A Talent for Murder by Andrew Wilson

Late evening on Friday 3rd December 1926, Agatha Christie drove from her home in Berkshire and wasn't seen or heard of again for 11 days. Her car was discovered abandoned in Guildford. There were many suggestions as to what had happened to her - she'd committed suicide; she disappeared as part of a publicity stunt; her husband had murdered her.

'A Talent for Murder' is a fiction novel about the incident, but Andrew Wilson uses facts and newspaper articles surrounding her disappearance to create his own imaginings of what took place during those 11 missing days.

I found it a very readable and enjoyable story. It's fast paced and gripping. I don't know whether the actual truth about her disappearance was ever discovered - Agatha Christie never spoke of it - but it was very strange reading the book knowing that something had happened and that one of the most famous crime writers in the world had found herself the center of a crime story herself.

Little Deaths by Emma Flint

I love a good murder mystery, especially if it's based on a true story. For example, Mr Briggs' Hat, and The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. Emma Flint got the idea for 'Little Deaths' from a case she read about when a teenager. Read a good interview article with her here.

The story is set in Queens in 1964, and follows Ruth Malone, single mother to 2 children, Frankie (aged 6) and Cindy (aged 4). Ruth is a  heavy smoker and a heavy drinker. She works as a waitress at the local bar, and regularly comes home with a different man. She's currently going through a court custody case with her ex-husband Frank, who says she's a bad mother and shouldn't be looking after the kids. One evening she puts the kids to bed and locks their bedroom door (her son regularly wanders around at night). After a troubled night's sleep where she dreams she can hear a child crying, she wakes the next morning to an eerie silence. She unlocks the children's bedroom door to find them missing. It's not long before their bodies are found in a nearby neighbourhood.

The rest of the book then focuses on her side of the story with her innermost thoughts, the story she tells the police, statements from neighbours and friends and her ex-husband, police reports, and reports from the main journalist covering the case. Everybody seems to have their own opinion of what happened that night and whether Ruth carried out the murders herself. The police are convinced she's guilty, but the reporter wants to prove otherwise.

Even though I quite enjoyed the book, I found the story overlong and couldn't quite feel anything for any of the characters. I was upset about the children, but that's as far as my feelings stretched. I just wanted to get to the end to find out whether Ruth was guilty or not. If it had been edited a bit more and had a bit more of an atmosphere, I would have liked it more.