Programming note: Tomorrow, Wednesday, at 3pm North American Eastern (8pm Greenwich Mean Time) Mark will be rising from his sickbed and behind the microphone for a Mamdani-a-go-go edition of our Clubland Q&A, taking questions from Steyn Club listeners around the world. Hope you can swing by.
~Our autumnal Tale for Our Time, and the seventy-fourth of our Steyn Club audio adventures, is Mark's serialisation of The Murder on the Links, Agatha Christie's second Hercule Poirot outing, from 1923. Yesterday's return of the tantalus came just in time for our New York listeners on the brink of the Writ of Mamdani. Steve, a First Month Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, says:
As I brace for New York City mayoral impact on Tuesday, I will want to have my seatbelt securely fastened and any tantalus close to hand and in the upright and unlocked position.
These continued instalments of Dame Agatha Christie's absorbing murder mystery have already become a vital mental health aid for all your New York area followers, and I thank you for it.
Jeff Estes, a California Steyn Clubber, will second that:
I've decided that, should I live to 72, I'm buying a tantalus, fill it with Islay scotch and take up smoking.
In tonight's episode, Poirot and Hastings meet the deceased's widow:
A faint voice bade us enter, and we passed into a large sunny apartment looking out towards the sea, which showed blue and sparkling about a quarter of a mile distant.
On a couch, propped up with cushions, and attended by Dr. Durand, lay a tall, striking-looking woman. She was middle-aged, and her once dark hair was now almost entirely silvered, but the intense vitality and strength of her personality would have made itself felt anywhere. You knew at once that you were in the presence of what the French call "une maîtresse femme."
She greeted us with a dignified inclination of the head.
"Pray be seated, monsieurs."
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear Part Five of our adventure simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes of The Murder on the Links can be found here, and previous Tales for Our Time here.
If you'd like to join The Mark Steyn Club, we'd love to have you: please see here. And, if you've a chum who enjoys classic fiction, we've introduced a special Steyn Gift Membership: you'll find more details here. Oh, and we also do video poetry - and an annual Mark Steyn Cruise.
Please join Mark tomorrow evening for Part Six of The Murder on the Links.