Download or read book The Complete Annotated Murder of Roger Ackroyd written by Agatha Christie and published by Bill Peschel (pub-9236556122599907). This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fully annotated edition of “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” includes:
* Nearly 15,000 words in the footnotes describing words, historical events, and cultural references
* Essays on Agatha Christie’s life and how she found love again, what to look for when rereading Ackroyd, the controversy over a claimed Scandinavian inspiration, what you’ll find in a doctor’s black bag, Christie’s legacy as a fictional character, a review of the Poirot episode, and what the reviewers thought of the book at the time
* Maps and illustrations of objects and places mentioned in the novel
* Character list, cover gallery, and a full bibliography
* More than 30 photos and illustrations

Agatha Christie’s most controversial novel

In this annotated edition of the groundbreaking Agatha Christie novel, Hercule Poirot retires to the village of King’s Abbot to raise vegetable marrows. But when his friend Roger Ackroyd is found stabbed to death in his study, Poirot is asked to investigate. Many people would benefit from the death of the country squire, but none of them could have done it, except for the man who vanished!

With the help of Dr. Sheppard, who narrates the tale, Poirot examines the evidence, but each clue raises more questions. Whose finger wore the wedding ring before it was tossed into the lake? Who visited the summer-house in the middle of the night? Who left muddy footprints on the window sill? What secrets are being kept from Poirot by the Ackroyd family and servants?

Published in 1926, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd established Christie as the premiere mystery novelist of her time, and her 11-day disappearance after its publication spread her name worldwide. This new annotated edition, edited by Bill Peschel, contains an additional 30,000 words in footnotes and essays describing unfamiliar words, expands on the story, and delves into the novel’s background and the life of its author.

The Complete, Annotated Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the seventh book in Peschel Press’ Complete, Annotated series, will entertain, educate, and enlighten you. Learn about Agatha Christie during her greatest crisis and how she rebuilt her life and found a second chance at love.

Download or read book The Murder of Roger Ackroyd written by Agatha Christie and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of Agatha Christie’s most famous novels, featuring her beloved detective Hercule Poirot—and her most surprising twist. The story that made Agatha Christie famous ends with one of her most dramatic twists. The villagers of King’s Abbot are shocked when a wealthy local widow commits suicide and the very next day her fiancé, Roger Ackroyd, is stabbed to death. Dr. James Sheppard, the local physician, discovers the body of his friend and narrates the ensuing hunt for the killer. All the guests and staff at Ackroyd's country house seem to have solid alibis—except for his missing stepson. But as the authorities home in on their most obvious suspect, the recently retired detective Hercule Poirot unexpectedly turns up and joins the fray. Dr. Sheppard gamely assists the legendary Poirot as he untangles one of the most fiendish mysteries in Christie’s extensive oeuvre.

Download or read book The Complete Annotated Murder on the Links written by Agatha Christie and published by . This book was released on 2020-03-12 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Cases of Blue Ploermell written by James Thurber and published by . This book was released on 2021-10 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1923, the young reporter James Thurber was given a half a page in the Sunday Evening Dispatch of Columbus, Ohio, every week to fill with anything he wanted. For most of that year, he turned out book reviews, humorous commentary, jokes, stories, and even literary criticism.He also wrote a series of 13 short Sherlockian parodies - 10,000 words in all - starring Blue Ploermell, a "psychosocial" detective with a fondness for animal crackers. Aided (and occasionally impeded) by his Chinese manservant, Gong Low, Ploermell investigates cases marked by his cock-eyed deductions, loopy logic, and knack for leaping to the wrong conclusion.These juvenilia represents Thurber's first attempts at learning the craft of humor writing. Looking back at this work years later, he even considered publishing the Ploermell stores. The Cases of Blue Ploermell, for the first time in a century, collects the 13 stories. Edited and annotated by Bill Peschel, they show Thurber trying his hand at characterization, story structure, ethnic humor, and serial writing in a style rarely seen at any newspaper. In addition to the annotations, Peschel wrote essays on Thurber's years in Columbus, Ohio; journalism in the 1920s; the state of Sherlockian parodies; and depictions of Chinese men and women in American popular culture. Note: The 13 stories are very short, and take up 40 pages of this 200-page book. The rest of the book consists of these essays: "Becoming James Thurber" (39 pages); "Journalism in Thurber's Time" (4 pages); "Sherlockian Parodies in the 1920s" (8 pages); "The Ancestors of Gong Low" (13 pages); "The Chinese in Popular Culture" (35 pages); movie reviews (19 pages); chronology (9 pages); lists (7 pages).

