4 titles for #MurderEveryMonday Crime fiction with an archaeology theme or connection

Today's #MurderEveryMonday theme, an activity created by Kate Jackson, is a crime fiction book with an archaeology theme or connection. My first thought went to an Agatha Christie short story published for the first time in a magazine in 1923, as it common at the time, and then compiled in a book form in 1924, called The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb…

https://paulasimoesblog.wordpress.com/2026/06/08/4-titles-for-murdereverymonday-crime-fiction-with-an-archaeology-theme-or-connection/

#MurderEveryMonday Crime fiction title with a word associated with funerals

For today's #MurderEveryMonday I'm sharing Nice Day for a Funeral by Hartley Howard and His Burial Too by Catherine Aird. I have read other books from both authors and like them, although I preferred Aird books, which I want to read more of. Check Kate Jackson's blog to know more about the hashtag and give her a follow.

https://paulasimoesblog.wordpress.com/2026/06/01/murdereverymonday-crime-fiction-title-with-a-word-associated-with-funerals/

#MurderEveryMonday Crime fiction title with a word associated with funerals

For today’s #MurderEveryMonday I’m sharing Nice Day for a Funeral by Hartley Howard and His Burial Too by Catherine Aird. I have read other books from both authors and like them, although I preferred Aird books, which I want to read more of.

Check Kate Jackson’s blog to know more about the hashtag and give her a follow.

#MurderEveryMonday Christie, Stout, & Wentworth

#Books #Readings #CrimeFiction

https://paulasimoesblog.wordpress.com/2026/05/25/murdereverymonday-christie-stout-wentworth/

#MurderEveryMonday Cover with a Zoo animal Elephants can Remember: Is it good?

I know, I know: my choice to this #MurderEveryMonday is probably again too obvious, but it also gives me the opportunity to talk about this book. Check Kate's blog to know more about the hashtag. Agatha Christie was 82 years old when she wrote Elephants Can Remember. This is the last novel she wrote with Poirot as the detective and it was published in November of 1972.

https://paulasimoesblog.wordpress.com/2026/05/11/murdereverymonday-cover-with-a-zoo-animal-elephants-can-remember-is-it-good/

#MurderEveryMonday Cover with a Zoo animal Elephants can Remember: Is it good?

I know, I know: my choice to this #MurderEveryMonday is probably again too obvious, but it also gives me the opportunity to talk about this book. Check Kate’s blog to know more about the hashtag.

Agatha Christie was 82 years old when she wrote Elephants Can Remember. This is the last novel she wrote with Poirot as the detective and it was published in November of 1972. Poirot’s Early Cases (1974) and Curtain (1975), both published afterwords, were written in the 1920s and 1930s, for the short stories, and for the last case of Poirot in the 1940s, the book being kept unpublished in a bank vault.

Even at the time of publication, the book received some less kind reviews, with some pointing out inconsistencies about times and ages, which quite frankly could (and should) have been avoided by the editors and publisher of the book. Still, many today consider this a lesser work, but I find several reasons to like it.

The book starts with Mrs. Ariadne Oliver going to a literary luncheon. Oliver is the alter-ego of Agatha Christie: she likes apples, she is always trying hair styles, writes crime fiction, and complains about her Finn detective, lamenting inventing him, since she doesn’t know anything about Finland. It’s always a delight to have her as a character in a book. In the first chapter, Mrs. Oliver tell us about her problems with making speeches, the questions people always ask her, the letters she receives from her readers, and how she tries to deal with all of this. And I found this a delight because it seems clear we’re given a glimpse of something Christie also struggled with and knew first hand.

At that lunch, a woman asks Mrs. Oliver if she is the godmother of Celia Ravenscroft and after corroboration, the woman continues: “Did her mother kill her father or was it the father who killed the mother?”.

And I still remember, when I first read this book (which is more than I can say for so many other books), I was as puzzled as Mrs. Oliver. I mean, why would it matter if it was the father or the mother? Why would it be so important to know? But this also tell us something about the beliefs and obsessions of the people in the past (in this case, in the 1970s). I think Agatha Christie was more observant than a talkative person, and because of that she noticed things more. And I love her books have these snippets she took from her observations: it can be something she heard someone saying, or it can be something being discussed in a newspaper, some new advance in science, something she remembers her family doing when she was a child, etc.

This is also a book about a murder in the past and deals with the people’s memory (the elephants), sometimes people remember certain things, but not others, or they remember things differently. And it’s Poirot job to make sense of all this.

I didn’t re-read this one for some time now, but I remember liking it. And now that I’ve talked about what I liked about it, I’ll be re-reading it again shortly. So, tell me, did you read Elephants Can Remember? Did you like it or not? And why?

#MurderEveryMonday Cover with a series sleuth

For today’s #MurderEvryMonday I decided to start with Miss Marple, here with The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side and A Crime is Announced (a favorite).

Then, we continue with Lord Peter Wimsey (also a favorite). The Portuguese edition being the short story collection Lord Peter Views the Body.

And finally a depiction of Father Brown.

It’s quite interesting to see how characters are depicted in book covers and how/if they differ from our own imagination.

If you want to know more about #MurderEveryMonday check Kate Jackson’s blog, see the next themes, and share your covers using the hashtag.

#MurderEveryMonday Cover with a series sleuth: three favorite sleuths

https://paulasimoesblog.wordpress.com/2026/05/04/murdereverymonday-cover-with-a-series-sleuth/