Novel: "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" by Agatha Christie

[Note: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. I hope you will buy and enjoy this masterpiece of a mystery novel. If you click on this link to buy it Anything Smart will earn a commission. Thanks for your support.]

I just re-read this legendary mystery novel. A plot so diabolical that even when you know who did it you can't believe who did it.

This novel was published in 1926 just five years after Agatha Christie's first book. Even though it came early this story occurs at a time when Hercule Poirot has retired to the countryside where he lives incognito in a village where the people do not know who he is or even how to pronounce his name, where he applies himself to the growing of vegetable marrows which, for American readers, seem to be a sort of squash, and where he misses his friend Captain Hastings who has moved to South America. Fortunately for mystery lovers Poirot is soon called in to solve a murder and he finds a new partner to share the investigation with.

I read this book during the great and horrible coronavirus pandemic of 2020 and every day I felt like the world was going mad. People make outrageously false claims and when you ask them for their evidence they tell you to look it up yourself, which suggests, of course, that they never really had any evidence to begin with. People make outrageous claims and when you show them counter evidence they don't refute it they just call it “fake.” More and more people have no respect for expertise and intelligence and instead they just cheer on bragging and bombast and bullying.

[Note: The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie. This was the first Hercule Poirot mystery published in 1921.]

In a world going mad we need mystery novels like The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and we need heroes like Hercule Poirot to remind us that when you are trying to solve a problem, when you are trying to catch a killer, the only thing that matters is “the little gray cells.” When there is a problem to solve or a killer to catch, then you forget about appearances, you forget about emotions, you forget about what you WANT. The tools you use are sharp observation of the evidence, ruthless logic, and careful testing of theories until the real truth is known and the case is closed.

When a young lady asks Poirot to investigate the murder in this novel he warns her: “... if I go into this, you must understand one thing clearly. I shall go through with it to the end. The good dog, he does not leave the scent, remember! You may wish that, after all, you had left it to the local police.”

[Note: And here is my favorite Hercule Poirot mystery, “The ABC Murders” from 1936. Let me know what you think of it!]

In a world going mad we need mystery novels, and smart detectives, and the brilliant Hercule Poirot with his egg-shaped head and his perfect moustaches who will never stop until he finds the verifiable TRUTH. In a world going mad we need good dogs, who never leave the scent....

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If you want to support Anything Smart please click on the book links in this post and make a purchase. Agatha Christie wrote wonderful mysteries and if you buy them through this blog Anything Smart will earn a commission. Thanks for visiting my blog, and thanks for your support!

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Copyright © 2020 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

Locke: A Biography

Novel: "The Chamber" by John Grisham

I recently finished this big novel by John Grisham. It came out in 1994, and there was a movie based on it, but somehow I STILL didn't know how the story turned out.

The basic plot involves a young lawyer trying to save his grandfather from the gas chamber for some KKK murders down in Mississippi.

There is SOME mystery in this story, but that's not really the point of the book. The first point of the book is to show us what it is like, to make us FEEL what it is like, to live on death row. The second point of the book is to argue against the death penalty. Grisham tries hard to humanize the people on death row so we will sympathize with them. The basic argument of the book is that killing is wrong: the criminals were wrong to kill and the state is equally wrong to kill them.

[Note: If you click on this link for The Chamber and then buy anything from Amazon then Anything Smart will earn a commission. Thanks for your support!]

The argument that murders and executions are morally equivalent seems very weak to me and is probably false. Most of us do not really believe that a criminal murdering an innocent victim and a government executing a murderer after due process of law are really doing the “same” kind of thing.

But there is another argument in this book, an implied argument based on empathy. This argument might actually be a little stronger in this case. Justice should be blind, right? So, if I would not agree to have my own grandfather executed, how can I justify having someone else's grandfather - or father - or son, executed?

One of the great things novels do is give us a chance to experience things we never will experience in any other way. I think this novel does a good job of giving us a sense of what it is like to live on “The Row,” year after year after year.

As Grisham describes how people live in this strange environment we end up sharing their food - turnip greens and pinto beans and corn bread, we listen intently with them to every sound outside their 6 by 9 foot cells, every foot step, every creak and clang, trying to interpret what is happening in the “outside” world. We count our steps every time we get out for a visitor or a spell in the yard, counting our steps to measure a little extra freedom by how far we can walk without hitting a wall.

[Note: Here is Grisham's first novel. A searing indictment of racism from 1989.]

Most of all we get a sense of the flow of time on the row, slow and dragged out and boring when the execution date is far away, faster and faster and filled with a sickening tension and dread as the date looms closer.

I am against the death penalty but I would not use the arguments made in this book. There are stronger arguments than Grisham deploys here. Nevertheless, what makes this book worth reading is just that it lets us see, and hear, and feel, things that some few other human beings do actually see and hear and feel, and that we, God willing, never will. Unless we read this book.

This novel tells a tragic and horrifying story. I don't feel quite right saying I “enjoyed” it.... It is a dark and painful story. I am not sure that I would want to read this novel twice. But I am happy I read it once. I needed to read it once....

