Murder in the Mews
Encyclopedia
Murder in the Mews and Other Stories is a short story
collection written by Agatha Christie
and first published in the UK by Collins Crime Club
on March 15, 1937
. In the US, the book was published by Dodd, Mead and Company
under the title Dead Man's Mirror in June 1937 with one story missing (The Incredible Theft); the 1987 Berkeley Books edition of the same title has all four stories. All of the tales feature Hercule Poirot
. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence
(7/6) and the first US edition at $2.00.
where a Mrs. Barbara Allen shot herself the previous evening – Guy Fawkes Night
– the moment of death being disguised by the noise of fireworks. Once there they find that the doctor thinks there is something strange about the death of the woman, a young widow. Mrs. Allen was found by a housemate, Miss Jane Plenderleith, who had been away in the country the previous night. The victim was locked in her room and was shot through the head with an automatic, the weapon being found in her hand. The doctor however points out that the gun is in her right hand while the wound is above the left ear – an impossible position to shoot with the right hand. It looks as if this is a murder made to look like suicide - and by an unusually incompetent murderer with poor attention to detail. They interview Miss Plenderleith and find out that Mrs. Allen was engaged to be married to Charles Laverton-West, an up-and-coming young MP
but, although the pistol was the dead lady's, she cannot think of a reason why she should use it to commit suicide.
Japp and Poirot find further clues: the gun has been wiped clean of fingerprints and large sums of money have been withdrawn from Mrs. Allen's bank account on several occasions but there is no trace of money in the house. They also find from a neighbour that Mrs. Allen had a gentleman caller the previous evening whose description doesn't tally with that of her fiancé. Feeling that Miss Plenderleith is keeping something back, they ask her about this male visitor and she suggest that it was Major Eustace – a man that Mrs. Allen knew when she was in India
and who she has seen on several occasions in the past year. She got the feeling that Mrs. Allen was afraid of the man and Japp and Poirot suggest that Major Eustace was blackmailing her – an idea which meets with approval from Miss Plenderleith. Poirot points out though that it is unusual for blackmailers to kill their victims, normally it is the opposite way round. Japp, as part of his look round the house, searches a cupboard under the stairs which contains items such as umbrellas, walking sticks, tennis racquets, a set of golf clubs and a small attaché-case
which Miss Plenderleith hurriedly claims is hers. The two men sense Miss Plenderleith's heightened tension.
Miss Plenderleith proves to have an impeccable alibi for the time of the death and Poirot and Japp interview Charles Laverton-West. He is stunned to find out that a murder investigation is taking place and admits that he himself has no sound alibi. They also try to see Major Eustace and hear that he has gone off to play golf. Mention of this suddenly makes Poirot see everything clearly. Managing to get hold of Eustace later on, they notice that he smokes a brand of Turkish cigarette
whose stubs were found in the mews house, even though Mrs. Allen smoked a different kind. They also prove that he wore a set of cufflinks, a damaged part of which was found in the room where Mrs. Allen died and Japp arrests him for murder.
On a pretext, Poirot makes Japp call at the mews house and while they are there Poirot sneaks another look at the cupboard under the stairs and sees that the attaché-case has gone. As Miss Plenderleith has just come back from playing golf at Wentworth
, they go there and find out that she was seen on the links with the case. Later investigations show that she was seen to throw the item into the lake there. The police retrieve it but find nothing in it. Poirot asks Japp and Miss Plenderleith to call at his flat and they tell her of Eustace's arrest. Poirot then tells her of his real conclusions. From clues concerning missing blotting paper, Poirot deduces that Mrs. Allen had written a letter just before she died, which if she killed herself, would indicate a suicide note. He postulates that Miss Plenderleith came home, found her friend dead, driven to kill herself by the actions of her blackmailer and was determined to avenge her – this wasn't a murder made to look like suicide but a suicide made to look like murder and thereby entrapping the blackmailer. Miss Plenderleith placed the gun in Mrs. Allens right hand, despite the fact that she was left-handed, and the purpose of her trip to Wentworth was to hide there the dead lady's golf clubs – left-handed clubs, the attaché-case being a red herring to put the police off the trail. Convinced that Major Eustace will be imprisoned for his other crimes, she agrees to tell the truth and save the man from the gallows.
. They are joined for dinner by Mr. Carlile, Lord Charles' secretary. The real reason for the house party becomes obvious when the women, Reggie and Carlile retire from the dinner table: Lord Mayfield and Sir George are there to discuss the plans for a new bomber
plane that will give Britain
supremacy in the air. The two men also discuss Mrs. Vanderlyn – she has been involved in some dubious spying and espionage in which she uses her charms to seduce her victims into telling her their secrets. Lord Charles has invited her to his house to tempt her with something big – the bomber – in order to trap her once and for all.
That evening, after their bridge
game, all of the guests retire for bed except, again, Lord Charles and Sir George. Mr. Carlile is instructed to get the plans for the bomber from the safe
for the two men to peruse over and he sets off for the study to do so, colliding with Mrs. Vanderlyn who says she has come down to retrieve her book. The two men take a turn on the terrace before getting down to work but Lord Charles is startled when he says he caught a glimpse of a figure leaving the study by the French window although Sir George saw nothing. Returning to the study, Mr. Carlile has got the papers out but Lord Charles quickly sees that the plans of the bomber itself have gone. Carlile is questioned but he is adamant that they were in the safe and he put them on the table. He was distracted for a moment when he heard a woman's scream in the hallway and running out found Leonie, Mrs. Vanderlyn's maid, who claimed that she had seen a ghost
. Aside from that, he never left the study. As Lord Charles is at a loss as to what to do next, Sir George suggests calling in Hercule Poirot...
The little Belgian arrives in the middle of the night. He is given the sequence of events and hears of the suspicions regarding Mrs. Vanderlyn. Investigating the grass leading off the terrace, Poirot confirms that there are no footprints, which means that the theft was committed by someone in the house. He then questions each of the people in turn, their actions and alibis and deduces that Leonie saw no ghost – she screamed because Reggie Carrington sneaked up on her and snatched a kiss.
