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Partners in Crime (novel)
Encyclopedia
Partners in Crime is a short story
collection written by Agatha Christie
and first published by Dodd, Mead and Company
in the US in 1929
and in the UK by William Collins & Sons
on September 16 of the same year. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence
(7/6).
All of the stories in the collection had previously been published in magazines (see First publication of stories below) and feature her detective
s Tommy and Tuppence
Beresford, first introduced in The Secret Adversary
(1922).
Eager and willing, the two set out to tackle several cases. In each case mimicking the style of a famous fictional detective of the period, including Sherlock Holmes
and Christie's own Hercule Poirot
.
At the end of the book, Tuppence reveals that she is pregnant, and as a result will play a diminished role in the spy business.
. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Mr. Carter (See The Secret Adversary
) who asks them to take over The International Detective Agency whose manager, Theodore Blunt, is now in prison. They are to undertake any of the cases that the agency receives whilst all the time watching for letters on blue paper sent to Mr. Blunt with a Russian
stamp on them from a supposed ham
merchant anxious to trace his refugee
wife. They will have a "16" written under the stamp and they are also to be alert for any reference to said number.
A few days later, the two have installed themselves in the office. Tommy's alias is Mr. Blunt while Tuppence is his confidential secretary, Miss Robinson. The porter from their flat, Albert (Mrs. Vandemeyer's lift boy from The Secret Adversary) is their office boy. After a week of divorce cases, which Tuppence finds distasteful, they receive a visit from Lawrence St. Vincent. He is the nephew of and heir to the Earl of Cheriton. He has fallen for a young girl called Janet who works in a hat shop in Brooks Street but she has disappeared from the shop and has not been seen at her lodgings. St. Vincent heard several mentions of the detective agency from Janet and now wants them to find her. The Beresfords take on the case which Tuppence solves with ease. Janet is a friend of hers from her wartime nursing days who was working at the hatshop where Tuppence makes her purchases. She asked Janet to make the mentions of "Blunts" and then disappear. St. Vincent would ask them to take on the case (for which they get publicity) and they would "find" Janet, provoking St. Vincent into a proposal of marriage.
They receive a client. It is a young woman named Miss Kingston Bruce. She lives in Wimbledon
with her parents and last night one of their guests lost a valuable pink pearl. They do not wish to call in the police yet and the Blunts were recommended to them by Lawrence St. Vincent who was also one of the guests.
The Beresfords travel to Wimbledon and meet Colonel Kingston Bruce. He proudly tells them that Lady Laura Barton, daughter of the late Earl of Carroway, is staying with them together with an American couple, Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton Betts, who wanted to meet a titled lady. During a bridge
game after dinner, the clasp of Mrs. Betts' pearl pendant necklace broke. She laid it down on a small table and forgot to take it upstairs. The next morning, the necklace was still there but the pearl itself had gone. Aside from the Kingston Bruce's, the Betts, Lady Laura and St. Vincent, the only other guest was a Mr. Rennie who is paying court to Miss Kingston Bruce. Her father doesn't like or trust the man as he is a socialist
. No one has been allowed to leave the house since the pearl was discovered to be missing except for their daughter when she went to the Blunts. They are given approval to search the house as part of their investigations.
Tommy tries to look impressive by using his new camera whilst Tuppence tactfully questions the servants. They overhear a scrap of conversation between Mrs. Kingston Bruce and her daughter about someone hiding a teaspoon in their muff and wonder who this can be. Later on, Tuppence ferrets out of Lady Laura's French maid, Elise, that her employer is something of a kleptomania
c and five times in the past items have gone missing when she had been staying at friend's houses. They start searching Lady Laura's bedroom and bathroom, momentarily getting stuck in the latter room when Elise cannot open the door. Tommy takes pictures in the bedroom with Elise's assistance and then quietly tells Tuppence that he has an idea and has to go out to pursue it. In the meantime, she is not to let Lady Laura out of the house.
Some time later Tommy returns with Inspector Marriot of Scotland Yard. They go straight back to the bathroom and cut the cake of soap in half. Inside it is the pearl. The reason Elise couldn't open the door was that she had soap on her hands after depositing the pearl there. Tommy's photographs included one of the maid and she handled one of the glass slides, thus leaving her fingerprints. The Yard have identified her from their records as a missing criminal and arrested her. Being the maid of a lady suspected of kleptomania was the best cover she could have.
and who is getting married. Tommy's disparaging remarks about the General are interrupted by the arrival of the post and the first of the promised blue Russian letters. Their perusal of the letter is interrupted by the arrival of a large man with a club foot
who states that he is Dr Charles Bower of Hampstead
. Twice in the last week he has been summoned away to an urgent case but on each occasion the call has been a hoax. On arriving back home, he has found signs that his study has been carefully searched in his absence, probably for papers he has on his studies of alkaloid
s, these papers being securely held in a secret drawer in his desk. He has received another summons to a patient who is now in Bournemouth
but in checking on this summons he has found it to be another decoy. Another search of his study should therefore take place that night and Bower wants Blunts to be there when the third attempt is made.
