#MurderEveryMonday: Same Book, Different Editions

Murder Every Monday was created by Kate @ Crossexamining Crime and @ArmchairSleuth. Put simply, the plan is for readers to take a photo of a crime fiction book (novel or short story collection) which meets a given week’s theme criteria and to then share it online, using the hashtag #MurderEveryMonday.

This week's theme is:

Same Book, but Different Editions

My first mystery books are of Agatha Christie's. My late father used to take me to our favorite bookshop, and let me choose one (sometimes two) Agatha Christie's to take away. Those were happy days!! And he even do the covering for me, his were always so neat and clean. I still keep some of those with me, and I will share here two of my most favorites (Indonesian translations), along with the e-books in English which I have read as adult.

Have your read any of them? Which cover(s) do you like most?

If you want to participate, here's the list of the weekly theme.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1967) by E.L. Konigsburg

👼 Claudia Kinkaid was restless and yearned for something exciting happening to her, beyond being an obedient eldest daughter taking care of her brothers. So, she ran away. But it's not an impulsive one like any kids used to do. She planned it carefully for weeks; from the financial side (she saved her daily money, skipping Sunday's fudge), to the practical side like where she'd stay in hiding (Metropolitan of Arts Museum - a genius choice, isn't it?), and how to hide clothes she'd need to bring unnoticed, and many little details.

👼 Lastly she carefully chose which brother she'd choose to be her partner-in-crime: Jamie. He's the 'wealthiest' of them all for one thing. And he's the craftier too. So off they went for the carefully planned runaway adventure. No one suspected them, and for a few days they lived 'comfortably' at the Museum. Claudia has thought all the tricks, while Jamie's only task was as a treasurer.

👼 Then they saw a marble statue called Angel, which is believed to be made by Michelangelo, but no one had the proof. The museum bought it cheaply from an art collector, Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Since they practically lived in the museum, Claudia and Jamie accidentally found a clue to the true maker. Will Claudia be a heroine who found the clue to Michelangelo's unknown masterpiece? Will she come home a different Claudia than the one who ran away? Because that's the whole point of running away, isn't it?

👼 I loved this book. Not only adventurous, it's also educative. Who wouldn't be thrilled to live in an art museum - free to roam around and look at one's favorite art at leisure without being jostled here and there by the crowd? Most interestingly, the story is told as letters and files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler to her lawyer. We know this from the start, and it creates a bit of mystery how she would meet the Kinkaid children. All in all, it's a cheerful and funny middle grade story, a wonderful read.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Agatha Christie Short Stories 2025: JANUARY #AgathaChristieSS25

First of all, I would like to thank you all who have been, completely or partly, participating in the #AgathaChristieSS24. I'm sorry for not being able to comment on all of your reviews, one by one, though I have read most of them. If you are participating again this year, I'm very grateful! Here you can find the LIST OF STORIES we're going to read along the year. You can put links to your reviews on the comment section of the monthly posts like this one (you can find them on my right side bar).

For January we will read one Poirot and one Tommy & Tuppence. Interestingly, they are both concerning flats (or at least the word 'flat' is on both titles...).

THE ADVENTURE OF THE CHEAP FLAT

Too good to be true, a flat is rented at a suspiciously low rate and Poirot intends to find out why. He takes an apartment in the same building, and lies in wait. Will his suspicions prove well-founded? The story was first published as a book in the collection Poirot Investigates, 1924, by Bodley Head.

A FAIRY IN THE FLAT

Following WWI Tommy and Tuppence are seeking some adventure. Luckily they’re soon offered a position covering Blunt’s Detective Agency, Tommy taking on the role of Mr Blunt, Tuppence as his secretary. They are told to be wary of the number 16; should they stumble across it, they will be one step closer an international spy ring. This story was published by Collins in the collection Partners in Crime in 1929, and had its title changed from Publicity to A Fairy in the Flat/A Pot of Tea.

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The reviews:
- Mallika's
- Fanda's


Please put link to yours on the comment section. Happy reading!

