I used to be a huge mystery fan when I was younger. As a child I absolutely loved The Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown, and The Three Investigators. I watched Alfred Hitchcock Presents whenever it came on TV, I subscribed to the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine (my first-ever magazine subscription, by the way), and I read as many mystery novels as I could get my hands on.
Usually I read Hitchcock anthologies (what can I say — I liked Hitchcock!), but occasionally read stuff some stuff aimed at older audiences. For example, when I was in fifth grade, my then-stepmother was a big Agatha Christie fan and had all her books. I read Murder on the Orient Express, and liked it well enough, but didn’t really go any farther than that.
But now I’m back on a mystery kick and have decided to read all of Agatha Christie’s novels in chronological order. I just finished reading the tenth one, Murder at the Vicarage, and have to say that I loved it! This is the first Miss Marple book, and even though Miss Marple didn’t exactly play a major role in the novel, I thought it was an excellent book. So far, my impression of Christie’s works has been lukewarm at best. Sometimes they’re great, but sometimes (like with The Big Four), they’re just way off the mark.
Murder at the Vicarage, however, was very good. Interesting characters, solvable crime (though I didn’t come up with the answer before Miss Marple did), and good plotting. All in all, it was a page-turner and I recommend it to anyone that wants to curl up with a good mystery!