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Summary: Clean-cut mysteries
Comment: Three short stories featuring Hercule Poirot, this compilation is pure mystery. Vintage mystery, if you will. It has a very old-fashioned feel (as most of Christie's work does) and is quite refreshing every now and then. There's not a lot of back story or sub-plots, everything revolved around the case. Simple and precise, and if you're the type that enjoys trying to figure out the mystery, this is the type of book for you. I like Agatha Christie (though Miss Marple is a rather annoying character) and the way she constructs the mysteries so that they are solvable by the reader is very unique. I'd recommend this to any mystery lover, and highly recommend it to mystery purists.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Only Lie?
Comment: "Triangle at Rhodes" was the very first Agatha Christie story I ever read, as an American boy growing up in France. I wish one of her biographers could place it for me precisely when it was written, for it seems at one point Christie was literally moving Poirot all around the world, on the Orient Express of course, then in Mesopotamia to meet Nurse Amy Leatheran, and out to the ruins in APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH and on that fatal cruise on the Karnak on DEATH ON THE NILE. I feel sure that "Triangle at Rhodes" must fit right in there but alas, I have no idea where Rhodes is or where it is in relation to Petra (APPOINTMENT) and indeed, maybe there were two world voyages for Poirot, and his little trek to Rhodes might have been just a holiday jaunt in the final days right before the war. You know how the second half of PARKER PYNE sends Pyne to a different Mid East capital? Same big boom of travel writing on Christie's part? She must have known the war was coming and that her travels would be curtailed, and during WWII her novels stayed strictly at home, with the exception of two highly exceptional books, the Mary Westmacott ABSENT IN THE SPRING, and the historical epic DEATH COMES AS THE END.
If you've read "Triangle at Rhodes," then the mystery of EVIL UNDER THE SUN won't be a surprise to you, and I must say that it's so much better worked out in the novel than in the short story that following the differences is a lesson in stagecraft.
Of the four stories in this book, only MURDER IN THE MEWS itself is really a first class achievement, for whenever Christie writes about the Sapphic she really lets her romantic nature go haywire. The relationship between the two roommates, Jane Penderleith and Barbara Allen, is never really made explicit, but certainly Mrs. Allen's decision to remarry precipitated the great crisis that leads to her death. Jane is one of Christie's great tragic characters, and her love for Barbara is a stark, real thing, the product I expect of Christie's early immersion in the Greek classic drama. Over and over again she has these Iphigenia slash Cassandra heroines who alone know the whole truth and who either say it out loud, shocking their communities, or keep it silent out of a greater, more pagan love for another. It strikes me also that MURDER IN THE MEWS might be the only Christie book whose *title* actually proves a lie, so to speak, or might there be others? Help me out here.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great
Comment: The book arrived in perfect shape and I love all of Agatha Christies books. It came much sooner than I expected.
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Summary: Christie's Best Collection of Shorter Stories
Comment: Murder in the Mews begins with a country house murder in the perfect Christie fashion in "Dead Man's Mirror" (ideas of which seemed to have filtered into the film, Gosford Park). This book consists of three more longish stories that outshine most of those in Agatha Christie's other short story collections. These stories are all typically English of their period and show off their great detective creation, Hercule Poirot, in a less pompous form than the novels often portray him. The author has taken the time in these short pieces to assemble a large cast and a great variety of clues to hold any reader's interest. Almost as good as her full novels and that is saying a lot.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A vintage collection of Christie's
Comment: Murder in the Mews brought together 4 short stories by Agatha Christie, most if not all were also published in other collections (albeit with minor alternations). I did feel a little cheated when I discovered it. Nonetheless, the two which I had not read did give undeniable pleasure.Murder in the Mews took place on a location which Poirot and Inspector Japp happened to stroll by on the night of the crime. Despite it being Guy Fawkes day, it was such a place that they remarked it would have been perfect for a murder. And the next day, they were summoned to attend to a suspicious suicide at the very same location. In this short story, Christie tantalised the readers with a myriad of clues, most of which would mislead rather than clarify. A worthwhile mystery.
In the Dead Man's Mirror, Poirot was summoned by an old fashioned aristocrat, only to arrive moments before he apparently committed suicide. This story appeared in another publication as "The Second Gong". Suspicions were cast on the dead man's adopted daughter and his nephew - especially when it came to light that the aristocrat intended to cut them off without a penny if they did not abide by his wishes to marry each other. It was important in this story for the reader to visualise as accurately as possible the scene of the murder in order to find proof whether it was suicide or murder.
The Incredible Theft was almost a carbon copy of "The Submarine Plans". Two leading British politicians had a small weekend party which included a well-suspected female spy. Ostensibly, she was included to entrap her, to catch her in the act. However, when vital plans were stolen without a clue, the politicians had to call in Poirot to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Poirot had to question all those present carefully to clear their names, or nail them with the evidence.
The last story, "Triangle at Rhodes", had Poirot on holiday in a resort at Rhodes. Other guests at the resort included a glamourous socialite who was flirting with other men despite the presence of a jealous husband. In the absence of Hastings (which would not have fitted well into the setting), Christie used another female guest to hold conversations with Poirot to flesh out the narration. Being familiar now with Christie's sleight-of-hand tricks, I was not misdirected. However, it took an unrevealed-before-hand witnessing of Poirot to nail the culprit when someone did die in the triangle of passion.
I would recommend reading the book but not buying it.