Six Degrees of Separation, from Orbital to This Side of Paradise

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme, now hosted by Kate @ books are my favorite and best. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

This month we start from yet another book I haven't read:

0. Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Six astronauts rotate in their spacecraft above the earth. They are there to collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part - or protective - of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?

I didn't read too many science fiction, but here's another space-themed novel I have enjoyed in the past:

1. Contact by Carl Sagan

This is one of the books which I have read after watching the movie adaptation. The movie was my first introduction to the inimitable Jodie Foster. Which reminded me of another book-made to-movie with Jodi Foster playing the main character:

2. Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon

I loved Jodie Foster as Anna Leonowens in this movie, an English teacher who arrived in Siam (now Thailand) to teach the King's children. She played alongside Chow Yun Fat, playing the Siamese King. Their chemistry was perfect, and I loved the Siamese culture background. The book was much more realistic than the movie, but that's understandable.

Another book I've read lately with rich Asian culture background is:

3. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan Philipp Sendker

The story is about a woman who's seeking her father who disappeared years ago. The father's story is a remarkable one. His childhood with blindness caused by cataract was moving as well as inspiring.

Coincidentally, my very next read after this one was another book with also a cataract-induced blindness in a boy. Quite a serendipity, eh? The book is:

4. Babbacombe by Susan Scarlett

The near-blind boy in question is the younger brother of the main character in this book, a young woman called Beth. She works as junior salesgirl at a department store, Babbacombe's. As I have mentioned in the review, there are aspects of this book which I found is similar with:

5. The Ladies Paradise by Émile Zola

The premise of this classic is very similar to Babbacombe's, a junior sales girl falls in love with the handsome owner (or son of the owner in Babbacombe's) of department store which she works for. Other than that, it's difficult to find similarity with other books - Zola's is quite inimitable. So, for my last chain I'll go with the word Paradise in the title:

6. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

This one is about an altogether different kind of "paradise". It's a wonderful work of Fitzgerald; the epitome of Jazz Age era.


Have you read those books? If you do #sixdegree, how it worked out for you this time?

Greenglass House (2014) by Kate Milford

❄ It's few days before Christmas, and twelve year old Milo had expected a quiet holiday with his parents (foster parents, since he was adopted) at their inn, the Greenglass House. But to his great dismay, one guest arrived, then another, then another, until there are five guests staying in the house, plus the cooks who are helping. Christmas holiday is practically ruined. Or so thought Milo, before he found a strange map, and a girl his age, the cook's daughter Meddy, who invites him in a role play game.

❄ Greenglass House is not a regular inn. It had belonged to a famous smuggler, and to that day, smugglers are among the inn's frequent guests. The building itself is a unique one. Five stories high, with colorful glass windows, and located on top of a steep hill. To reach it from the bottom, the guests must use a rail car. I have been to Paris in the 2000, and I imagined this rail car is like more rustic model of funicular I took to reach Sacré Coeur in Montmartre.

❄ Milo found an usual map, like a navigator's one but with strange pictures, on the snowy ground, that one of the guests must have dropped. But whose is it? And what is the map about? It was to solve this mystery that Milo and Meddie started the game in the first place. Then some guests belongings begin missing, and one of them is seen entered another's room suspiciously. Is there a thief in the house? They also notice that the guests seem secretive; their reasons of coming to Greenglass House aren't for holiday, but for their own, which are related to the house's history. What's happening? Who's the thief, and what's the motive?

❄ This story has everything you'd want to read during the season - adventures, mystery, snowy nights, smugglers, big house with attic full of interesting stuffs, and a tiny touch of gothic (which I won't reveal so as not to spoil the story). And last but not least... the surprise. It is so unexpected, yet I should have known from the first - the clues are there from the start. Anyway, this is the only Christmas-themed story I'd read this year, and I'm glad I had. It's satisfying, heartwarming, and full of fun. I loved how Milford delving into a mildly serious issue of  Milo's insecure related to his being orphan. It added a bit of depth into the already satisfying read. This will also be my last reviewed book of this year.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Because of Sam (1954) by Molly Clavering #DeanStreetDecember

🐶 After my satisfying read of Molly Clavering's Near Neighbours, I decided to take one more of hers for my final entry of #DeanStreetDecember. Because of Sam was my choice, and what a perfect one it proved to be!

