Ariadne Oliver has a bad feeling about the murder she's planning.
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Of course, Mrs. Oliver is only killing for charity. As a famous mystery writerAriadne Oliver has a bad feeling about the murder she's planning.
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Of course, Mrs. Oliver is only killing for charity. As a famous mystery writer, she's been asked to plan a fake murder and organize the hunt for clues. But there's just something indefinably wrong with the situation. And when she thinks about it for a second? Hey! I know a guy...
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In typical Mrs. Oliver fashion, she informs Poirot that he needs to immediately pack his bags and head her way whether he wants to or not. And in typical Poirot fashion, his curiosity gets the better of him and he shows up in time to meet everyone involved before all the murdering starts.
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Ok, so as much as I love good old Hastings, Ariadne Oliver is my absolute favorite Poirot sidekick. I think it's because it's almost like a funny version of Agatha Christie interacting with her own character on the page.
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The mystery is pretty decent, too. Disguises, secret histories, blackmail, and scary foreigners! Good stuff.
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In case you were wondering: Dead Man's Folly was an expanded version of Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly, which was published posthumously as a short. There are differences between the two stories, but the reason Christie originally abandoned Greenshore Folly was that it was too long to be in a magazine. So? <--you say Well, the proceeds of the magazine story were supposed to go to her church for renovations. Instead, she ended up writing Greenshaw's Folly - a Miss Marple Short Story and giving the money for that one to the church. You're welcome for this useless bit of trivia.
Merged review:
Ariadne Oliver has a bad feeling about the murder she's planning.
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Of course, Mrs. Oliver is only killing for charity. As a famous mystery writer, she's been asked to plan a fake murder and organize the hunt for clues. But there's just something indefinably wrong with the situation. And when she thinks about it for a second? Hey! I know a guy...
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In typical Mrs. Oliver fashion, she informs Poirot that he needs to immediately pack his bags and head her way whether he wants to or not. And in typical Poirot fashion, his curiosity gets the better of him and he shows up in time to meet everyone involved before all the murdering starts.
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Ok, so as much as I love good old Hastings, Ariadne Oliver is my absolute favorite Poirot sidekick. I think it's because it's almost like a funny version of Agatha Christie interacting with her own character on the page.
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The mystery is pretty decent, too. Disguises, secret histories, blackmail, and scary foreigners! Good stuff.
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In case you were wondering: Dead Man's Folly was an expanded version of Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly, which was published posthumously as a short. There are differences between the two stories, but the reason Christie originally abandoned Greenshore Folly was that it was too long to be in a magazine. So? <--you say Well, the proceeds of the magazine story were supposed to go to her church for renovations. Instead, she ended up writing Greenshaw's Folly - a Miss Marple Short Story and giving the money for that one to the church. You're welcome for this useless bit of trivia....more
Kind of a waste. Rose & Thorn is a weird character to start and this reimagining didn't help.
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I think it could have been a cool story, if it hadKind of a waste. Rose & Thorn is a weird character to start and this reimagining didn't help.
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I think it could have been a cool story, if it had been a mini series. As a single issue? No. There's just not enough here to go on. It basically stops when the story starts to get interesting.
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The skinny gist is that this is a reimagined Rose & Thorn, with the dual personality (Thorn) somehow coming out because Rose's father was (maybe) murdered. It ends where any good comic would start. Plus, the art isn't all that great. So, no. I wouldn't recommend this....more
A reimagining of Wonder Woman with a horror vibe. Yes, please.
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A red-eyed sorceress, abandoned in Hell by the gods as punishment to the Amazons,A reimagining of Wonder Woman with a horror vibe. Yes, please.
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A red-eyed sorceress, abandoned in Hell by the gods as punishment to the Amazons, and raised by Circe as her adoptive mother. Why has no one thought of this before? Because it's batshit, that's why!
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Absolute Wonder Woman is everything I never knew I always wanted. Kelly Thompson really leaned into the magic side of Diana in her Justice League Dark best, and came up with a whole new origin for her. Still good, still strong, still out to save humanity. It's just that now she's riding a skeleton pegasus and spitting spells.
