Cole, Martina: Maura's Game

I borrowed this because I bought her first book about Maura - Dangerous Lady, and enjoyed Maura’s spunky character as the ruler of the London “mafia”. Maura is the only daughter in an Irish family of sons, who, one by one, join the ranks of the gangs around Notting Hill (another London book! :> ). Like her brothers, she gets pulled into the action and succeeds, and even outperforms her brothers in the business.

This book continues in the same vein, and is an interesting read about how the older and wiser Maura beats her enemies in their game of revenge. However, her style gets tiring soon enough, and while in "Dangerous Lady" she has the plot to carry her on, in "Maura's Game" the plot does this only marginally. I like the original Maura better in "Dangerous Lady" better. I think she spent too much time developing Maura's character with the plot which made it dreary, whereas in "Dangerous Lady" there were other characters to find out more about. Read for continuity, or if you really really like Maura.

Rating: ** out of 5

Christie, Agatha: Black Coffee

Who doesn’t like Christie? My only regret is that I haven’t read enough of her books, there being so many other books in the library to take advantage of, since the Christie books seem to always be there.
This is a Hercule Poirot mystery, and as usual, well told. Poirot is called in to investigate a murder and a theft of a secret formula stolen from the murder victim - but the theft was done before the murder, and the murder was done in the presence of all the occupants in the house, practically under their noses!

This was actually a play, in fact, Christie's first stage play, and adapted into novel form by a Charles Osbourne (her biographer, I presume). This shows in the book - it's simpler in style and plot, and has a lot of dialogue and action descriptions in it. Nevertheless, a good read. I'd have liked to see it being performed on stage, but I don't think it's being done anywhere now. Christie's "Mousetrap" is still on, though!

Rating: **out of 5