Download or read book The Complete Annotated Murder on the Links written by Agatha Christie and published by Peschel Press. This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fully annotated edition of “Murder on the Links” includes: * 20,000 words in the footnotes describing words, historical events, and cultural references * Essays on Agatha Christie’s life, the French judicial system, golf novels, and the murderous inspiration of “Links” * Maps and illustrations of objects and places mentioned in the novel * Character list, French phrase list, and a full bibliography * Numerous photos and illustrations A dangerous threat. A mysterious woman. A murderous past. Hercule Poirot is hunting a killer! Responding to a hunted man’s desperate plea, Hercule Poirot and his friend Captain Hastings travel to the coast of France, only to find him murdered outside his home, the Villa Marguerite. Joining the investigation despite the opposition of a rival detective, he uncovers evidence that leads to the arrest of an innocent man. Poirot must prevent a deadly miscarriage of justice, but how can he succeed when even his close friend is working against him? The Belgian detective must tax his celebrated “little grey cells” to the utmost to uncover what happened that deadly night on the grounds of the Villa Marguerite. The Complete, Annotated Murder on the Links contains hundreds of explanatory footnotes — 20,000 words in all! — by Christie expert Bill Peschel. They describe in detail aspects of British and French culture unfamiliar to readers. They define cultural and historical events, define unfamiliar French and English words, and now-forgotten celebrities. Learn why red lipstick was seen as a sexual signal, who Christie dedicated the book too and why, and links in the story to other Christie works. When you’re done with the novel, dig into these essays — 12,000 words in all by Bill Peschel — that expand the world of Links and Agatha Christie: * The Woman Behind Murder on the Links Meet Marguerite Steinheil, the wealthy adventuress whose affair with the president of France ended in his death, and her involvement in a double murder (of her husband and mother) that put her on trial for her life! * England vs. France Why the two nations get like a longtime married couple who barely understand each other, but stay together anyway. * The British Invasion Links is set amid the English expatriates on the Boulogne coast. Why did they come to France, and what was the Christie connection? * The French Police The way French police investigate crimes is far different from their English counterparts. What is the difference between the Sûreté, the gendarmerie, and the municipal police? Read this and find out. * Agatha Christie in 1921 What was she doing and why was this her most happy time? * Education Of an Author Agatha Christie learned a lot about the publishing business during this time. Why did she drop her first publisher and move to Collins? * The History of Hastings Mystery’s second most celebrated sidekick gets an essay about him, describing why he was useful and why Christie dropped him. * Murder on the Golf Course Although Links didn’t have much to do with the game, there were plenty of mysteries taking place on the golf course. This overview describes the most notable ones of the 1920s and ’30s. * Editing Agatha There were numerous changes made in the book between its first publication and its final edition, including whole paragraphs omitted. This essay describes what was changed. Plus two maps created for the book, a list of French phrases, translated, and a list of characters.

Download or read book The Complete Annotated Secret Adversary written by Agatha Christie and published by Peschel Press. This book was released on 2013-12-01 with total page 573 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A world war is over but Great Britain is still menaced by its enemies. Recently released from their wartime service, Tommy and Tuppence are young, energetic . . . and broke. Joining forces, they advertise that they’ll do anything for money. When they’re hired by the government to hunt for a missing treaty, they discover a plot led by the mysterious “Mr. Brown” to destroy the nation! Can Tommy and Tuppence defeat Bolshevists, Sinn Feiners, trade unionists and Labourites and save Britain in her hour of peril? Agatha Christie created intricate stories of murder and mayhem that have enchanted millions of readers worldwide. Bill Peschel, author of “The Complete, Annotated Mysterious Affair at Styles,” “The Complete, Annotated Whose Body?” and “Writers Gone Wild,” reads between the lines of Christie’s first thriller and tells the fascinating stories behind it. “The Complete, Annotated Secret Adversary” contains more than 700 footnotes describing words, idioms, people, places and contemporary events; essays on Agatha Christie:, her battles with the tax man and her 11-day disappearance that shocked the nation; essays on the times, including flappers, spy scandals, and the world after World War I. The book also contains a detailed chronology of Christie’s life and a list of all of her books.