Poirot suggests to Lord Charles that he comes up with a pretext to bring the party to an end in order that his guests leave the house. He does so and the next morning they all start to leave. Lady Julia, having ascertained the important issue is the return of the plans promises that they will be returned within twelve hours if no further action is taken. Poirot agrees to this and they all depart, leaving Poirot with Lord Charles. He tells him of Lady Julia's offer but that she is mistaken if she thinks she knows who has the plans. She thinks Reggie has them - hard up for money, tempted by the seductions of Mrs. Vanderlyn and missing from his room for a period the previous evening. What she doesn't know is that her son was busy with Leonie at the time in question and he therefore cannot be the thief. Mrs. Macatta was heard snoring in her room, Mrs. Vanderlyn was heard to call for Leonie from upstairs, Lady Julia thinks her son is responsible and Sir George was with Lord Charles on the terrace. Everyone is therefore accounted for except for Mr. Carlile and Lord Charles. As Mr. Carlile had access to the safe at all times and could have taken tracings at his leisure, only Lord Charles is left and Poirot has no doubts that the plans were put in his own pocket. His motive is linked back to a denial given some years earlier that he was not involved in negotiations with a belligerent foreign power. As he was indeed involved in such dubious activities he is now being blackmail
ed to hand over the plans with Mrs. Vanderlyn as the agent appointed for him to pass the plans onto. Poirot has no doubt that the plans she has are subtly altered so as to make them unworkable. Lord Charles confesses to the deception but insists that his motive, refusing to be derailed from leading England from the coming world crisis that he sees England involved in, is pure.
When Poirot first arrives at the Chevenix-Gore's house, he meets Chevenix's wife Vanda, an eccentric who believes she is a reincarnation of an Egyptian woman, his adopted daughter Ruth and her cousin Hugo, and Miss Lingard, a secretary helping Chevenix research a family history. It is revealed that before Poirot arrives, all the guests and family were dressing for dinner, and after they heard the dinner gong, a shot rang out. No one suspected that anything is wrong, believing that either a car had backfired or champagne was being served. And Chevenix-Gore not being the most popular of men, there are any number of suspects, including his own daughter and nephew. It is revealed that Hugo is engaged to Susan (another guest at the house) and Ruth has already married Lake (Chevenix-Gore's assistant) in secret.
In the end, Poirot assembles everyone in the study. He tells them that Chevenix intended to disinherit Ruth if she did not marry Hugo Trent. However, it was too late, as she was already married to Lake. Poirot says that Ruth killed Chevenix, but Ms. Lingard confesses in the murder. She is the real mother of Ruth and she killed Chevenix in order to prevent him from disinheriting her.
The bullet which killed Chevenix hit the gong (as the door to the study was open), which made Susan think that she heard the first gong (the dinner was served after the valet would strike the gong 2 times), and it was Ms. Lingard who smashed the mirror and made the whole affair look like suicide. She blew a paper bag in order to fake a shot. Poirot said he suspected Ruth, because he suspected Ms. Lingard would rescue her daughter and confess, and he had no evidence against Ms. Lingard. After everyone leaves and Ms. Lingard stays alone in the room, she asks Poirot not to tell Ruth that she is her real mother. Poirot agrees and doesn't tell anything to Ruth who wonders why Ms. Lingard committed murder.
during the low season in October where there are but a few guests. Aside from the young Pamela Lyall and Susan Blake there is Valentine Chantry, a consciously beautiful woman who seems to swoon under the attentions of Douglas Gold. This is done at the expense of his own wife, Marjorie, a mildly attractive woman, and Valentine's husband Tony Chantry.
This is the "triangle" that everyone observes, and it gets rather absurd with the two men vying for Valentine's favour. She seems to delight in the attention.
Marjorie soon wins the sympathy of many of the guests of the hotel as her husband is frequently in the company of Valentine, she confesses her own doubts about Valentine to Poirot. Poirot, however, warns her to flee the island if she values her life.
The event comes to a head one evening, beginning when Gold and Chantry have a loud argument. Valentine and Marjorie return from a drive, and the former is poisoned by the cocktail her husband gives her. Gold is immediately suspected, as the stropanthin that kills Valentine is found in the pocket of his dinner jacket. Poirot notices otherwise, seeing that Chantry puts it in Gold's pocket just as everyone's attention is on his dying wife.
Poirot gives this information to the police, and points out to Pamela Lyall that she was focusing on the wrong triangle. The real triangle was between Valentine, Marjorie and Chantry. Chantry lost patience with his wife and killed her, fixing Gold with the blame of the death. And Poirot's warning to Marjorie Gold was not because he feared she would be murdered, but because he knew she was the type to commit one.
, when the rules were less rigid – the shorter the detective story the less good it will be. The least effective of the stories in this book occupies 32 pages; the most 96; and there are two of intermediate length and merit. All are of quite a high standard as long-short stories, but none is as good as any of Mrs. Christie's full-length detective novels. The fact is that the reader of today demands to participate in a detective story, and no living writer, unless occasionally Miss Sayers
, can find room in a short story for this extra detective." The reviewer felt that the title story was the strongest and that Triangle at Rhodes the weakest because, "the psychology of the characters is insufficiently developed to make the solution either predictable or plausible".
Isaac Anderson of The New York Times Book Review
of June 27, 1937 said, "The four stories in this book are all fully up to the Agatha Christie-Hercule Poirot standard, and are about as varied in plot and in the characters involved as it is possible for detective stories to be."
The Scotsman
of April 1, 1937 said "To the ingenuity of Mrs Agatha Christie there is no end. She writes with Spartan simplicity, presents her clues fairly, and nearly always succeeds in simultaneously mystifying and satisfying her reader. This is no mean achievement in an art which is popularly supposed to be rapidly exhausting a limited stock of deception devices.
