Steven Helmer Publications

Synopsis: While reluctantly attending a literary luncheon, mystery writer Ariadne Oliver is approached by Mrs. Burton-Cox, the future mother-in-law of Ariadne's godchild, Celia Ravenscroft. When Mrs. Burton-Cox inquires about the apparent double suicide of Celia's parents 10 years earlier, asking who killed who, Ariadne is, at first, offended. However, with the question lingering in her head and with Celia's blessing, Ariadne seeks out help from Hercule Poirot in an effort to find out the truth. Review: Some time ago, I made it my personal goal to read all of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels. I'm very close to succeeding in that goal, having finished the second-to-last book. Unfortunately, this one turned out to be kind of a disappointment for me. Poirot is easily one of my favorite fictional detectives. However, his later mysteries (published when Christie was in her late 70s or early 80s) just aren't as magical as the books that got me ho...

Synopsis: Mystery novelist Ariadne Oliver is helping a friend prepare for a kids' Halloween party when 13-year-old Joyce Reynolds tells her she once witnessed a murder. Since Joyce is known to be a compulsive liar, nobody believes her. However, later that evening, someone drowns Joyce in the apple-bobbing tub. Disturbed by the incident and partially blaming herself, Ariadne reaches out to long-time friend Hercule Poirot for assistance. Review: My wife and I wound up spending a good chunk of last week binge watching the final season of Orange is the New Black and, because of that, it took me a bit longer to get through this book than I normally would have expected. I finally finished it yesterday and, overall, I was happy I read it. When I first started reading this book, I thought the mystery was going to be a little too easy to solve. After all, Joyce was apparently murdered because she witnessed a murder so, in theory at least, the only thing I needed to do was figur...

Synopsis: Hercule Poirot receives a surprise phone call from mystery writer Ariadne Oliver inviting him to Nasse House in Devon, the home of wealthy Sir George Stubbs. Officially, Poirot is there to attend a festival and award a prize to whoever solves a pretend murder mystery designed by Ariadne. Secretly, he was invited because his friend feels as though something is amiss and a real murder is being planned. When the 14-year-old village girl picked to play her pretend murder victim is found strangled, her suspicions are confirmed and Poirot must help the police figure out who killed the teenager and whether or not Sir George's much younger wife, Hattie, who disappeared at about the same time the murder was being committed, is also dead. Image Courtesy of Pixabay Review: I wound up reading back-to-back Hercule Poirot novels this week. The first one, Hickory Dickory Dock , was OK but not one of my favorites. This one, however, turned out to be one of those books I simply ...

Synopsis: Detective Hercule Poirot is invited to attend a dinner and bridge party thrown by Mr. Shaitana, who has suggested four of his guests have once gotten away with murder. When the host is murdered during the course of the night, suspicion falls on one (or more) of the four he accused of murder. It is up to Poirot, with the help of Superintendent Battle and two other sleuths, to figure out who is responsible and what secret they were trying to keep. Review: I picked out this book a couple weeks ago because I knew, with my daughter's ice show being held last weekend, I would be at the ice rink quite a bit and needed something to keep me from being too bored. As it turns out, I was too busy helping out at the rink most evenings to get through this book as fast as I was expecting to. But, I still managed to find time to get through it and, after finally finishing it last night, I found I wasn't as impressed with it as I had hoped to be. The mystery itself had some...