Download or read book The Complete Annotated Secret of Chimneys written by Agatha Christie and published by Peschel Press. This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Romance, politics, mystery, and murder collide at a British country home In this lengthy annotated edition of the classic Agatha Christie novel, adventurer Anthony Cade returns to Britain to deliver a politician’s memoirs and to rescue a woman from a blackmailing scheme. But when he arrives, he finds himself enmeshed in international intrigue and murder. The answer to these mysteries, as well as his pursuit of a beautiful spirited woman leads him to Chimneys, the country home. There, another murder puts him in the middle of the investigation that will require all of his wits and intelligence to keep him from the gallows. Meanwhile, the forces of Scotland Yard and the French Sûreté converge on Chimneys in pursuit of a master criminal, a missing British crown jewel, and the ultimate Secret of Chimneys. Published in 1925, “The Secret of Chimneys” was hailed as “a capital detective story,” “bright and cleverly written” and “an engrossing and entertaining yarn.” This new annotated edition, edited by Bill Peschel comes more than 30,000 words in footnotes and essays that delves into the background of the story and the life of its author. Learn about Abney Hall, the inspiration of all of Christie’s country homes, the real-life manor where major Hollywood productions are filmed, and the life of Agatha Christie during her most happiest time, before it all fell apart. “The Complete, Annotated Secret of Chimneys,” the fifth book in Peschel Press’ Complete, Annotated series, will entertain, educate, and enlighten you. You’ll see an Agatha Christie at her wittiest and in a way you’ve never seen her before.

Download or read book The Complete Annotated Man in the Brown Suit written by Agatha Christie and published by Peschel Press. This book was released on with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Anne Beddingfeld, Southern Africa holds the key to a mystery, if she lives! Young Anne Beddingfeld came to London with a small inheritance and a taste for travel and adventure. She gets more than she bargained for when a stranger falls from the tube platform and is electrocuted on the rails. A man in a brown suit examines the body, but flees before the police arrive. It was an accidental death, but Anne is intrigued. Why did the dead man startle? Why did he have a note regarding an empty house owned by a high-ranking government official? Who was the man in the brown suit who examined him and fled? What is the secret in the cryptic message he left behind: “17-122 Kilmorden Castle”? The mystery deepens when a woman is found strangled in the official's empty house. Anne’s investigation leads her to a cruise ship heading for sunny South Africa, followed by a treacherous journey into Rhodesia. Anne encounters danger, daring escapes, romance, and uncovers a conspiracy that could shake the foundation of the British Empire. Published in 1926, The Man in the Brown Suit was praised for its ingenious plotting and unique narrative structure. This new annotated edition, edited by Bill Peschel, comes with more than 40,000 words in footnotes and essays that delves into the background of the story and the life of its author. The Complete, Annotated Man in the Brown Suit, the sixth book in Peschel Press’ Complete, Annotated series, will entertain, educate, and enlighten you. You’ll see an Agatha Christie at her wittiest and in a way you’ve never seen her before.

Download or read book The Complete Annotated Mysterious Affair at Styles written by Agatha Christie and published by Peschel Press. This book was released on 2013-12-19 with total page 895 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why Would People Drink Strychnine For Their Health? What Does ‘English Beef and Brawn’ Mean? What Are Land Smocks? Spill Vases? Patience Cards? What Did Agatha Christie Think Of Jews? How Did A 25-Year-Old Woman Create One Of Mystery’s Greatest Detectives? Best-selling mystery writer Agatha Christie created intricate stories of murder and mayhem that have enchanted readers worldwide. Bill Peschel, author of "The Complete, Annotated Whose Body?" (by Dorothy L. Sayers) and "Writers Gone Wild," illuminates the obscure references in Christie’s debut novel and tells the fascinating stories behind it and its creator. "The Complete, Annotated Mysterious Affair at Styles" contains: ● Nearly 500 footnotes describing words, idioms, people, places and contemporary events. ● Essays on Christie’s life and the world of Styles. ● A detailed chronology of her life and work. ● Lists of her novels and short-story collections, organized by year of publication and by detective. ● A bibliography of resources, including books about Christie that will delight fans. “Though this may be the first published book of Miss Agatha Christie, she betrays the cunning of an old hand.” — The New York Times, Dec. 26, 1920