In The Observer
s issue of April 18, 1937, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers
) said, "It is rather for herself than for the four awkwardly shaped Poirot stories which make up Murder in the Mews that I give Agatha Christie first place [in his column] this week. There is sufficient in the latest exploits of the little Belgian to remind us that his creator is our queen of detective writers, but by no means enough to win her that title if she had not already won it. The last and shortest tale, Triangle at Rhodes, is just the one which should have been made the longest, since it is a problem depending entirely on the unfolding of the characters of four people. Mrs. Christie has not given herself room for such unfolding, and is therefore constrained to tear the buds brutally apart. This plot would, I think, have furnished forth a whole novel. In the other three stories, each of that long-short form which used to be sacred to the penny detective adventure story, Poirot is but palely himself, and in each case the plot, though clever, is not brilliant. In the name piece the motive of the second crime is legitimately baffling; in The Incredible Theft I kept pace with Poirot; in Dead Man's Mirror, feeling a little cheated, I myself cheated by backing the most exterior of outsiders."
E.R. Punshon of The Guardian
reviewed the collection in the April 9, 1937 issue when he said that that it was, "perhaps enough to say that they are all good, but not outstanding, Christie, and that in all of them Monsieur Poirot…is given full opportunity to display his accustomed acumen." Mr. Punshon stated that the title story was, "the best, and Mrs. Christie is least successful when she enters into the international spy field. The last story is disappointing in that it presents an interesting psychological situation that seems to cry aloud for the fuller treatment. Mrs. Christie could well have given it."
Mary Dell in the Daily Mirror of April 1, 1937 said, "Agatha Christie is keeping her famous detective, Poirot, busy. Here he is the murderer-chaser in four short stories which show that this author can keep you as "on edge" in shorter thrillers as in full-length ones. And another good thing is that you can come to the last untying of all the knots in one sitting.
Robert Barnard
: "Four very good long short stories. No duds, but perhaps the most interesting is Triangle at Rhodes, with its 'double-triangle' plot, very familiar from other Christies."
with David Suchet
in the title role. The characters of Hastings
(as played by Hugh Fraser
) and Felicity Lemon (as played by Pauline Moran
) appear in all the televised stories except for Triangle at Rhodes, even though they make no appearance in the published versions. As well as appearing in Murder in the Mews, the televised versions of The Incredible Theft and Dead Man’s Mirror also feature Philip Jackson
as Inspector Japp.
Adaptor: Clive Exton
Director: Edward Bennett
Cast:
Gabrielle Blunt as Mrs Pierce
Christopher Brown as a golfer
Bob Bryan as a barman
Barrie Cookson as Dr Brett
John Cording as Inspector Jameson
Nicholas Delve as Freddie
James Faulkner
as Major Eustace
Juliette Mole
as Jane Plenderleith
Ruskin Moya as a singer
Beccy Wright as a maid
David Yelland as Laverton West
Adaptors: David Reid, Clive Exton
Director: Edward Bennett
Cast:
Guy Scantlebury as Reggie Carrington
Albert Welling as Carlile
Phillip Manikum as a Sergeant
Carmen du Sautoy
as Joanna Vanderlyn
John Stride
as Tommy Mayfield
Ciaran Madden
as Lady Mayfield
Phyllida Law
as Lady Carrington
John Carson
as Sir George Carrington
Dan Hildebrand as a Chauffeur
This version differs only from the story in that the altered airplane plans are for the "Mayfield Kestrel" fighter plane {i.e. Supermarine Spitfire
} instead of a bomber; that Sir Charles' name is changed to "Lord Tommy" and he was being blackmailed because he had sold howitzers to the Japanese-and gives a {faked} metal alloy formula of the fighter in return for the record of his sale; in comic relief
Hastings and Poirot "borrow" a police car to chase Vanderlyn to the German ambassador's home; also Inspector Japp fails to find the missing plans; Carrington is a politician instead of a RAF officer; Lord Thomas is an arms maker-not a possible Prime Minister; the involvement of Reggie Carrington and Leonie the maid does not take place.
Adaptor: Anthony Horowitz
Director: Brian Farnham
Cast:
Tushka Bergen as Susan Cardwell
Jon Croft as Lawrence
Iain Cuthbertson
as Gervase Chevenix
Emma Fielding
as Ruth Chevenix
James Greene as Snell
Richard Lintern as John Lake
Jeremy Northam
as Hugo Trent
John Rolfe
as a Registrar
Fiona Walker
as Miss Lingard
Zena Walker as Vanda Chevenix
Derek Smee as an Auctioneer
Adaptor: Stephen Wakelam
Director: Renny Rye
Cast:
Yannis Hatziyannis as the Purser
Tilemanos Emanuel as a Customs Officer
Jon Cartwright as Commander Chantry
Dimitri Andreas as the Greek cashier
Anthony Benson as Stelton
Georgia Dervis as a Greek Girl
Angela Down as Marjorie Gold
Al Fiorentini as the police inspector
Stephen Gressieux as an Italian policeman
Timothy Kightley as Major Barnes
Annie Lambert
as Valentine Chantry
George Little as Dicker
Frances Low as Pamela Lyle
Patrick Monckton as the hotel manager
Peter Settelen as Douglas Gold
Martyn Whitby as a postman
The dustjacket design of the UK first edition was one of four commissioned by Collins from Robin Macartney, a friend of Christie and her husband Max Mallowan
(the others being Murder in Mesopotamia
, Death on the Nile
and Appointment with Death
). As well as being a talented artist, Macartney was an archaeologist and accompanied the Mallowans on many of their expeditions at this time and his shy personality was later recounted by Christie in her 1946
short volume of autobiography Come, Tell Me How You Live
.
length.
In the US the stories were first published as follows:
No US magazine publications of The Incredible Theft or Dead Man's Mirror prior to 1937 have been traced, but the original shorter versions of these stories as described above were first published as follows:
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
collection written by Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
and first published in the UK by Collins Crime Club
Collins Crime Club
The Collins Crime Club was an imprint of UK book publishers William Collins & Co Ltd and ran from May 6, 1930 to April 1994. Customers registered their name and address with the club and were sent a newsletter every three months which advised them of the latest books which had been or were to be...
on March 15, 1937
1937 in literature
The year 1937 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*January 9 - The first issue of Look magazine goes on sale in the United States.*Thomas Quinn Curtiss meets Klaus Mann.-New books:*Eric Ambler - Uncommon Danger...