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I want to see where this goes. Recommended....more
Even by fairytale standards, this thing is weird. But fun! The skinny gist is that a haughty waiting maid takes over the life of a princess and threatenEven by fairytale standards, this thing is weird. But fun! The skinny gist is that a haughty waiting maid takes over the life of a princess and threatens to kill her if she tells. And here's how it happens. <--in this version
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A beautiful princess is much loved by her mother, the widowed Queen of Wherever. And she's betrothed to Prince Handsome&Rich who lives a few kingdoms over. As her wedding day approaches, her mom packs her off to get married and gives her a waiting maid to make the journey easier. There's also a fairy who thinks the princess is swell, and gives her a talking horse named Falada, and a lock of her fairy hair to keep her safe. So far, so good.
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But once they're out of sight of the kingdom, the maid gets shitty. The princess gets thirsty and asks the maid to get down off her horse and fetch her some water from a brook, and the maid is all like, Bitch, get your own damn water. So the princess gets down all shaky and (for some reason) is too scared to pull out her golden cup, and gets a drink of water like a peasant. GASP! And when she did this the fairy hair tucked away in ther boobs chanted Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it, Sadly, sadly, would she rue it. This translates into if your momma only knew, girl.
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This happens one more time with the princess asking for to maid to get down and fetch her water, and the maid telling her to fuck off. But the second time, the lock of fairy hair that she's been carrying in her bosom falls out and floats down the river. You know, boobs are great for tucking thing into, but you gotta be careful when you lean down. True story:(view spoiler)[ Not too long ago, I was changing out some light switches in my house, and my flashlight died. So I pulled my shirt off, turned on my phone's flashlight, and stuck it in my bra. I managed to rewire my toggels to rocker switches with the help of redneck ingenuity and old lady tits. Sometimes it helps to think outside the box, ladies. (hide spoiler)]
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Back to the goose girl. The maid saw that chunk of hair floating down the river while it was chanting, Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it, Sadly, sadly, would she blub, blub, blub..., and she pounced! Gimmie your clothes! Gimmie your horse! Hahahahaha! Now I'm you and if you don't keep your mouth shut...
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So. They ride into town and the maid tells everyone that she's the princess. Hellooooo. I'm here to marry your prince. Find some degrading work for my waiting maid and chop off the head of this here horse I'm riding on while you're at it. I mean, you would think that would raise some alarm bells, wouldn't you? Like, hey. I think our prince might be marrying a psycho. But that's not how this story goes. They chop off Falada's head and tack it up on the gates and send the real princess off to tend the geese with a boy named Curdken.
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Curdken. Anyway, he's hanging out with this unnamed princess and notices that as she passes out of the gate, she talks to the horse head that's still hanging off the wall. Falada, Falada, there thou hangest! And the horse answers back. Bride, bride, there thou gangest! Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it, Sadly, sadly, would she rue it. Again. I would think this would be a red flag that not all is right in the world. But this kid shrugs it off like this was just one. more. thing. in an average day.
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Now, I don't get this part. Curdken sees her getting ready to comb her hair, and he gets all excited and tries to touch it. But the princess is like oh, hell no! and hits him with a magic chant. <--she did this without the fairy hair in her tits, btw. Is she magic? Or is this just a princess thing? We may never know. But here's the chant: Blow, breezes, blow! Let Curdken’s hat go! Blow, breezes, blow! Let him after it go! O’er hills, dales, and rocks, Away be is whirl’d, Till the silvery locks Are all comb’d and curl’d!
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Ok. So this happens a few times, and this Curdken gets sick of chasing his hat, and goes to the king to complain that he can't take working with this goose girl anymore. The king makes Curdken tell him what all is the matter, and the kid reports that she and this severed horse head have conversations at the gate, and that she won't let him touch her hair. <--is this a metaphor, or were they just that into hair?
