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A review by bookishtory2665
The Body Under the Piano by Marthe Jocelyn
4.0
Everyone knows Agatha Christie and her fictional detectives, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, right? Her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections that together have sold more than a billion copies. Well, the author of this book, Marthe Jocelyn, an avid reader of her work, wondered what Dame Christie's life must have been like to make her such an expert on betrayal, suspicion and wickedness and, like many good books, this one comes out of her asking that all important question -- 'what if'.
There are some similarities to Agatha Christie's life. Aggie Morton was also born in Torquay, Devon, and too, her father dies while she is quite young, leaving the family in reduced financial circumstances. But that where the author's imagination takes over. A disagreeable woman (the body under the piano) is murdered and suspicion falls on Aggie's dance teacher who is also the woman's sister. Hampered by shyness and a sharp-eyed nursemaid, Aggie decides that the police have it wrong and sets out to solve the crime herself.
I really liked this book but I don't want to give too much away by going into a longer explanation so I'll just say, its worth reading. Delightful characters that are well written and fit into the time period. The Body Under the Piano is the first in a series of four with the latest, The Seaside Corpse (2022), having just won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for best Juvenile Mystery Fiction.
There are some similarities to Agatha Christie's life. Aggie Morton was also born in Torquay, Devon, and too, her father dies while she is quite young, leaving the family in reduced financial circumstances. But that where the author's imagination takes over. A disagreeable woman (the body under the piano) is murdered and suspicion falls on Aggie's dance teacher who is also the woman's sister. Hampered by shyness and a sharp-eyed nursemaid, Aggie decides that the police have it wrong and sets out to solve the crime herself.
I really liked this book but I don't want to give too much away by going into a longer explanation so I'll just say, its worth reading. Delightful characters that are well written and fit into the time period. The Body Under the Piano is the first in a series of four with the latest, The Seaside Corpse (2022), having just won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for best Juvenile Mystery Fiction.