. In the US, the book was published by Dodd, Mead and Company
Dodd, Mead and Company
Dodd, Mead and Company was one of the pioneer publishing houses of the United States, based in New York City. Under several names, the firm operated from 1839 until 1990. Its history properly began in 1870, with the retirement of its founder, Moses Woodruff Dodd. Control passed to his son Frank...
under the title Dead Man's Mirror in June 1937 with one story missing (The Incredible Theft); the 1987 Berkeley Books edition of the same title has all four stories. All of the tales feature Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.Poirot has been portrayed on...
. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence
British sixpence coin
The sixpence, known colloquially as the tanner, or half-shilling, was a British pre-decimal coin, worth six pence, or 1/40th of a pound sterling....
(7/6) and the first US edition at $2.00.
Murder in the Mews
Japp asks Poirot to join him at a house in Bardsley Garden MewsMews
Mews is a primarily British term formerly describing a row of stables, usually with carriage houses below and living quarters above, built around a paved yard or court, or along a street, behind large city houses, such as those of London, during the 17th and 18th centuries. The word may also...
where a Mrs. Barbara Allen shot herself the previous evening – Guy Fawkes Night
Guy Fawkes Night
Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Firework Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in England. Its history begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding...
– the moment of death being disguised by the noise of fireworks. Once there they find that the doctor thinks there is something strange about the death of the woman, a young widow. Mrs. Allen was found by a housemate, Miss Jane Plenderleith, who had been away in the country the previous night. The victim was locked in her room and was shot through the head with an automatic, the weapon being found in her hand. The doctor however points out that the gun is in her right hand while the wound is above the left ear – an impossible position to shoot with the right hand. It looks as if this is a murder made to look like suicide - and by an unusually incompetent murderer with poor attention to detail. They interview Miss Plenderleith and find out that Mrs. Allen was engaged to be married to Charles Laverton-West, an up-and-coming young MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
but, although the pistol was the dead lady's, she cannot think of a reason why she should use it to commit suicide.
Japp and Poirot find further clues: the gun has been wiped clean of fingerprints and large sums of money have been withdrawn from Mrs. Allen's bank account on several occasions but there is no trace of money in the house. They also find from a neighbour that Mrs. Allen had a gentleman caller the previous evening whose description doesn't tally with that of her fiancé. Feeling that Miss Plenderleith is keeping something back, they ask her about this male visitor and she suggest that it was Major Eustace – a man that Mrs. Allen knew when she was in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and who she has seen on several occasions in the past year. She got the feeling that Mrs. Allen was afraid of the man and Japp and Poirot suggest that Major Eustace was blackmailing her – an idea which meets with approval from Miss Plenderleith. Poirot points out though that it is unusual for blackmailers to kill their victims, normally it is the opposite way round. Japp, as part of his look round the house, searches a cupboard under the stairs which contains items such as umbrellas, walking sticks, tennis racquets, a set of golf clubs and a small attaché-case
Briefcase
A briefcase is a narrow box-shaped bag or case used mainly for carrying papers and other documents and equipped with a handle. Lawyers commonly use briefcases to carry briefs to present to a court, hence the name...
which Miss Plenderleith hurriedly claims is hers. The two men sense Miss Plenderleith's heightened tension.
Miss Plenderleith proves to have an impeccable alibi for the time of the death and Poirot and Japp interview Charles Laverton-West. He is stunned to find out that a murder investigation is taking place and admits that he himself has no sound alibi. They also try to see Major Eustace and hear that he has gone off to play golf. Mention of this suddenly makes Poirot see everything clearly. Managing to get hold of Eustace later on, they notice that he smokes a brand of Turkish cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
whose stubs were found in the mews house, even though Mrs. Allen smoked a different kind. They also prove that he wore a set of cufflinks, a damaged part of which was found in the room where Mrs. Allen died and Japp arrests him for murder.
On a pretext, Poirot makes Japp call at the mews house and while they are there Poirot sneaks another look at the cupboard under the stairs and sees that the attaché-case has gone. As Miss Plenderleith has just come back from playing golf at Wentworth
Wentworth Club
Wentworth Club is a privately owned golf club and health resort in Virginia Water, Surrey on the south western fringes of London, not far from Windsor Castle. The club was founded in 1926.-History:...
, they go there and find out that she was seen on the links with the case. Later investigations show that she was seen to throw the item into the lake there. The police retrieve it but find nothing in it. Poirot asks Japp and Miss Plenderleith to call at his flat and they tell her of Eustace's arrest. Poirot then tells her of his real conclusions. From clues concerning missing blotting paper, Poirot deduces that Mrs. Allen had written a letter just before she died, which if she killed herself, would indicate a suicide note. He postulates that Miss Plenderleith came home, found her friend dead, driven to kill herself by the actions of her blackmailer and was determined to avenge her – this wasn't a murder made to look like suicide but a suicide made to look like murder and thereby entrapping the blackmailer. Miss Plenderleith placed the gun in Mrs. Allens right hand, despite the fact that she was left-handed, and the purpose of her trip to Wentworth was to hide there the dead lady's golf clubs – left-handed clubs, the attaché-case being a red herring to put the police off the trail. Convinced that Major Eustace will be imprisoned for his other crimes, she agrees to tell the truth and save the man from the gallows.
The Incredible Theft
A house party is taking place at the home of Lord Charles Mayfield, a self-made millionaire whose riches come from his engineering prowess. With him are Air Marshal Sir George Carrington, his wife and son, Lady Julia and Reggie, a Mrs. Vanderlyn, a beautiful blond American woman and Mrs. Macatta, a forthright MPMember of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
. They are joined for dinner by Mr. Carlile, Lord Charles' secretary. The real reason for the house party becomes obvious when the women, Reggie and Carlile retire from the dinner table: Lord Mayfield and Sir George are there to discuss the plans for a new bomber
Bomber
A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, by dropping bombs on them, or – in recent years – by launching cruise missiles at them.-Classifications of bombers:...
plane that will give Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
supremacy in the air. The two men also discuss Mrs. Vanderlyn – she has been involved in some dubious spying and espionage in which she uses her charms to seduce her victims into telling her their secrets. Lord Charles has invited her to his house to tempt her with something big – the bomber – in order to trap her once and for all.
