The Club Dumas Paperback –Arturo Perez-Reverte ----------------- 3 Stars

On my "To Read' list" for a number of years was The Club Dumas, and I was finally able to get to it this summer. While it came highly suggested as a great mystery novel, I did struggle with the book in a number of ways. Nonetheless, it was a decent read that kept me engaged.

In many ways, this book reminded me of those many Dan Brown novels that were such huge hits, beginning with The Da Vinci Code (reviews of a couple others I read here). Similarly, this book is basically a detective story based on old artifacts and old books. This one, as you could probably figure from the name, had many references to Alexander Dumas, and his classic book - The Three Musketeers.  Besides having numerous references to this book, this novel also noted about a dozen other older manuscripts, including many that had to do with occult. 

Perhaps most unfortunately for me, I never read The Three Musketeers or any of the other books mentioned. I think that would have been helpful to me as there were large parts of the story I had no idea what was going on. In fact, after finishing it, I am still not sure what happened in the story. Besides having many dark parts and a lot of violence, it really was a challenging book to follow that left me fairly unsatisfied after concluding. 

But, it still earned 3 stars as my reviews are based on entertainment value and engagement. And, well, this book was awfully engaging when reading it. The pace was fast and the story did read like a well put together mystery novel. And, even though I didn't really know what was going for many parts, the main character was pretty interesting and his escapades to solve the mystery were pretty fun to go along with. 

I'm not sure I can recommend this book strongly but for some readers who really like a good mystery store and/or have good knowledge of Dumas' work, this might be a good read for you (though you've probably already picked up by now). If you are looking for a light beach read, though, this is likely not for you. 

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie - 3.5 Stars

Like many, I was first put on to Agatha Christie many years ago with her famous And Then There Were None.  I remember really enjoying that story, even though it was nearly thirty years ago that I read it. It was such a great mystery and clearly showed how wonderful of a storyteller Christie is. Recently, I came across an article listing the Murder of Roger Ackroyd as they most underrated book she wrote and another great mystery novel, so I gave it a shot. Pretty happy I did.

Unbelievably, this book was written nearly a hundred years ago. I note that as the pace and focus of the novel seemed nearly modern. Not overly indulgent or long, the book quickly puts you into the center of the book, which, not surprisingly, is the murder of Roger Ackroyd. It swiftly picks up from there as the great detective, Hercule Poirot, comes on the scene. Besides being an interesting character who also seems to always say something clever. He, via Christie of course, begins to observe many elements and slow expose pieces of them to the reader to help discover who might have killed Ackroyd.

For much of the novel, it really did feel like I was watching a real life "Clue" game take place. A rich guy, killed in a giant mansion with many different individuals around as suspects. At one point the author actually provides a visual of a sitting room in the house, and it almost felt like a Clue board. The book is also entertaining as the characters are pretty interesting and there's such a large number of them, who seemingly all have a motive to kill Ackroyd, you never stop guessing.

Of course, like any good sleuth, I did figure it out about half way through. Unfortunately, I read a newer edition that included two prefaces that probably gave away too much information about the killer (I will not do the same for you but do suggest you just start the novel if you get the same copy). And, like And Then There Were None, Christie does such a super job of smartly giving you only what you need to keep guessing while also enough to stay full engaged. 

Few downsides to the book. It does get slow at some parts and, of course, there are some dated terms, items, etc. But, honestly, for being a century old, it was surprisingly easy to get through. Only other frustration is just how much Christie tries to paint everyone as the murderer. I get it, that's the type of story and it is entertaining. However, the plot sometimes gets so complicated to try to make everyone look bad it becomes a bit unrealistic.

In any case, I do recommend it if you love Christie and/or a great mystery novel. Again, super and fun easy read and see if you can be as good a detective as I was!