🐶 Upon his death, Millie Maitland's husband left her almost nothing besides their house, Fernieknowe, and their only daughter Amabel. So bleak their condition were, that Millie's lawyer, Mr. Ramsay, proposed Millie to marry him. She wisely rejected it, and made a living as a dog boarder, or in modern day, household dog care facility - a rare occupation, let alone of women, at that time.

🐶 She's saved by an inheritance from her husband's great aunt, though it was given to Amabel. But Millie is a kindhearted, generous woman who doesn't grudge the slight injustice, but lives peacefully on her meagre income from her dogs, and the company of the acerbic and sharp-tongued daughter Amabel.

🐶 Now, in her middle age, two middle-aged men entered her peaceful existence. One is Mr. Martin Heriot, who, besides enjoying her company and homely cooking, asked Millie to take Sam, a black Labrador belongs to his 'cousin'. Millie suspects that Martin's frequent visits to Fernieknowe aren't just to see Sam's condition - it must be that he's in love with Amabel - or is he? The other frequented is Mr. Ramsay, the lawyer. Amabel suspects he's renewing his proposal to her mother, which she witnessed years ago - but is he?

🐶 That kind of romance is good, but would be rather dull without complications, isn't it? Enter the beautiful Mrs. Noble, whose husband has been abroad, and for whom men usually lose their heads. Martin Heriot seemed to be her first 'victim', though later on she moved her course to newly married Jack Ross. The Rosses are Millie's friends, and she's fond of them. So, when things seemed out of control, she came to the rescue.

🐶 On the whole, it's a charming, comforting, heartwarming story - the quality you expect from Molly Clavering. She did it again to me, and I'm sure I'll continue reading her books, at least for #DeanStreetDesember. Molly Clavering was D.E. Stevenson's friend and neighbor. They have similar writing styles, but I find Molly's more gentle but satisfying. She's my newly found favorite author of the year!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read this for:

Dean Street December #DeanStreetDecember

hosted by Liz @ Adventures in reading, running and working from home

Kate Hardy (1947) by D.E. Stevenson #DeanStreetDecember

💚 When a lady bought the Dower House which Mr. Richard Morven from the Manor House had put for sale, it piqued the curiosity of the whole village of Old Quinings. The lady is Kate Hardy, a best seller novelist who impulsively bought the house to escape from her self-centered sister Milly and her spoiled niece Minta, whom she had brought to live with her at her London flat after the war.

💚 Kate, who had expected to be able to write peacefully in the countryside, was quite surprised by the variety of characters she encountered daily. Not mentioning the village life drama in the postwar; from the possible romance for herself between the estate owner (whom everyone believes is a suitable candidate for her) and the village war-hero, the son of her cleaning woman; to a poison pen campaign, and childish games.

💚 Like any D.E. Stevenson's, this one is a charming story of an independent woman, a city girl who lives and tries to mingle with the villagers. As a single woman with self income and self confidence, Kate faces what women like her at that era faces - bloodsucker relatives and gossips. I could well relate with Kate in how she hates, and tends to avoid, drama. Like her, I also find relatives are quite annoying sometimes. And like her, too, it is rather difficult to find friend who really understands me, and with whom I can find an equal. 

💚 On the whole, Kate Hardy is a comforting, witty, and funny story, sprinkled with a bit of mystery, superstition, and romance. Oh, and a glimpse of daily life of an author. It might not be my favorite from Stevenson (I found it less neatly ended), but I still enjoyed it very much.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read this for:

Dean Street December #DeanStreetDecember

hosted by Liz @ Adventures in reading, running and working from home