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If you want to support Anything Smart please click on the book links in this post and make a purchase. This is an important book and if you buy it through this blog Anything Smart will earn a commission. Thanks for visiting, and thanks for your support!

[Note: And here is a more recent novel by Grisham: "Camino Island" from 2017. Let me know what you think of it!]

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Copyright © 2020 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

"The Great Reporters" by David Randall

Without good journalists we have no real chance of knowing what is happening in the world.

We rely on good journalists to visit places we cannot,
and tell us what they find.
To look where we cannot,
and tell us what they see.
To listen where we cannot,
and tell us what they hear.

In particular, the only way we can know what our government is doing, what policies it is pursuing, what the effects of those policies are, which officials are doing good jobs, and which officials are doing bad jobs, is by relying on good journalists. Because how else CAN we know?

This exciting book is about some of the greatest journalists of all time.

It starts with the pioneering British war correspondent William Howard Russell (1820-1907) who wrote for The Times of London.

He became famous describing what he saw and heard - and what he thought and felt - during the Crimean War between Great Britain and Russia (1853-1856). He told his readers about the courage of the soldiers, but also about their pain and suffering during the war. He told his readers about government incompetence, especially in dealing with the wounded and the sick, which led, on the positive side, to reforms, and, on the negative side, to greater military censorship over reporters!

In later years Russell wrote with brutal honesty about British cruelty and atrocities in India during The Mutiny and during a trip to the United States he wrote about the terrible Union loss at the Battle of Bull Run. His unvarnished account of this debacle angered Northern readers so much that he received death threats for months from people who did not want to believe what he wrote, and eventually he decided he could only be safe by returning to England.

Russell retired in the 1880's but he left behind an inspiring example of telling the truth even when it makes people angry, even when it puts the teller in danger. He left behind an example of why we need journalists like him.

As this book's chapter on Russell concludes he "... now seems like a figure from a very distant age, but, as a teller of uncomfortable truths, and a challenger of cherished prejudices, he has had few equals. His reports from the Crimea, India and the US are a reminder that the reporting that really matters is an act not only of research, precision and coolness, but, above all, of moral courage."

There are 12 more journalistic giants to enjoy and learn from in this book. These are some of the greatest practitioners of a noble profession. If you like reading about heroes, these are heroes!

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If you want to support Anything Smart please click on the book links in this post and make a purchase. This is a great book I think you will enjoy and learn from and Anything Smart will earn a commission. Thanks for visiting, and thanks for your support!

The Great Reporters
David Randall

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Copyright © 2020 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

Hearing the Falconer #55 ~ 12-Jan-2020 ~ Looking for Moderates With the Conservative Review Scorecard

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

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12-Jan-2020
The Conservative Review Political Scorecard
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Welcome to Hearing the Falconer. This blog promotes independent thinking and political moderation. It also recommends good books that can help you sharpen your thinking skills and think through your own moderate political philosophy. It is smart, independent, moderates who will save the world! Let's get to work!

Political moderates can be lonely. Fortunately, we can use various political scorecards to look for fellow moderates.

This scorecard is from The Conservative Review. They look at how members of Congress vote on key issues and then give them a score from 0% (extreme liberal) to 100% (extreme conservative).

You pick a state, pick a chamber, and then look at the scores. You can then click on a name to see which votes they were graded on, and how they voted on each one.

Since I'm a moderate maybe I would like people who score about 40% - 60%? Since I am a moderate who leans left maybe I would like people who score about 30% - 60%? Since this scorecard is VERY conservative (Ted Cruz gets a "B") maybe I should look for people who score from 20% - 50% here?

One bad thing about this scorecard is you can only look at one state at a time. As I scroll through the data I find Lisa Murkowski, Republican Senator from Alaska who scores 22%, and Kamala Harris, Democratic Senator from California who scores 21%. I do like both of them.

Maxine Waters, Democratic Representative from California, seems too liberal to me and she scores 17% here. Ted Cruz, Republican Senator from Texas, seems too conservative for me and he scores 80% here.

(By the way, if you can't think of anyone too liberal for you then you are NOT a moderate. If you can't think of anyone too conservative for you then you are NOT a moderate. But I digress.)

I think Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are too liberal for me (better than Trump, but I would prefer a more moderate Democrat) and they score 23% and 22% respectively.

So on this scorecard I guess I will look for people from 20% - 50% but be a little wary about people in the 20s.

Yes, as a political junky this is what I do before dawn on Sunday mornings, with Forensic Files playing in the background and stacks of books and papers tumbling around me at my desk. This is who I am....

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The "Hearing the Falconer" Library

Books for Independent Thinkers and Political Moderates

If you want to support Hearing the Falconer please click on the book links in this post and make a purchase. These are excellent books that will help you sharpen your independent thinking skills and build your own moderate political philosophy AND, Hearing the Falconer will earn a commission. Thanks for visiting, and thanks for your support!

Washington: A Life

Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today

The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides

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Copyright © 2020 by Joseph Wayne Gadway