I read lots of Agatha Christie novels in my early teens; in those days, when the YA genre didn't exist, they were a natural progression from the childhood mysteries of Enid Blyton and Malcolm Saville. But I haven't read Agatha Christie much as an adult. I like her plots and her clue-puzzles, but not her (lack of) characterisation or her writing style. Actually, I think I prefer Agatha Christie as done on TV in the 1980s and 1990s (Joan Hickson as Miss Marple and David Suchet as Hercule Poirot) to Agatha Christie on the printed page.

However, someone mentioned The Sittaford Mystery on a forum recently, and when I came across it in a second-hand bookshop yesterday, I thought I'd give it a go. Apparently, snow, lots of it, was important to the plot. So I thought it would make a nice read over a winter weekend. As it turned out, this was a particularly balmy winter weekend (20 degrees), so no open fire to read it in front of ... but no matter.

And, what a surprise. The murder occurs really early in the book. Really early. The body is discovered in chapter 3 and we never actually meet the deceased. I didn't realise any Agatha Christie books existed where the murder didn't happen until at least midway through the book.

And, second surprise, there's no familiar detective in this one. No Hercule Poirot. No Miss Marple. No Tommy and Tuppence (thank God, too, for that). In Christie books it's quite common for Poirot or Miss Marple to appear quite late in the book to solve the crime, and I kept waiting for that to happen. This book, after all, is set in a hamlet, the murder is announced during a seance at the exact same time as the victim is meant to have died (oh, what dodgy forensics). Surely, surely Miss Marple would make an appearance having heard about the murder via some relative or maid who just happens to live in Sittaford? But no. In this book, Emily Trefusis, the fiancee of the accused, and Charles Enderby, a young journalist, play detective. Do they appear in any more books, does anyone know? I quite liked him, but found her irritating.

As a teenager, I used to find it easy to work out whodunit. It was always the least likely person. Obviously, I'm out of practice, because I didn't guess it. But it was the least likely person. And yes, snow is very important to the plot.