That evening, after their bridge
Contract bridge
Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...
game, all of the guests retire for bed except, again, Lord Charles and Sir George. Mr. Carlile is instructed to get the plans for the bomber from the safe
Safe
A safe is a secure lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft or damage. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face removable or hinged to form a door. The body and door may be cast from metal or formed out of plastic through blow molding...
for the two men to peruse over and he sets off for the study to do so, colliding with Mrs. Vanderlyn who says she has come down to retrieve her book. The two men take a turn on the terrace before getting down to work but Lord Charles is startled when he says he caught a glimpse of a figure leaving the study by the French window although Sir George saw nothing. Returning to the study, Mr. Carlile has got the papers out but Lord Charles quickly sees that the plans of the bomber itself have gone. Carlile is questioned but he is adamant that they were in the safe and he put them on the table. He was distracted for a moment when he heard a woman's scream in the hallway and running out found Leonie, Mrs. Vanderlyn's maid, who claimed that she had seen a ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
. Aside from that, he never left the study. As Lord Charles is at a loss as to what to do next, Sir George suggests calling in Hercule Poirot...
The little Belgian arrives in the middle of the night. He is given the sequence of events and hears of the suspicions regarding Mrs. Vanderlyn. Investigating the grass leading off the terrace, Poirot confirms that there are no footprints, which means that the theft was committed by someone in the house. He then questions each of the people in turn, their actions and alibis and deduces that Leonie saw no ghost – she screamed because Reggie Carrington sneaked up on her and snatched a kiss.
Poirot suggests to Lord Charles that he comes up with a pretext to bring the party to an end in order that his guests leave the house. He does so and the next morning they all start to leave. Lady Julia, having ascertained the important issue is the return of the plans promises that they will be returned within twelve hours if no further action is taken. Poirot agrees to this and they all depart, leaving Poirot with Lord Charles. He tells him of Lady Julia's offer but that she is mistaken if she thinks she knows who has the plans. She thinks Reggie has them - hard up for money, tempted by the seductions of Mrs. Vanderlyn and missing from his room for a period the previous evening. What she doesn't know is that her son was busy with Leonie at the time in question and he therefore cannot be the thief. Mrs. Macatta was heard snoring in her room, Mrs. Vanderlyn was heard to call for Leonie from upstairs, Lady Julia thinks her son is responsible and Sir George was with Lord Charles on the terrace. Everyone is therefore accounted for except for Mr. Carlile and Lord Charles. As Mr. Carlile had access to the safe at all times and could have taken tracings at his leisure, only Lord Charles is left and Poirot has no doubts that the plans were put in his own pocket. His motive is linked back to a denial given some years earlier that he was not involved in negotiations with a belligerent foreign power. As he was indeed involved in such dubious activities he is now being blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
ed to hand over the plans with Mrs. Vanderlyn as the agent appointed for him to pass the plans onto. Poirot has no doubt that the plans she has are subtly altered so as to make them unworkable. Lord Charles confesses to the deception but insists that his motive, refusing to be derailed from leading England from the coming world crisis that he sees England involved in, is pure.
Dead Man's Mirror
When Sir Gervase Chevenix-Gore writes to Hercule Poirot to unceremoniously summon him down to the Chevenix-Gore ancestral pile, Poirot is initially reluctant to go. However, there is something that intrigues him and so catches the train that Sir Gervase wanted him to. On arrival, it is clear that no-one was expecting him, and, for the first time in memory, Sir Gervase himself, who is always punctual, is missing. Poirot and guests go to his study and find him there dead, having apparently shot himself. Poirot is not convinced, however, and soon starts to prove that Sir Gervase was murdered because of various improbable factors surrounding the death, including the position at which the bullet is believed to have struck a mirror and the many different moods that Chevenix-Gore exhibited during the day.When Poirot first arrives at the Chevenix-Gore's house, he meets Chevenix's wife Vanda, an eccentric who believes she is a reincarnation of an Egyptian woman, his adopted daughter Ruth and her cousin Hugo, and Miss Lingard, a secretary helping Chevenix research a family history. It is revealed that before Poirot arrives, all the guests and family were dressing for dinner, and after they heard the dinner gong, a shot rang out. No one suspected that anything is wrong, believing that either a car had backfired or champagne was being served. And Chevenix-Gore not being the most popular of men, there are any number of suspects, including his own daughter and nephew. It is revealed that Hugo is engaged to Susan (another guest at the house) and Ruth has already married Lake (Chevenix-Gore's assistant) in secret.
In the end, Poirot assembles everyone in the study. He tells them that Chevenix intended to disinherit Ruth if she did not marry Hugo Trent. However, it was too late, as she was already married to Lake. Poirot says that Ruth killed Chevenix, but Ms. Lingard confesses in the murder. She is the real mother of Ruth and she killed Chevenix in order to prevent him from disinheriting her.
The bullet which killed Chevenix hit the gong (as the door to the study was open), which made Susan think that she heard the first gong (the dinner was served after the valet would strike the gong 2 times), and it was Ms. Lingard who smashed the mirror and made the whole affair look like suicide. She blew a paper bag in order to fake a shot. Poirot said he suspected Ruth, because he suspected Ms. Lingard would rescue her daughter and confess, and he had no evidence against Ms. Lingard. After everyone leaves and Ms. Lingard stays alone in the room, she asks Poirot not to tell Ruth that she is her real mother. Poirot agrees and doesn't tell anything to Ruth who wonders why Ms. Lingard committed murder.
Triangle at Rhodes
Wishing for a quiet holiday free from crime, Poirot goes to RhodesRhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
during the low season in October where there are but a few guests. Aside from the young Pamela Lyall and Susan Blake there is Valentine Chantry, a consciously beautiful woman who seems to swoon under the attentions of Douglas Gold. This is done at the expense of his own wife, Marjorie, a mildly attractive woman, and Valentine's husband Tony Chantry.
This is the "triangle" that everyone observes, and it gets rather absurd with the two men vying for Valentine's favour. She seems to delight in the attention.
Marjorie soon wins the sympathy of many of the guests of the hotel as her husband is frequently in the company of Valentine, she confesses her own doubts about Valentine to Poirot. Poirot, however, warns her to flee the island if she values her life.
