{"id":21460,"date":"2023-01-19T19:27:02","date_gmt":"2023-01-20T00:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=21460"},"modified":"2025-10-01T16:11:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T20:11:48","slug":"towards-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/21460","title":{"rendered":"Towards Zero"},"content":{"rendered":"

Towards Zero<\/a><\/em> (1944) Agatha Christie<\/a> (Superintendent Battle)<\/p>\n

\"Towards<\/a>This one I remembered bits and pieces of.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be just by being somewhere\u2014 not doing anything\u2014 just by being at a certain place at a certain time\u2014 oh, I can\u2019t say what I mean, but you might just\u2014 just walk along a street some day and just by doing that accomplish something terribly important\u2014 perhaps even without knowing what it was.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She was like a child who, by a tightly clenched hand over a treasure\u2014 calls attention to what it wants to hide.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“I always hoped that when my time came, it would come quickly\u2014 that I should meet Death face to face\u2014 not feel him creeping along behind me, always at my shoulder\u2014 gradually forcing me to sink to one indignity after another of illness. Increased helplessness\u2014 increasing dependence on other people!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the lift in front of them hung a notice: <\/p>\n

LIFT OUT OF ORDER<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A lot of injudicious things were said at times like these, as he well knew. The unfortunate part was that they were usually remembered most inconveniently afterwards.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But other parts of the story obviously didn’t stick at all.<\/p>\n

And considering that John MacEnroe was in his prime when I was growing up, I found this hilarious.<\/p>\n

“Nevile, blast him, is always the complete good sportsman. I\u2019ve never seen him lose his temper over losing a match.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cOf course not,\u201d said Kay. \u201cPeople don\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cOh yes, they do! We\u2019ve all seen them. Tennis stars who give way to nerves\u2014 and who damn\u2019 well snatch every advantage.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Publisher: William Morrow<\/p>\n

Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Towards Zero (1944) Agatha Christie (Superintendent Battle) This one I remembered bits and pieces of. \u201cIt may be just by being somewhere\u2014 not doing anything\u2014 just by being at a certain place at a certain time\u2014 oh, I can\u2019t say what I mean, but you might just\u2014 just walk along a street some day and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[193,30,190,292,33,8,41],"tags":[228,650,658,898],"class_list":["post-21460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-10","category-british","category-cozy","category-ebook","category-historical","category-mystery","category-reread","tag-agatha-christie","tag-attempted-suicide","tag-superintendent-battle","tag-ww-ii"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-5A8","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21396,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/21396","url_meta":{"origin":21460,"position":0},"title":"The Secret of Chimneys","author":"Michelle","date":"December 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Secret of Chimneys (1925) Agatha Christie (Superintendent Battle) Honestly, I have absolutely no memory of this book. I read only a handful of the Poirot books, and I remember some of the Tommy & Tuppence books, but this? And Superintendent Battle? The only thing that was familiar was the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Secret of Chimneys","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/The-Secret-of-Chimneys.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21457,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/21457","url_meta":{"origin":21460,"position":1},"title":"Murder is Easy","author":"Michelle","date":"January 19, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Murder is Easy (1939) Agatha Christie (Superintendent Battle) Luke Fitzwilliam has retired and is headed back to England from the Mayang Straits, wondering what he's doing to do with himself. An odd exchange about murder with an old woman on a train had been easily dismissed. what was I saying?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Murder is Easy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Murder-is-Easy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21413,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/21413","url_meta":{"origin":21460,"position":2},"title":"The Seven Dials Mystery","author":"Michelle","date":"December 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Seven Dials Mystery (1929) Agatha Christie (Superintendent Battle) As threatened at the end of The Chimneys Lord Caterham has let Chimneys to those who would like to stay there. While Sir Oswald and Lady Coote were there, one of their visitors, Gerald Wade, died unexpectedly, at the same time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Seven Dials Mystery","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/The-Seven-Dials-Mystery.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24591,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24591","url_meta":{"origin":21460,"position":3},"title":"The Moving Finger","author":"Michelle","date":"May 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Moving Finger (1942) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple) \u2018I can see you are a very clever young man\u2014but not quite enough confidence in yourself. You ought to have!\u2019 Joanna gave a loud hoot. \u2018For goodness\u2019 sake don\u2019t encourage him to feel like that. He thinks quite enough of himself as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Moving Finger","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/the-moving-finger.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24585,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24585","url_meta":{"origin":21460,"position":4},"title":"The Body in the Library","author":"Michelle","date":"May 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Body in the Library (1942) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple) Mrs Bantry reflected a minute and then applied an urgent conjugal elbow to her sleeping spouse. \u2018Arthur, Arthur, wake up.\u2019 Colonel Bantry grunted, muttered, and rolled over on his side. \u2018Wake up, Arthur. Did you hear what she said?\u2019 \u2018Very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Body in the Library","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/The-Body-in-the-Library.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20854,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/20854","url_meta":{"origin":21460,"position":5},"title":"A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie","author":"Michelle","date":"October 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie (2015) Kathryn Harkup Agatha Christie volunteered as a nurse during the first world war, and ended up working at the pharmacy. In order to prepare for the Apothecaries Hall examination Christie was tutored in practical, as well as theoretical, aspects of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/A_is_for_Arsenic.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}