Review: Little Miss Marple: Muddle At the Vicarage by Roger Hargreaves and Agatha Christie

What a delight it was, from start to finish to read this Mr Men/Agatha Christie mash up. Although technically a children's picture book, there is a lot of fun to be had within the pages of this story as Little Miss Marple--think Agatha Christie's famous detective but as a small, round and purple lady with a friendly but no nonsense look--investigates a mystery in St Mary's Mead. The Vicar, Reverend Muddle (who bares an uncanny resemblance to Mr Muddle,) has invited his friend, a famous archeologist to stay.  But problems soon arise when a crown belonging to the archaeologist goes missing. Little Miss Marple will need to use her powers of deduction to locate the crown. With some help of some other Mr Men/Little Miss favourites of course.

This one was beautifully and cleverly adapted by Adam Hargreaves, who took over duties of writing the Mr Men/Little Miss books from his father after he passed away in 1988. The attention to detail and characterisation is superb for such a small book. An absolute delight.

Highly recommended.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Binding 13 by Chloe Walsh

Image
I picked up a copy of the first novel in the Boys of Tommen series assuming that it was set in a university. Turns out that I was wrong. The characters are all in high school, though as per the note in the front, the novel is pitched at readers over the age of eighteen. The setting is quite dark and topics addressed include alcoholism, physical abuse and bullying. The romance, pairing a fifteen year old girl who is small for her age and described as having a childlike appearance with a boy who is physically mature, sexually active, who invades her privacy and is not far from his eighteenth birthday seems questionable.  After suffering through years of bullying at school, some of which put her in hospital, Shannon has transferred to a private school, one so expensive that her mother has to take out a loan to pay all the fees. Things are going well, she has friends at her new school, there are strong anti-bullying rules in place and everything at Tommen College seems well, nicer ... ...
Read more

Feature and Follow Friday Feature blogger!

Image
Good grief! It's 8am, I've just jumped on the bus, checked my emails and discovered that I'm one of this week's Feature and Follow Friday feature bloggers! So, welcome everyone, and thanks heaps to Parajunkee and Alison Can Read ! This week's question is:  Confess your blogger sins! Is there anything as a newbie blogger that you've done, that as you've gained more experience you were like -- oops? For me, probably being a bit too hard and critical in my reviews than what the author deserved. I used to think that I was failing as a reviewer if I didn't point out at least one thing that was wrong with the book. As I've grown more experienced, I've realised that sometimes that said more about my skills as a reviewer/critic than it did about the authors work. 
Read more

Review: Stiff Upper Lip Jeeves by PG Wodehouse

Image
A sequel of sorts to The Code of the Woosters, Stiff Upper Lip Jeeves finds Bertram Wilberforce Wooster an unwilling (and unwanted) guest at Totleigh Towers with his ever-impressive valet Jeeve's in tow. Bertie's job is simple--to steal an ornament that Sir Watkyn Bassett bought at an unfair price, and return it to the previous owner at the insistence of Sir Watkyn's niece Stiffy, who wants revenge on the family matriarch for the fact that he won't give her fiancé, Rev Harold 'Stinker' Pinker a vicarage. Meanwhile, there are other problems afoot--chiefly in the form of Sir Watkyn's daughter Madeline, who believes that Bertie is still in love with her. She is also busy forcing her own fiancé, Gussie Fink-Nottle, to become a vegetarian against his will, which leads to Gussie falling in love with the new cook--who is none other than Pauline Stoker's younger sister Emerald, who has fallen on hard times. In the hands of many writers, such a shallow, farcical...
Read more