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Doesn't matter, I suppose. The point is that the king decides to follow the goose girl around the next day, and realizes something is up. He corners her, and after a fair amount of waffling on her part, gets her to tell him what happened. Oh, no! I can't say! It's worth my life if I tell anyone! What? Girl, speak up! Why she's so convinced this other girl is going to be able to kill her is never properly explained. It seems to me that she should have just piped up immediately when they entered the gates. I mean, she had a talking horse that could have (until the waiting maid had her decapitated) confirmed her story. And yet. The king has already seen her talk to Falada's head at the gate, seen said head answer her back, watched her do her princess magic on Culken's hat, and gazed upon her apparently overwhelmingly beautiful locks of golden hair. He's primed to believe her. And he does. Well.
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The prince is let in on the secret and is thrilled to find that this gorgeous, meek, patient woman with a head full of fucking a-mazing hair is his true bride. I was like, that's what he took away from this? Best case scenario, he's going to need to enroll his new wife in some assertiveness training courses, or he's going to find her slopping pigs next.
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Now it's time for the big reveal. The king then dresses the princess up in a beautiful gown and takes her to a feast. He sits her on one side of the prince, while the false bride (as she is now referred to) sits on the other side of him. The king proceeds to tell the story of the goose girl. He then casually asks the false bride what she would do to someone who had committed identity theft.
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She does not smell the trap. Completely oblivious to her discovery, she actually says that the pretender should be hauled off and put into a cask that's got spikes driven into it, then tied to horses and dragged through the city till they are dead. Wow. Just...wow. I mean, I feel the better part of wisdom for a con woman would have been to take a soft approach to fraudsters. Say that they should look into the person's past to see if there was any trauma. Perhaps a medical compulsion? Maybe offer to get them some counseling? Personally, I wouldn't have gone straight to spiking criminals if I were in her position. And yet. THE KING PRONOUNCES JUDGMENT! Why, yes. It is death by rolling in a barrel full of pointy nails.
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On a cheerier note, the fairy restores Falada the decapitated horse head back to life, and the prince and princess live happily ever after. The End.
Now, when I looked online, there were different names and slightly different chants and slight variations on the story. But this was the one I listened to and I thought it was cool and wacky. The audio edition I listened to was produced by Dreamscape Media & read by George Newbern....more
So what Snyder has done is answered the age-old question, would Bruce Wayne be Batman if he weren't aThe faces are familiar, the story is not.
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So what Snyder has done is answered the age-old question, would Bruce Wayne be Batman if he weren't a billionaire?, and the answer is yes. Now, the story of Bruce losing all of his money and having to regroup has been told. But what's different about Absolute Batman is that this Bruce Wayne never had the money to start with.
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And how many times have longtime Batman readers made fun of the pearls falling as Martha Wayne dies reenactment that seems to be shoehorned into every retelling? Well, no pearls this time around. (view spoiler)[Martha is alive and well and a community activist. Thomas Wayne is dead, though, and his death is what pushed Bruce into the role of Batman. He originally wanted to be a doctor, but ended up as a teacher. And he died protecting his students (including a young Bruce) when a man (Joe Chill) shot up the zoo they were visiting on a field trip. They were in the bat house when it happened.
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(hide spoiler)] But for those of you who have read the first volume, you know that all the characters are there, even if the form they take is different.
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I loved that his childhood friend group includes Harvey Dent (Two-Face), Waylon Jones (Killer Croc), Edward Nygma (Riddler), Oswald Cobblepot (Penguin), and Selina Kyle (Catwoman), and that they've remained close ever since. Black Mask and Joker also get updates, and I liked what Snyder did with both of those, as well. Also, Batman punts a kid. Hah! <--it deserves a mention.
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Jim and Barbara Gordon are in this in somewhat familiar roles (Gordon is the mayor and Babs is a police officer), and it's really Alfred who gets the cooler twist. He's MI6 and has been assigned to Gotham to get eyes on Black Mask. No longer the subservient father figure, he's equal parts intrigued and annoyed by Bruce's shenanigans. I liked it.
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This may not hit with everyone, but I'm at the point in my life where I just want something new. And this is a Batman story that I haven't heard a thousand times yet.
