The Killings at Kingfisher Hill; Shadowplay

 

I really enjoy what Sophie Hannah is doing with Agatha Christie's detective, Hercule Poirot. Poirot has been asked to look into the murder of Frank Devonport by his younger brother, Richard. Richard's fiancée, Helen, has confessed to the crime and is sentenced to hang, but Richard is convinced she is innocent. No matter that Helen was *Frank's* fiancée until the murder (she claims she killed Frank because the day she met Richard, she knew she loved him more and had to get rid of Frank, a story literally no one, even Richard, believes). Inspector Catchpool accompanies Poirot to Kingfisher Hill. The bus ride up there took up a good portion of the book and was quite interesting: a young woman at first refuses to get on the bus, claiming she'll be murdered if she does. Once she's finally persuaded to get on, she wants to change seats, so Poirot switches with her. She refuses to answer any of Catchpool's questions. Meanwhile, Poirot's seatmate, another young woman, confesses to murder and taunts Poirot that he'll never figure out why she did it. 

More twists and turns await the two once they arrive at Kingfisher Hill, along with another murder. The ending was actually a little bit of a let down, but it made perfect sense. Not all murders can be sensational. 

I'm not sure how I feel about "Shadowplay" by Joseph O'Connor. One of my colleagues at work recommended it, so I stuck with it even though I wasn't enjoying it at first. It got better, but I still don't know if I really liked it that much. 

Bram Stoker comes to London, thinking he's going to be an assistant to the actor Henry Irving. Instead Irving expects him to run the Lyceum Theater. Stoker knows absolutely nothing about running a theater and is afraid it won't leave him much time to write, but he takes on the job anyway. And what a job it is. Irving is rude, condescending, basically an all around horrible human being who treats Stoker like garbage and Stoker puts up with it. They actually develop a friendship of sorts. I'm not sure if O'Connor was trying to insinuate that Stoker (or Irving) was Jack the Ripper or if Stoker was gay. He mentioned him going to notorious taverns for men who preferred the company of other men several times, and he and his wife lived apart. Then there was this bit about a spirit named Mina living in the theater. I didn't quite know what to make of it.