Reviews and More

As you know, I’m currently trying to work my way through all of Agatha Christie’s mystery novels in chronological order. I began this crusade last June with The Mysterious Affair at Styles and just now finished Cards on the Table, which was the 20th novel Christie published. So I’m averaging close to two Christie books per month. That’s not a great pace, since her books are relatively short, quick reads. But it’s not bad either, because I’m still picking up other books here and there when I need a break from mysteries.

Cards on the Table is another Hercule Poirot novel, but unfortunately Christie chose not to include his usual sidekick Hastings. I really enjoy the banter between Hastings and Poirot when they work a case together, and I think those are easier to solve because readers get to see which leads Poirot is pursuing. When it’s just Poirot, his actions and motivations are very difficult to decipher.

Anyway, the novel opens with Poirot running into a man named Mr. Shaitana at an exhibition. They engage in conversation, and Shaitana ends up inviting Poirot to a dinner party that he’s sure Poirot will be interested in. Attending the party will be several people who have committed murder and gotten away with it. Poirot naturally agrees to go.

Including Poirot and Shaitana, there are seven other people at the party: Anne Meredith, Mrs. Lorrimer, Mrs. Oliver, Dr. Roberts, Inspector Battle, Major Despard, and Colonel Race. During dinner, Shaitana guides the conversation to murder and talks about the various ways that he would commit murder. It’s clear that his remarks are intended to make his guests uncomfortable, and that is indeed the result.

After dinner, the party breaks off into two different groups to play bridge. Anne Meredith, Mrs. Lorrimer, Dr. Roberts, and Major Despard play in one room, while Poirot, Battle, Race, and Mrs. Oliver play in the other. Shaitana sits in the first room and watches that group.

By the end of the evening, Shaitana is found to have been murdered in his chair. He was stabbed in the neck with a stiletto, and no one noticed anything or heard him cry out. Since there wasn’t any movement between the two rooms, one of the four people in the first room must necessarily be the murderer.

The rest of the novel then deals with the investigation. This time, it’s not only Poirot doing the investigating. All four of the people in the second room lend a hand and try to get to the bottom of what happened. And of course it’s our favorite Belgian detective that comes through with the correct answer in the end.

My Reaction: I actually enjoyed this book a great deal. I liked how there were four suspects and how each of them had their own motives and opportunity of killing Shaitana. That left the outcome in doubt until the very end, and had me paying close attention to everything that happened in between. There were several plausible misdirections along the way, and the ending was satisfactory.

I give Cards on the Table 7.5 stars out of 10 and think it’s one of the better Agatha Christie novels that I’ve read thus far.

A little over a week ago, I wrote about the fact that I’m looking for an easy, secure way to backup my electronic files online. I’m still evaluating some of the different services out there, and came across a promising one this morning. It’s called IDrive-E, and unlike the online backup plans offered by other companies, this one offers a FREE basic package. The free package allows users to store up to 2GB of data, plus the ability to upgrade to the Pro package — featuring unlimited storage — at any time.

I took a look around the IDrive-E website to learn more about their backup program. I read that the entire backup process is completely automated, secure, and fast, which is of course what I’d want from this kind of service. Furthermore, should I need to restore my files, I’d be able to do so through a drag ‘n’ drop interface that’s similar to Windows Explorer.

To summarize, I’d be getting 2GB of storage absolutely free, would be able to transfer my files quickly, securely, and easily, and would be able to restore via a drag ‘n’ drop interface. This program sounds like a winner to me!

Okay, I know I said I would start writing up full recaps of House, but I’ve been very lazy about following through. It’s just so much easier to watch the DVDs without coming here to write up a 500+ word post about them :). The last ep I recapped on here was 1×04, and here I am with 1×09 already. Oops. I promise to be more diligent about keeping up from now on! Anyway, here’s a quick review of what happened on the episode called “DNR”.

Mysterious Symptoms of the Week: The patient, a famous trumpet player named John Henry (now paralyzed from the waist down), arrives at PPTH after collapsing from shortness of breath. He also exhibits symptoms of pneumonia.

Mistaken Diagnoses: Foreman is running point on this case because he’s friends with John Henry’s doctor in California and that guy doesn’t like House. First they think it’s simple pneumonia, with a few added complications from the ALS that John Henry’s regular doctor diagnosed years ago.

House is not convinced that John Henry has ALS at all. He thinks it might be multifocal motor neuropathy and wants to do additional tests. Foreman reluctantly agrees. Once multifocal motor neuropathy is ruled out, House guesses at C-ANCA, Wegener’s, and a couple of other things. John Henry doesn’t really care what it is, he just wants to sign a DNR and let the chips fall where they may.

Correct diagnosis and result: Arterial venous malformation in the spine, which means John Henry doesn’t have ALS after all. John Henry has surgery, gets physical therapy, and walks again.

My Reaction: I take it House is going to be one of those shows where the main character is always right and always triumphs in the end (except for maybe a couple of Sweeps Week eps) where patients die because of his mistakes. Although I still like House a lot, I can imagine these happy outcomes becoming tiresome after a while.

I have to say that I really like the antagonistic relationship between Foreman and House, as well as the friendship between House and Wilson. I hope to see these relationships develop more fully in future episodes!

My husband was watching some TV show last night (I didn’t catch the name of it because I was working on the computer, but I know it involved doctors and hospitals) and I heard them mention EMI shielding. I had just blogged about EMI/RFI shielding last week, so I actually knew what the guys on TV were talking about! I love it when I can pick up references like as a result of my own research. It makes me feel as though cruising around the Internet isn’t a complete waste of time!

Everybody knows that there are Universal Studios theme parks in Hollywood and Orlando, but did you know that there’s one in Japan also? It’s located in Osaka and opened to the public in 2001. My husband and I have actually been to USJ (as it’s called) three times, and think it’s pretty similar to the Orlando version. The only difference is that we haven’t been able to get discount Universal Studios tickets when we’re in Japan like we can in the U.S.

In the U.S., saving money on tickets is as easy as going to a website such as OrlandoFunTicktes.com and placing an order, but that’s not how it works in Japan. The only way I know of to get discount USJ tickets is to go with a huge group of people, which doesn’t help my family of three at all.

Oh, well: I guess that just makes me appreciate U.S. ticket prices all the more!