I didn't think I was going to like this one, even though everyone has been going on and on about how great it is and pushing me to pick iNice!
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I didn't think I was going to like this one, even though everyone has been going on and on about how great it is and pushing me to pick it up. I just don't usually like Snyder's Batman stuff. But here we are, and I'm glad to be wrong.
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Absolute Batman reimagines the entirety of not just Bruce Wayne, but Gotham and all of its players. I don't want to spoil any surprises for those of you who haven't read this yet, but Snyder pretty much gutted this down to the core and built it back up as something completely new.
It opens with Hal wandering the road like the Incredible Hulk, muttering to himself and chanting aI'm not sure what's happening, but it's cool.
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It opens with Hal wandering the road like the Incredible Hulk, muttering to himself and chanting about being without fear. When a cop pulls over to question him, things get a bit dire.
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Back it up. Now we're thrown into what may have been days or even hours before. I haven't kept up with the Lantern Corps, so I didn't recognize Jo Mullein, but Hal Jordan and John Stewart are both in this, as well. They're all sitting around eating at a diner when Ka-Blooey! Something happens. It's Green.
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Now we're back with Hal at an entirely different diner, and things are getting hairier and weirder by the minute.
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Where's the Green Lantern, you ask? Well, that's a spoiler. Recommended....more
So Wally is your average angry teen who, it appears, has been yanked from place to place by his military scientisStarring the mopey Kid Flash!
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So Wally is your average angry teen who, it appears, has been yanked from place to place by his military scientist dad. He's wandering around in classified areas when he meets up with Barry Allen, a chill science guy who befriends him, right before his dad breaks up the party and kicks him out of the facility.
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ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! Something explodes, spoilery stuff happens, and somehow Wally has Speed Force powers. Now, everything is being told backward and forward and I don't know if that's going to end up being cool or just plain annoying. We'll see.
Still the same sweet couple, but on a different world with a different timeline, a much older Kal-El is taA much different time with the Kents.
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Still the same sweet couple, but on a different world with a different timeline, a much older Kal-El is taken in and nursed back to health by Martha and Jonathan. The end result is...well, a spoiler.
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We've seen Brainiac behind the scenes, but there's another of Superman's villains pulling the strings. And when they were revealed, I couldn't believe I didn't guess it beforehand.
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Anyway. This issue ends the first arc of Aaron's Absolute Superman. It's an interesting take on the character, and certainly not something that I've seen before. Kudos for taking the characters into a whole new direction. Having said all of that, I'm not sure why I don't like this more than I do. I'm hoping that it's not just because I'm set in my ways and don't like change, but that's certainly a possibility. It just feels like it's missing something that I can't put my finger on. I'm definitely going to keep reading this, though....more
The plot was actually rather good, which surprised me as some of the golden age detective fiction can go a littlA very English murder, indeed!
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The plot was actually rather good, which surprised me as some of the golden age detective fiction can go a little off the rails toward the end. This one kept (what I thought was) the right amount of campy spirit needed to make it a cozy mystery, but inserted the right amount of true crime vibe to make the murders seem plausible. And the red herrings were well-done, too! Just enough to throw you off the scent, but still credible when looked back on after you're done.
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The skinny gist is that a dying viscount invites his son, his first cousin (with a bodyguard in tow), and several old family friends to his home for one final Christmas. There is also a historian in residence, working on...history stuff. I don't know, don't judge me. But he's Jewish and a Holocaust survivor, and Hare is actually sensitive to this, which doesn't always come through in books of this era. The ever-faithful butler and his daughter round out the holiday murder mystery.
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The house party, now snowed in, is on edge due to the underlying fractures between the guests. And then one of them drops dead. Of cyanide poisoning.
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As the bodies pile up, more secrets come to light, and the cracks in everyone's alibis start to show. The bodyguard takes on the role of policeman, and the historian takes on the role of foreign-man armchair detective. Between the two of them, can they keep the rest of the party safe until the snow melts? And more importantly, figure out whodunnit?
