Towards Zero by Agatha Christie

This book starts with someone planning a murder in the prologue. This person plans on the theory that people can be manipulated to behave in ways which will bring about a perfect murder. The main story starts with various characters going about their daily life. The police man, Battle, goes off to rescue his daughter from school where she has been unjustly accused to stealing. Another unrelated individual who is introduced at the start is a man who survived a suicide attempt.

The young tennis player and his new wife are discussing travel and holidays at his relative’s home. The new wife is unhappy about this, as she is sure that the old lady does not like her and also because the ex-wife is also going to be there at the same time. There are other people introduced from the old lady’s household and visitors who gather at this particular time. Everything seems normal but there are undercurrents in the atmosphere that make everyone feel on edge. The ex-wife seems to be holding herself in tight control. A distant relative has come from abroad for a short while and is in love with the ex-wife. The old lady’s companion, who is efficient at running the household and caring for her aunt, seems worried. There are a couple of people staying at the local hotels but are invited for dinner. Then one morning there is news that an elderly gentleman from last night dinner party was found dead in his hotel room. Was it natural causes as the doctor says? After all he had been hinting at recognising a murderer at the party.

In a couple of days, the old lady is found murdered in her room. The maid had been drugged so she cannot be summoned. The police are called in and Battle, who is staying with his nephew the local policeman, gets roped in to help out. There is a lot of routine tedious work of inspecting the scene, going over the house for clues and talking to each one who was at the house the evening before, explained in detail. So all the clues point to the tennis player but he was supposed to be across the bay at a hotel. Is he being framed? If so who is the real killer? Who has a motive? Is someone in need of the money that is bequeathed by the dead woman? Who had the opportunity to commit the murder? It is clear this was an inside job, as an outsider would not be aware of certain things involved in the committing of this murder.

The plot is based on the psychology that people can be manipulated. Given the right circumstances a perfect murder can be committed or at least get someone else blamed. You are kept wondering right up to the end as to who could have done it and why? Help comes from unexpected quarters to give Battle the right answers.

I enjoyed this book but kept waiting for Miss Marple, as in the TV series this role of Battle has been replaced by Miss Marple, who is shown to be the old lady’s friend. She has been asked there by the old lady who was concerned about the meeting up of the various people as guests in her home. The story works well with Battle in charge of the investigations and so not sure why it became a Miss Marple story. However, I have enjoyed both versions and am sure if you will too.

Shows that make me laugh

Have not been here for a few days now. Not sure why I was quiet as the contemplation in life and stopping to take stock had been completed a couple of weeks back. I wonder if you all saw the comedy clips I had included in the earlier blogs. There is now a new show by Russell Howard in BBC 3. This young man is funny and in his present show he does commentary on news clips. I have seen him of the program Live from Apollo in the Hammersmith and also he is a regular on Mock the Week.

I am a fan of the channel Dave as it does repeats of Mock the Week, Have I got News for You, QI, Argumental and such like. I enjoy seeing the programs over and over again as most times I find watching them so soothing that i can miss bits either through laughing or I have dropped off to sleep. Thus the repeats are always fresh for me. I know people will say how can a good program be soporific? But I find that when something is good - TV show or even movie and I am tired I can drop off happily. If the program is bad then I feel compelled to keep awake and criticise. This is true of live music as well. So I use the programs I like to drop off. Generally I put them on before bedtime and most times fall asleep peacefully.
But please let me assure you that these program are actually very good. The play on words, comedy and the wit make me laugh heartily.

There is also a Comedy Roadshow by Micheal McIntyre who also has a few other stand up comics do short stints and some are very good. I find it fascinating how the stand up can have topics that are simple everyday events and things experienced. From some of the experienced ones I have seen live is Jeremy Hardy, Kevin Day, Josie Lawrence, Eddie Izzard, Lee Evans. There are some websites that do videos of some fo their works and any time I feel low this is a good cheer me up.

Aside from stand up comedy my all time favorites, guaranteed to make me laugh are movies like Support Your Local Sheriff, Support Your Local Gunfighter, Blazing Saddles, My Fair Lady. I notice that one TV add is using that scene of cowboys eating beans around the campfire. I like the laid back attitude of James Garner in bother the Support Your... films. Saw the new Star trek movie which was good.. found I could get into it unlike my brush with the newer prequels of Star Wars. Just thought I would share - what cheers me up so others could try these out too.

Sleepless in Bed.....

I should have sat and done my blog the night before last. I was up all night.. why? well the pain kept me awake and then the awake kept me in pain! a vicious cycle and after the first round of it I knew I would not sleep. Painkillers were at hand and so were sleeping pills. But I prefer to hit the pills only after a couple nights of insomnia. There was nothing on TV either to watch and so I got my laptop on and Internet going. Played a couple of games of Mahjong to see if that would relax me. But I think the insomnia was there to stay.

So got my writing out and sat down to revise and complete my chapter 7 (experiment was on InterLoc). After finishing the summery I moved to the chapter 6 (experiment on Digalo plus MI) where part of the chapter has to be written still. By 5 am I had managed to revise the writing and reach the point where I had to start new inclusions. By now I was seeing double and so had to shut it all down. Had a cup of tea and just rested my eyes for a couple of hours.

During the day I thought I would be able to catch up on some sleep at least as by now I had been up for over 24 hours and had only about 2 hours of shut eye. But despite reading a novel...The Janus Man by Colin Forbes (have read it about 20 times by now) thinking surely I would sleep....no such luck. At least this evening the TV would be good. There was a repeat of the first program of the series called Ganges on BBC 2. It is a fascinating documentary of the river from its beginning to end with a good overview of the geological, socio cultural history with all the related flora and fauna. There is some excellent photography of the flow of the river and the speed of the rapids high up in the mountains. It brought back some memories as I have been to Rishikesh and walked along the Laxshman Jhula. The monkeys there are truly as bold as shown in the documentary.

Next good program was a documentary called Black Adder Rides Again. All the characters were there to talk about their recollections of all the series. I remember Stephen Fry on twitter saying the program makers had gone out to where he was filming the 'Last Chance to See' (a wildlife series). I had seen the series backwards I guess as I first saw Black Adder in the last series set in the first world war trenches. Later I saw the series 2 and 3 in bits and finally the first series. I never really liked the fist one and it was good to hear that the people in the documentary were of the same opinion - good to know am not a bad connoisseur of good comedy. They seemed to agree that the best series was the one in world war trenches, there was humour and also lots of sadness. As Ben Elton said the best subject for satire... people going to fight just because.... Well suffice to say I enjoyed the documentary.

Last program to be seen before I finally fell asleep was Law & Order Criminal Intent. Strange it was about some journalist being poisoned by polonium, close to reality? Did turn over to see Micheal McIntyre live from Apollo.... finally began to feel drowsy... did a quick switching off and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Any one out there?

The One Show is celebrating the Year of Astronomy and have started a snippet on the skies. Just brought home that there would be millions of other life forms out there... Then strangely I watched an old Have I got News for You on Dave and there it was about release of old UFO files... all saying the UFO do not exist..Contradictions everywhere.....

What I find strange that we want to find aliens and make contact with them... spending lots of money for that, people researching all their lives. Yet when it comes to using imagination and making movies why do we always portray the aliens are malevolent and out to destroy earth.... not many movies of friendly aliens.. and if what we believe that someone out there is monitoring our transmissions.. would they wish to even bother contacting us when we display the violent responses in imagined situations?

Maybe within series like Star Trek or even Babylon 5 there is some attempt to show a balanced approach that as with humanity there will be some good and some bad or is it that this mixture is our perception only but does not truly occur.

Anyone out there? any thought?