Download or read book The Complete Annotated Secret of Chimneys written by Agatha Christie and published by . This book was released on 2021-01-15 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Romance, politics, mystery, and murder collide at a British country home In this lengthy annotated edition of the classic Agatha Christie novel, adventurer Anthony Cade returns to Britain to deliver a politician's memoirs and to rescue a woman from a blackmailing scheme. But when he arrives, he finds himself enmeshed in international intrigue and murder. The answer to these mysteries, as well as his pursuit of a beautiful spirited woman leads him to Chimneys, the country home. There, another murder puts him in the middle of the investigation that will require all of his wits and intelligence to keep him from the gallows. Meanwhile, the forces of Scotland Yard and the French Sûreté converge on Chimneys in pursuit of a master criminal, a missing British crown jewel, and the ultimate Secret of Chimneys. Published in 1925, "The Secret of Chimneys" was hailed as "a capital detective story," "bright and cleverly written" and "an engrossing and entertaining yarn." This new annotated edition, edited by Bill Peschel comes with more than 30,000 words in footnotes and essays that delves into the background of the story and the life of its author. Learn about Abney Hall, the inspiration of all of Christie's country homes, the real-life manor where major Hollywood productions are filmed, and the life of Agatha Christie during her most happiest time, before it all fell apart. "The Complete, Annotated Secret of Chimneys," the fifth book in Peschel Press' Complete, Annotated series, will entertain, educate, and enlighten you. You'll see an Agatha Christie at her wittiest and in a way you've never seen her before.

Download or read book The Murder on the Links unique Annotated Edition written by Agatha Christie and published by . This book was released on 2021-07-11 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Two people rarely see the same thing." ― Agatha Christie, The Murder on the Links Experienced Belgian detective, Hercules Poirot is called in to a client but when he arrives is given notice of the man's death earlier that day. The victim lay face down in a grave located within a golf course. He was wearing his son's overcoat and a love letter within. Cause of death, a letter opener. Soon Poirot's case is flipped over by the discovery of another identical corpse.

Download or read book The Murder on the Links written by Agatha Christie and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-11 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Murder on the Links is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead & Coin March 1923 and, in the same year, in the UK by The Bodley Head in May. It features Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6and the US edition at $1.75The story takes place in northern France, giving Poirot a hostile competitor from the Paris Sûreté. Poirot's long memory for past or similar crimes proves useful in resolving the crimes. The book is notable for a subplot in which Hastings falls in love, a development "greatly desired on Agatha's part... parceling off Hastings to wedded bliss in the Argentine." Reviews, when it was published, compared Mrs. Christie favorably to Arthur Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Remarking on Poirot, still a new character, one reviewer said he was "a pleasant contrast to most of his lurid competitors; and one even suspects a touch of satire in him."

Download or read book The Complete Annotated Man in the Brown Suit written by Agatha Christie and published by . This book was released on 2022-02-05 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Young Anne Beddingfeld came to London with a small inheritance and a taste for travel and adventure. She gets more than she bargained for when a nearby stranger falls from the tube platform and is electrocuted on the rails. A man in a brown suit examines the body, but flees before the police arrive. It was an accidental death, but Anne is still intrigued. Why did the dead man startle? Why did he have a note regarding an empty house owned by a high-ranking government official? Who was the man in the brown suit who examined him and fled? What is the secret in the cryptic message he left behind: "17-122 Kilmorden Castle"?The mystery deepens when a woman is found strangled in the empty house. Anne's investigation leads her to a cruise ship heading for sunny South Africa, followed by a treacherous journey into Rhodesia. Anne encounters danger, daring escapes, romance, and uncovers a conspiracy that could shake the foundation of the British Empire.