The event comes to a head one evening, beginning when Gold and Chantry have a loud argument. Valentine and Marjorie return from a drive, and the former is poisoned by the cocktail her husband gives her. Gold is immediately suspected, as the stropanthin that kills Valentine is found in the pocket of his dinner jacket. Poirot notices otherwise, seeing that Chantry puts it in Gold's pocket just as everyone's attention is on his dying wife.
Poirot gives this information to the police, and points out to Pamela Lyall that she was focusing on the wrong triangle. The real triangle was between Valentine, Marjorie and Chantry. Chantry lost patience with his wife and killed her, fixing Gold with the blame of the death. And Poirot's warning to Marjorie Gold was not because he feared she would be murdered, but because he knew she was the type to commit one.
Literary significance and reception
Simon Nowell-Smith of the Times Literary Supplements issue of March 27, 1937 felt that, "It would seem nowadays – it was not true of Sherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
, when the rules were less rigid – the shorter the detective story the less good it will be. The least effective of the stories in this book occupies 32 pages; the most 96; and there are two of intermediate length and merit. All are of quite a high standard as long-short stories, but none is as good as any of Mrs. Christie's full-length detective novels. The fact is that the reader of today demands to participate in a detective story, and no living writer, unless occasionally Miss Sayers
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages...
, can find room in a short story for this extra detective." The reviewer felt that the title story was the strongest and that Triangle at Rhodes the weakest because, "the psychology of the characters is insufficiently developed to make the solution either predictable or plausible".
Isaac Anderson of The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
of June 27, 1937 said, "The four stories in this book are all fully up to the Agatha Christie-Hercule Poirot standard, and are about as varied in plot and in the characters involved as it is possible for detective stories to be."
The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
of April 1, 1937 said "To the ingenuity of Mrs Agatha Christie there is no end. She writes with Spartan simplicity, presents her clues fairly, and nearly always succeeds in simultaneously mystifying and satisfying her reader. This is no mean achievement in an art which is popularly supposed to be rapidly exhausting a limited stock of deception devices.
In The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
s issue of April 18, 1937, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers
Edward Powys Mathers
Edward Powys Mathers was an English translator and poet, and also a pioneer of compiling advanced cryptic crosswords....
) said, "It is rather for herself than for the four awkwardly shaped Poirot stories which make up Murder in the Mews that I give Agatha Christie first place [in his column] this week. There is sufficient in the latest exploits of the little Belgian to remind us that his creator is our queen of detective writers, but by no means enough to win her that title if she had not already won it. The last and shortest tale, Triangle at Rhodes, is just the one which should have been made the longest, since it is a problem depending entirely on the unfolding of the characters of four people. Mrs. Christie has not given herself room for such unfolding, and is therefore constrained to tear the buds brutally apart. This plot would, I think, have furnished forth a whole novel. In the other three stories, each of that long-short form which used to be sacred to the penny detective adventure story, Poirot is but palely himself, and in each case the plot, though clever, is not brilliant. In the name piece the motive of the second crime is legitimately baffling; in The Incredible Theft I kept pace with Poirot; in Dead Man's Mirror, feeling a little cheated, I myself cheated by backing the most exterior of outsiders."
E.R. Punshon of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
reviewed the collection in the April 9, 1937 issue when he said that that it was, "perhaps enough to say that they are all good, but not outstanding, Christie, and that in all of them Monsieur Poirot…is given full opportunity to display his accustomed acumen." Mr. Punshon stated that the title story was, "the best, and Mrs. Christie is least successful when she enters into the international spy field. The last story is disappointing in that it presents an interesting psychological situation that seems to cry aloud for the fuller treatment. Mrs. Christie could well have given it."
Mary Dell in the Daily Mirror of April 1, 1937 said, "Agatha Christie is keeping her famous detective, Poirot, busy. Here he is the murderer-chaser in four short stories which show that this author can keep you as "on edge" in shorter thrillers as in full-length ones. And another good thing is that you can come to the last untying of all the knots in one sitting.
Robert Barnard
Robert Barnard
Robert Barnard is an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.- Life and work :Born in Essex, Barnard was educated at the Colchester Royal Grammar School and at Balliol College in Oxford....
: "Four very good long short stories. No duds, but perhaps the most interesting is Triangle at Rhodes, with its 'double-triangle' plot, very familiar from other Christies."
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
All four stories featured as one-hour episodes in the ITV series Agatha Christie's PoirotAgatha Christie's Poirot
Agatha Christie's Poirot is a British television drama that has aired on ITV since 1989. It stars David Suchet as Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot. It was originally made by LWT and is now made by ITV Studios...
with David Suchet
David Suchet
David Suchet, CBE, is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama The Way We Live Now, alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy...
in the title role. The characters of Hastings
Arthur Hastings
Captain Arthur Hastings, OBE, is a fictional character, the amateur sleuthing partner and best friend of Agatha Christie's Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot...
(as played by Hugh Fraser
Hugh Fraser (actor)
Hugh Fraser is an English actor and theatre director.-Early life:Born in London but raised in the East Midlands, Fraser studied acting at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art...
) and Felicity Lemon (as played by Pauline Moran
Pauline Moran
Pauline Moran is an English actress known for her role as Miss Lemon in the British television series Agatha Christie's Poirot....
) appear in all the televised stories except for Triangle at Rhodes, even though they make no appearance in the published versions. As well as appearing in Murder in the Mews, the televised versions of The Incredible Theft and Dead Man’s Mirror also feature Philip Jackson
Philip Jackson (actor)
Philip Jackson is an English actor, known for his many television and film roles, most notably as Chief Inspector Japp in the television series Poirot and as Abbot Hugo, one of the recurring adversaries in the cult 1980s series Robin of Sherwood. Jackson was born in Retford, Nottinghamshire...
as Inspector Japp.
