sets!!!) –  I have to say, I do not think that I would clamor to take a trip on this particular train. There was absolutely nothing extraordinary about the inside scenes. I had expected some type of almost-majestic fabrics, wood paneling, light fixtures… something! Lisa, I agree, there was nothing about the train that portrayed it as an “historic and romantic train.”

I was very surprised to see ANY reference to Poirot’s religion. Good grief! Where did that come from?!? I am pretty sure that I have never seen another Masterpiece Poirot show do that. Those scenes simply didn’t “belong” in this production. But, then again, almost all of the scenes didn’t belong! (Again, I think that the movie is good… it just isn’t anything like the others in this particular series.) Why bill this as a type of Poirot-returns show if it isn’t at all like the Poirot most of us have been watching for the last (+/-) 20 years?

This episode brought to my mind the Sesame Street song my children grew up with:
“One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn’t belong.
Can you tell which thing is not like the others,
By the time I finish my song?”

Well, in this case, it was this Agatha Christie Poirot episode!

PS>>>> If you disagree, please feel free to comment…

August 2010 Mystery Book New Releases

The following mystery books will be released in August 2010:

Nevada Barr: Burn (This will be the 16th in the Anna Pigeon Mystery Series…)

Lorna Barrett (aka L. L. Bartlett): Chapter & Hearse (This will be the 4th in the Booktown Mystery Series…)

Cynthia Baxter: Crossing the Lion (This will be the 9th in the Reigning Cats & Dogs Mystery Series…)

Jessica Beck: Fatally Frosted (This will be the 2nd in the Donut Shop Mystery Series…)

Judy Clemens: The Grim Reaper’s Dance (This will be the 2nd in the Grim Reader Mystery Series…)

Cleo Coyle (aka Alice Kimberly): Roast Mortem (This will be the 9th in the Coffeehouse Mystery Series …)

Bill Crider: Murder in the Air (This will be the 17th in the Dan Rhodes Mystery Series…)

Ellen Crosby: The Viognier Vendetta (This will be the 5th in the Wine Country Mystery Series…)

Lonnie Cruse: Fifty-Seven Traveling (This will be the 2nd in the Kitty Bloodworth, ’57 Mystery Series…)

Clive Cussler & Grant Blackwood: Lost Empire (This will be the 2nd in the Fargo Adventure Series…)

Carole Nelson Douglas: Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme (This will be the 22th in the Midnight Louie Mystery Series…)

Dick Francis & Felix Francis: Crossfire (This will be a Stand Alone…)

Charlaine Harris & Toni L. P. Kelner (editors): Death’s Excellent Vacation (This will be an Anthology…)

Veronica Heley: Murder by Mistake (This will be the 11th in the Ellie Quicke Mystery Series…)

Miranda James (aka Dean James, Honor Hartman, Jimmie Ruth Evans): Murder Past Due (This will be the 1st in the NEW Cat in the Stacks Mystery Series…)

Faye Kellerman: Hangman (This will be the 19th in the Decker & Lazarus Mystery Series…)

Toni L. P. Kelner & Charlaine Harris (editors): Death’s Excellent Vacation (This will be an Anthology…)

Tracy Kiely: Murder on the Bride’s Side (This will be the 2nd in the Elizabeth Parker Mystery Series…)

Victoria Laurie: The Curse of Deadman’s Forest (This will be the 2nd in the Children’s Oracles of Delphi Keep Mystery Series…)

Amanda Lee (aka Gayle Trent): The Quick and the Thread (This will be the 1st in the NEW Embroidery Mystery Series…)

Laura Lippman: I’d Know You Anywhere (This will be a Stand Alone…)

Debbie Macomber: 1022 Evergreen Place (This will be the 10th in the Cedar Cove Series – not a mystery…)

Nancy Mehl: Missing Mabel (This will be one of the Hometown Mystery Series… Author is found on the Heartsong Presents page…)

Leslie Meier: Wicked Witch Murder (This will be the 16th in the Lucy Stone Mystery Series…) (This will be a Halloween theme mystery…)

James Patterson & Liza Marklund: The Postcard Killers (This will be a Stand Alone…)

Kathy Reichs: Spider Bones (This will be the 13th in the Temperance Brennan Mystery Series…)

Cynthia Riggs: Touch Me Not (This will be the 9th in the Martha’s Vineyard Mystery Series…)

Peter Robinson: Bad Boy (This will be the 19th in the Inspector Banks Mystery Series…)

Carolyn J. Rose: Hemlock Lake (This will be a Stand Alone…)

Jennifer Stanley (aka J. B. Stanley & Ellery Adams): The Way of the Guilty (This will be the 3rd in the Hope Street Church Mystery Series…)

Terri Thayer: False Impressions (This will be the 3rd in the Stamping Sisters Mystery Series…)

Aimée & David Thurlo: Never-Ending-Snake (This will be the 14th in the Ella Clah Mystery Series…)

Charles Todd: An Impartial Witness (This will be the 2nd in the Bess Crawford Mystery Series…)

Penny Warner:  How to Crash a Killer Bash (This will be the 2nd in the Party Planning Mystery Series…)

Heather Webber: Deeply, Desperately (This will be the 2nd in the Lucy Valentine Mystery Series…)

♦To go back to the Cozy Mystery Book New Releases page, click here.♦

PS>>> I amended the above post so that it shows that Miranda James is indeed Dean James, Honor Hartman, Jimmie Ruth Evans>>> I had asked for verification of this, thus the Cleo Coyle comment posted below…

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