Download or read book The Red House Mystery written by A. A. Milne and published by Memorable Classics Books. This book was released on 2023-08-31 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne - is a whodunnit by A. A. Milne, published in 1922. It was Milne's only mystery novel (except for Four Days Wonder). Plot introduction: The setting is an English country house, where Mark Ablett has been entertaining a house party consisting of a widow and her marriageable daughter, a retired major, a wilful actress, and Bill Beverley, a young man about town. Mark's long-lost brother Robert, the black sheep of the family, arrives from Australia and shortly thereafter is found dead, shot through the head. Mark Ablett has disappeared, so Tony Gillingham, a stranger who has just arrived to call on his friend Bill, decides to investigate. Gillingham plays Sherlock Holmes to his younger counterpart's Doctor Watson; they progress almost playfully through the novel while the clues mount up and the theories abound. Literary significance and criticism: The Red House Mystery was immediately popular; Alexander Woollcott called it "one of the three best mystery stories of all time", though Raymond Chandler, in his essay The Simple Art of Murder (1944), criticised Woollcott for that claim, referring to him as, "rather a fast man with a superlative". Chandler wrote of Milne's novel, "It is an agreeable book, light, amusing in the Punch style, written with a deceptive smoothness that is not as easy as it looks [...] Yet, however light in texture the story may be, it is offered as a problem of logic and deduction. If it is not that, it is nothing at all. There is nothing else for it to be. If the situation is false, you cannot even accept it as a light novel, for there is no story for the light novel to be about." In his introduction to the 1926 UK edition, A. A. Milne said he had "a passion" for detective stories, having "all sorts of curious preferences" about them: though in real life the best detectives and criminals are professionals, Milne demanded that the detective be an unscientific amateur, accompanied by a likable Watson, rubbing shoulders with an amateur villain against whom dossiers and fingerprints are of no avail.

Download or read book Devil in a Blue Dress 30th Anniversary Edition written by Walter Mosley and published by Washington Square Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first novel by “master of mystery” (The New York Times) Walter Mosley, featuring Easy Rawlins, the most iconic African American detective in all of fiction. Named one of the “best 100 mystery novels of all time” by the Mystery Writers of America, this special thirtieth anniversary edition features an all new introduction from the author. The year is 1948, the town is Los Angeles. Easy Rawlins, a black war veteran, has just been fired from his job at a defense factory plant. Drinking in his friend’s bar, he’s wondering how he’ll manage to make ends meet, when a white man in a linen suit approaches him and offers him good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Money, a missing blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs. Easy has no idea that by taking this job, his life is about to change forever. “More than simply a detective novel…[Mosley is] a talented author with something vital to say about the distance between the black and white worlds, and with a dramatic way to say it” (The New York Times).

Download or read book A Companion to Crime Fiction written by Charles J. Rzepka and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-07-13 with total page 648 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to Crime Fiction presents the definitive guide to this popular genre from its origins in the eighteenth century to the present day A collection of forty-seven newly commissioned essays from a team of leading scholars across the globe make this Companion the definitive guide to crime fiction Follows the development of the genre from its origins in the eighteenth century through to its phenomenal present day popularity Features full-length critical essays on the most significant authors and film-makers, from Arthur Conan Doyle and Dashiell Hammett to Alfred Hitchcock and Martin Scorsese exploring the ways in which they have shaped and influenced the field Includes extensive references to the most up-to-date scholarship, and a comprehensive bibliography

Download or read book The Complete Annotated Whose Body written by Dorothy L. Sayers and published by Complete Annotated. This book was released on 2019-03 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a church architect finds a naked man in his Battersea bathroom, Lord Peter Wimsey is on the case! The aristocratic amateur detective, accompanied by his camera-bearing manservant Bunter, follows a trail of blood as he pursues stock market manipulation, medical malpractice and Lord Brocklebury's edition of Dante. But the curious case of the bathing body turns darker and deadlier as Lord Peter uncovers a ghastly crime.Published in 1923, Whose Body? was Dorothy L. Sayer's debut novel. Bill Peschel has provided hundreds of footnotes to guide the reader through Lord Peter's world, describing words, objects and ideas that were familiar to Sayers' readers but obscure or unknown today.THE COMPLETE, ANNOTATED WHOSE BODY? contains: * More than 500 notes on English history, aristocracy, religion, society and literature. * Three maps of London showing locations important to the novel. * Essays about England in the 1920s, such as anti-Semitism, finance and crime. * Timelines of the life of Dorothy L. Sayers and Lord Peter Wimsey's cases.One of the great mystery novelists of the 20th century, DOROTHY L. SAYERS was born in Oxford in 1893 and was one of the first women to be granted a degree by Oxford University. She wrote more than a dozen Lord Peter novels and short stories, and three more novels were written by Jill Paton Walsh. She died in 1957.BILL PESCHEL is a longtime editor and Sayers fan whose Wimsey Annotations at www.planetpeschel.com has delighted mystery fans for over a decade. Peschel is also the author of WRITERS GONE WILD: The Feuds, Frolics and Follies of Literature's Great Adventurers, Drunkards, Lovers, Iconoclasts and Misanthropes (Penguin Books).