The Agatha Christie Book Club

This cozy mystery by C. A. Larmer is the first in a series.  It is set in Sydney, Australia and has some Aussie phrases in the story which took a bit of getting accustomed to.  For example they say arvo which I think means afternoon but I am not sure.

There is a group of characters that are centered around Alicia Finlay, the book club founder and her sister.   The other book club members resemble many of the characters in Agatha Christie books and the group/story references many of her works. 

The book club begins innocently enough but evolves into a crime solving group as a member of their group suddenly becomes a victim of an apparent crime.   The group works to solve it and in the process uncovers lots of other secrets. 

At times I found the story to have too many characters to keep track of but they each had a depth to them that was pretty impressive considering how many of them there were.   In addition to the 7 book club members we also meet the brother of one of the members and the immediate family of that member.   Larmer does a wonderful job of evoking emotional responses to the characters including immense dislike. 

The series definitely seems interesting and I will try to pursue reading more of the books.

The Agatha Christie Book Club by C.A. Larmer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found this mystery set in Sydney to be a fun read. The characters are quirky and all seem to be hiding something which adds to the suspicion of who is the guilty party in the crime. This book is great for any Agatha Christie fan as the name would suggest and there are plenty of references to her works.

The story has a large number of characters and I did have trouble keeping track of them at times. This is the main reason I am giving it 3 stars instead of 4. Additionally, there were parts of the story that felt a bit confusing for me to follow and the timeframe of the story was a bit lost at times.

I did enjoy the story and would read more in the series if I was able to find them.


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Challenge Prompts

The Challenge Prompts I will use this for are:

1. Cravings for a Cozy and Cloak and  Dagger #CloakDaggerChal : Book  #67
2. Cruising through cozies -  Free choice #21
3. Medical Examiner-  1 Toe Tag bludgeoned
4. Six Shooter- 1st shot target 27
5. Popsugar- #popsugarreadingchallenge #4 about a bookclub
6. TBR Book #43  #Backlistreader ; #MountTBR2020; #StartOnYourShelfathon