Murder in the Mews
This was broadcast on January 15, 1989 as the second episode of the season one.Adaptor: Clive Exton
Director: Edward Bennett
Cast:
Gabrielle Blunt as Mrs Pierce
Christopher Brown as a golfer
Bob Bryan as a barman
Barrie Cookson as Dr Brett
John Cording as Inspector Jameson
Nicholas Delve as Freddie
James Faulkner
James Faulkner
James Sebastian Faulkner is a British actor, known for his many various appearance on television and in movies, usually in supporting roles.Faulkner made his big screen debut as Josef Strauss in The Great Waltz in 1972...
as Major Eustace
Juliette Mole
Juliette Mole
Juliette Mole is an English actress and artist, now based in London. She is married to the actor Lloyd Owen.-Early life:She began her career with the Royal Shakespeare Company and later appeared on television and in film.-Career:...
as Jane Plenderleith
Ruskin Moya as a singer
Beccy Wright as a maid
David Yelland as Laverton West
The Incredible Theft
This was broadcast on February 26, 1989 as the eighth episode of the season one.Adaptors: David Reid, Clive Exton
Director: Edward Bennett
Cast:
Guy Scantlebury as Reggie Carrington
Albert Welling as Carlile
Phillip Manikum as a Sergeant
Carmen du Sautoy
Carmen du Sautoy
Carmen Du Sautoy is an award-winning leading actress who has worked extensively in theatre, television and film...
as Joanna Vanderlyn
John Stride
John Stride
John Stride is an English actor best known for his television work during the 1970s. Stride was born in London, the son of Margaret and Alfred Teneriffe Stride...
as Tommy Mayfield
Ciaran Madden
Ciaran Madden
Ciaran Madden is a British stage, film, and television actress. She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, and is an Associate Member of the academy...
as Lady Mayfield
Phyllida Law
Phyllida Law
-Personal life:Law was born in Glasgow, the daughter of William and Megsie Law, who divorced after World War II. She was married to Eric Thompson from 1957 until his death in 1982. Their two children Emma and Sophie Thompson are both actresses...
as Lady Carrington
John Carson
John Carson (actor)
John Carson is a British actor noted for his appearances in film and television.Making his film debut in 1947, he carved out a career appearing in low budget British movies such as Seven Keys ; Smokescreen ; and Master Spy...
as Sir George Carrington
Dan Hildebrand as a Chauffeur
This version differs only from the story in that the altered airplane plans are for the "Mayfield Kestrel" fighter plane {i.e. Supermarine Spitfire
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...
} instead of a bomber; that Sir Charles' name is changed to "Lord Tommy" and he was being blackmailed because he had sold howitzers to the Japanese-and gives a {faked} metal alloy formula of the fighter in return for the record of his sale; in comic relief
Comic relief
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.-Definition:...
Hastings and Poirot "borrow" a police car to chase Vanderlyn to the German ambassador's home; also Inspector Japp fails to find the missing plans; Carrington is a politician instead of a RAF officer; Lord Thomas is an arms maker-not a possible Prime Minister; the involvement of Reggie Carrington and Leonie the maid does not take place.
Dead Man’s Mirror
This was broadcast on February 28, 1993 as the seventh episode of season five.Adaptor: Anthony Horowitz
Anthony Horowitz
Anthony Craig Horowitz is an English novelist and screenwriter. He has written many children's novels, including The Power of Five, Alex Rider and The Diamond Brothers series and has written over fifty books. He has also written extensively for television, adapting many of Agatha Christie's...
Director: Brian Farnham
Cast:
Tushka Bergen as Susan Cardwell
Jon Croft as Lawrence
Iain Cuthbertson
Iain Cuthbertson
Iain Cuthbertson was a Scottish character actor. At 6' 4", he was known for his tall imposing build and also his distinctive "gravelly" heavily accented voice.-Early life:...
as Gervase Chevenix
Emma Fielding
Emma Fielding
Emma Georgina Annalies Fielding is an English actress.-Biography:The lapsed Roman Catholic daughter of a British Army soldier, Fielding spent much of her childhood in Malaysia and Nigeria, and a period in Malvern above her grandparents' betting shop...
as Ruth Chevenix
James Greene as Snell
Richard Lintern as John Lake
Jeremy Northam
Jeremy Northam
Jeremy Philip Northam is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Ivor Novello in the 2001 film Gosford Park, as Dean Martin in the 2002 television movie Martin and Lewis, and as Thomas More on the Showtime series The Tudors...
as Hugo Trent
John Rolfe
John Rolfe (actor)
John Rolfe is a British actor.His television credits include: Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, Adam Adamant Lives!, The First Lady, Softly, Softly, Doctor Who , Paul Temple, The Troubleshooters, Out of the Unknown, The Regiment, Spy Trap, Warship, Oil Strike...
as a Registrar
Fiona Walker
Fiona Walker
Fiona Walker is an English actress, known for numerous theatre and television roles between the 1960s and 1990s.Her best remembered TV part is poaaibly the role of Agrippina in the BBC adaptation of I, Claudius , directed by Herbert Wise...
as Miss Lingard
Zena Walker as Vanda Chevenix
Derek Smee as an Auctioneer
Triangle at Rhodes
This was broadcast on February 12, 1989 as the sixth episode of season one.Adaptor: Stephen Wakelam
Stephen Wakelam
-Selected works:*The Pattern of Painful Adventures*Gaskin*Coppers*Angel Voices*Circles of Deceit*Deadlines*Two Men from Delft*Adulteries of a Provincial Wife*Answered Prayers*Death at the Bed End*Punters...
Director: Renny Rye
Cast:
Yannis Hatziyannis as the Purser
Tilemanos Emanuel as a Customs Officer
Jon Cartwright as Commander Chantry
Dimitri Andreas as the Greek cashier
Anthony Benson as Stelton
Georgia Dervis as a Greek Girl
Angela Down as Marjorie Gold
Al Fiorentini as the police inspector
Stephen Gressieux as an Italian policeman
Timothy Kightley as Major Barnes
Annie Lambert
Annie Lambert
Annie Lambert is a British actress, best known to fans of the science fiction television series Doctor Who for her role as Enlightenment in the 1982 serial Four to Doomsday....
as Valentine Chantry
George Little as Dicker
Frances Low as Pamela Lyle
Patrick Monckton as the hotel manager
Peter Settelen as Douglas Gold
Martyn Whitby as a postman
Publication history
- 1937, Collins Crime Club (London), March 15, 1937, Hardback, 288 pp
- 1937, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), June 1937, Hardback, 290 pp
- 1954, Pan BooksPan BooksPan Books is an imprint which first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers owned by German publishers, Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group....
