La rosa de sangre (en inglés: The Rose and the Yew Tree)? es una novela escrita por Agatha Christie, bajo el seudónimo Mary Westmacott en 1948. Fue la cuarta de seis novelas escritas por Christie bajo este seudónimo.Trama: La muerte de John Gabriel -el justo, el santo- hizo despertarse a un pasado confinado entre la melancolía y la tristeza: los tiempos en que Gabriel -oportunista con vitola de héroe de guerra- apareció en St. Loo, para perturbar una sociedad conformista y plácida y arrastrar tras de sí y su destino de desarraigado a Isabella Charteris; dos vidas atrapadas en el error o la malicia, pero a la que el inagotable sentimiento del amor hizo, por un momento, sublime.

Agatha Christie writing as Mary Westmacott - but using a setting she also uses in one of the Poirot books. This is a funny mixture: character study and small town politics, framed with Ruritanian melodrama. I found it amusing, aggravating and moving in pretty much equal measure.

According to Agatha Christie's daughter, Rosalind Hicks, "The Rose and the Yew Tree" was a favorite of Agatha Christie and also of her daughter. A beautiful woman, Isabella Charteris, has always envisioned that she will marry the man of her childhood dreams - her cousin - and Rupert, the handsome man is to marry the beautiful young girl - his cousin - that he met in childhood and always envisioned marrying when he returns "home" from the war. The story is the tell of all the circumstances leading up to the reveal if the handsome man returns "home" and the life the woman has come to live. Their story is told by Hugh Norreys, a neighbor, a man who has his own story to tell. There are many unexpected twists and turns and as always the reader becomes entranced by the writing.

Don't miss reading more about the novels by Christie's daughter, Rosalind Hicks...
https://www.agathachristie.com/about-christie/family-memories/the-mary-westmacot...

I am looking forward to reading the next romance titled, "A Daughter's a Daughter." ( )

Nothing too big and heavy for listening in the car, trying to get back into that after a period off. Radio 4 on the way to work, book in the evening seems to be working at the moment. A road trip finished the last hour or so of this off.
This is a tale of the past. A man is summoned to a death bed in Paris by someone he would not call a friend. This person wants to tell him the woman they were both linked to died. You don't get to hear this until the end, as after that introduction, you get to hear the back story. The story teller is Hugh Norries, a captain who was injured in a car crash in the war, on the harrow road. He is still trying to find his reason to live when he is transported to Cornwall by his brother and sister in law, Teresa. Teresa is one of life's organisers, and she set about being involved. in this case in politics - despite not really having an interest in politics. So Hugh ends up being used as a sounding board by people involved in the local election (the labour landslide on 45) on the side of the conservative candidate. He's a war hero, but no gentleman, who is attractive to women and attracted to danger and publicity - probably in equal amounts. Here they both meet Isabella, the young girl who live in the castle. She's aloof, self contained and opens up to no-one, although both of the men fall under her spell. Only one understands her and the other doesn't. This is primarily the cause of the antipathy between them. It is a sad tale, with in one sense a sad ending. In one case, he does not know what he had until it was gone, in the other, a least, he can remember the prime, not the ending.
the title comes from Teresa, who says that a rose and a yew tree do not live for the same length of time, but each lives for the same purpose and dies when that purpose is fulfilled. In that sense a short life lived to the full is not the same as a life cut short. ( )

Agatha Christie writing as 'Mary Westmacott' in 1947. 'The moment of the rose, and the moment of the yew tree, are of equal duration' T S Eliot.

Set against a background of the small Cornish town of St. Loo and post-war politics the book is narrated by Hugh Norreys, a bedridden invalid who has lost the use of his legs as a result of a car accident and as such becomes a 'listening post' for the characters central to the plot. Isabella Charteris is the 'princess' living in the castle. She lives serenely in the present and is set on marrying her cousin Rupert after the War so they can live together in the castle she loves. John Gabriel, an ambitious and ruthless war hero who is crippled by an inferiority complex, appears as the local electoral candidate and only Hugh is privy to his inner workings - put powerless to do anything about them. When Gabriel wins the election, he runs off with Isabella.

My favourite character would have to be Teresa, the no-nonsense and wise sister-in-law. Interesting read. ( )