, Paperback, (Pan number 303) - 1958, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollinsHarperCollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
), Paperback, 190 pp - 1958, Dell Books, Paperback, (Dell number D238), 190 pp
- 1961, Penguin BooksPenguin BooksPenguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
, Paperback, (Penguin number 1637), 221 pp - 1978, Dell Books, Paperback, (Dell number 11699), ISBN 0-440-11699-6, 192 pp
- 1986, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, ISBN 0-70-891443-8
- 2006, Poirot Facsimile Edition (Facsimile of 1936 UK First Edition), HarperCollins, November 6, 2006, Hardback, ISBN 0-00-723448-1
The dustjacket design of the UK first edition was one of four commissioned by Collins from Robin Macartney, a friend of Christie and her husband Max Mallowan
Max Mallowan
Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan, CBE was a prominent British archaeologist, specialising in ancient Middle Eastern history, and the second husband of Dame Agatha Christie.-Life and work:...
(the others being Murder in Mesopotamia
Murder in Mesopotamia
Murder in Mesopotamia is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on July 6, 1936 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition at $2.00.The...
, Death on the Nile
Death on the Nile
Death on the Nile is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November 1, 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition at $2.00.The book...
and Appointment with Death
Appointment with Death
Appointment with Death is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on May 2, 1938 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year...
). As well as being a talented artist, Macartney was an archaeologist and accompanied the Mallowans on many of their expeditions at this time and his shy personality was later recounted by Christie in her 1946
1946 in literature
The year 1946 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*November 7 - Walker Percy marries Mary Bernice Townsend.*Launch in the United Kingdom of Penguin Classics under the editorship of E. V...
short volume of autobiography Come, Tell Me How You Live
Come, Tell Me How You Live
Come, Tell Me How You Live is a short book of autobiography and travel literature by crime writer Agatha Christie. It is one of only two books she wrote and had published under both of her married names of "Christie" and "Mallowan" and was first published in the UK in November 1946 by William...
.
First publication of stories
All four of the stories in the collection were either previously published in magazines and were reprinted or were expanded versions of far shorter stories which had previously been published under different titles. Each of the stories are NovellaNovella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
length.
- Murder in the Mews appeared in Woman's Journal in December 1936 in a version with differing chapter divisions to those that eventually appeared in the book
- The Incredible Theft is an expanded version of the story The Submarine Plans which appeared in issue 1606 of The SketchThe SketchThe Sketch was a British illustrated newspaper weekly, which focused on high society and the aristocracy. It ran for 2,989 issues between February 1, 1893 and June 17, 1959. It was published by the Illustrated London News Company and was primarily a society magazine with regular features on royalty...
magazine on November 7, 1923 with all the character names changed and one character - Mrs. Macatta - added to the text. The original shorter version was eventually reprinted in book form in Poirot's Early Cases. The expanded version in the book was serialised in six instalments in the Daily ExpressDaily ExpressThe Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
from Tuesday, April 6 to Monday, April 12, 1937 (no publication on Sunday, April 11) with illustrations for each instalment by Steven SpurrierSteven SpurrierSteven Spurrier was a British artist and painter.After his apprenticeship to his silversmith father, Spurrier studied art and became a freelance magazine illustrator. His work appeared in magazines such as The Graphic, Illustrated London News and the Radio Times. He also produced posters for...
.
- Dead Man's Mirror was an expanded version of the story The Second Gong which appeared in issue 499 of the Strand MagazineStrand MagazineThe Strand Magazine was a monthly magazine composed of fictional stories and factual articles founded by George Newnes. It was first published in the United Kingdom from January 1891 to March 1950 running to 711 issues, though the first issue was on sale well before Christmas 1890.Its immediate...
in July 1932. The original shorter version was eventually reprinted in book form in the 1991 collection Problem at Pollensa Bay. The story is a locked room mysteryLocked room mysteryThe locked room mystery is a sub-genre of detective fiction in which a crime—almost always murder—is committed under apparently impossible circumstances. The crime in question typically involves a crime scene that no intruder could have entered or left, e.g., a locked room...
featuring a wealthy retired man who apparently commits suicide. The character of Mr Satterthwaite who had previously appeared in The Mysterious Mr. QuinThe Mysterious Mr. QuinThe Mysterious Mr. Quin is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on April 14 1930 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year...
in 1930 and Three Act TragedyThree Act TragedyThree Act Tragedy is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie first published in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1934 under the title Murder in Three Acts and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in January 1935 under Christie's original title...
in 1935 makes a reappearance.
- Triangle at Rhodes appeared in issue 545 of the Strand Magazine in May 1936 under the slightly longer title of Poirot and the Triangle at Rhodes. This final story in the collection is the shortest of the four and takes Poirot on an island holiday during which a guest is murdered. The story has some similarities to the full-length 1941 Christie novel, Evil Under the SunEvil Under the SunEvil Under the Sun is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1941 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in October of the same year...
, which includes a complicated love-triangle relationship.
In the US the stories were first published as follows:
- Triangle at Rhodes appeared in the February 2, 1936 issue of the weekly newspaper supplement This Week magazine with illustrations by Stanley Parkhouse.
- Murder in the Mews appeared in RedbookRedbookRedbook is an American women's magazine published by the Hearst Corporation. It is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.-History:...
magazine in two instalments from September (Volume 67, Number 5) to October 1936 (Volume 67, Number 6) with illustrations by John Fulton.
No US magazine publications of The Incredible Theft or Dead Man's Mirror prior to 1937 have been traced, but the original shorter versions of these stories as described above were first published as follows:
- The Submarine Plans appeared in the July 1925 (Volume 41, Number 3) issue of the Blue Book MagazineBlue Book (magazine)Blue Book was a popular 20th-century American magazine with a lengthy 70-year run under various titles from 1905 to 1975.Launched as The Monthly Story Magazine, it was published under that title from May 1905 to August 1906 with a change to The Monthly Story Blue Book Magazine for issues from...
with an uncredited illustration.
- The Second Gong appeared in the June 1932 (Volume LIIX, Number 6) issue of Ladies Home Journal with an illustration by R.J. Prohaska.
External links
- Murder in the Mews at the official Agatha Christie website