Bower leaves and his club foot reminds Tuppence of the brothers Oakwood. Tommy resolves to be Desmond while she is Francis. Their next visitor is Detective Inspector Dymchurch from Scotland Yard, a colleague of Marriot's, who knows of the need to keep a watch on the blue letters and is following Bower. The doctor's real purpose is to decoy the Berefords away from their office that night in order that it can be searched and the latest letter retrieved. Tommy and Dymchurch make another plan to return to the office that night and catch the agents in the act. They do so but it is a trap and Tommy is bound. Dymchurch is a foreign agent with several of his men with him. Bower (real spelling, Bauer) is also one of his gang. He threatens Tommy with torture
to reveal the whereabouts of the blue letter. He tells them that Tuppence has it and writes a letter summoning her to the office but he signs this 'Francis' and shows them the General's wedding present as proof that this is his real name and not Theodore Blunt. Tuppence arrives but, alerted by the false name in the note, she has brought Inspector Marriot with her and several armed policemen. 'Dymchurch' and his co-conspirators are arrested.
of the newspaper indicate the different days on which the paper was produced but his tenacious wife has spotted an advert in the personal column
which reads, "I should go three hearts. 12 tricks. Ace of Spades. Necessary to finesse the King." She deduces that this refers to the Three Arts Ball which is to take place tomorrow night, "12 tricks" means twelve o'clock midnight and the "Ace of Spades" refers to a somewhat decadent nightclub-cum-eating place in Chelsea
where it is fashionable to go to after events like the Three Arts Ball. Wondering what is meant by "Necessary to finesse the King" and feeling that they need to hone their detective skills, she decides that she and Tommy will go the following night to investigate in both their ball costumes and in their detective roles of Tommy McCarty and Dennis Riordan.
At the 'Ace of Spades', Tommy and Tuppence sit in one of the private booths and peer through the door at the various other costumed and masked patrons. The booth next door is soon taken by a woman dressed as Alice's
Queen of Hearts and a man outfitted as the gentleman dressed in newspaper. After a while, they hear a cry from the woman followed by the man laughing and then see him leaving. After a few minutes, suspicious, Tuppence makes Tommy follow her into the booth and they find the woman stabbed through the heart. She whispers, "Bingo did it" before she dies...
The next day, Inspector Marriot brings Sir Arthur Merivale, the husband of the dead woman, Lady Vere Merivale, round to the Beresford's flat. "Bingo" Hale is known to both of them and he is stunned that his best friend could have killed his wife. Hale had been staying with them and was arrested that morning for murder. Merivale is perplexed as to what the motive could have been and is incensed at the suggestion from Marriot that the two were lovers and that Vere was threatening Hale who was paying attention to a rich American woman. Tuppence shows Sir Arthur the advert from the "Daily Leader" and the way the two communicated with each other using this device. Before she died, Vere tore off a piece of Bingo's newspaper costume and the police intend to match this up with the discarded costume.
Marriot returns to the Beresford's later on with photographs of the fragment and the section of the costume it came from – he has the last link to convict Hale but Tuppence senses that he is far from satisfied with the conclusion to the case. When he has gone, she spots that the dots in the masthead of the two pieces don't match. They invite Sir Arthur back round and confront him with the evidence. Tuppence puts it to him that he too was at the 'Ace of Spades' dressed in a near identical masked costume. Hale alleges that he was slipped a note asking him not to approach Vere and he complied. Sir Arthur took his place and killed his own wife. The man laughs at this suggestion and Tuppence recognises it as the same laugh she heard from the booth. Marriot is hidden in their flat listening in but Sir Arthur throws himself out of the window and falls to his death before he can be taken. Marriot tells them that the motive wasn't jealously but money. Vere Merivale was the one in the marriage with the money and if she'd left her husband he would have been destitute.
. Tommy and Tuppence impress him with their initial display of observational and deductive powers (whilst in reality using their common sense and a judicious read of the Daily Mirror earlier that day) and he entrusts his case to them.
Stavansson explains that before he went on the expedition, he became engaged to the Honourable Mrs. Hermione Leigh Gordon, whose previous husband was killed in World War I
. Upon his return to England, a fortnight sooner than expected, his first thought was to rush to London and see his fiancé who had been staying with her Aunt, Lady Susan Clonray, in Pont Street
. However, Lady Susan was surprised to see him and proved evasive about her niece's whereabouts, saying that she was moving between friends in the north of the country. Stavansson and Lady Susan had never really got on well, partially due to his dislike of fat women (of which Lady Susan is one example) and partially due to his perception that she disapproved of the engagement. Nevertheless he insisted on the names and address of the various people that Hermione was supposed to be staying with and traveled north to see them – finding not one of them had had recent contact with his fiancé.
Lady Susan seemed genuinely upset when told this news but a telegram arrived as she and Stavansson were talking, purportedly from Hermione and addressed from Maldon saying she was going to Monte Carlo
. Stavansson travelled to Maldon but was, once again, unable to find any trace of Hermione, prompting his visit to Blunt's International Detective Agency.
Taking up the case, Tommy and Tuppence travel to Maldon themselves and draw a similar blank on the whereabouts of the missing woman. It is then that Tuppence realizes that there are two Maldons – one in Surrey
which they have been investigating and another small place of the same name in Sussex
. They travel there and find out that there is an isolated private nursing home
near the village. Investigating this lead, Tuppence inquires at the nursing home and is told they do not have a patient named Mrs. Leigh Gordan. Next Tommy poses as a journalist seeking an interview with Dr. Horriston, but he too is unable to gain access to the house. Next the sleuths overhear a conversation which fuels their suspicions further, so Tommy leaves Tuppence to keep watch while he goes to make some phone calls in the village. Upon his return he informs Tuppence that he'd found out that Dr. Horriston has a reputation as "a most unscrupulous quack..."
After dark, the two return to the house to further their investigation. Tuppence ascends a ladder to a second floor window, where she sees a woman strapped to the bed and writhing in pain. She recognizes the woman as Mrs. Leigh Gordan from the photograph provided by Stavansson. While Tuppence is watching, a nurse enters the room and injects the woman with an unknown substance. Tuppence informs Tommy of what she has seen and then ascends the ladder again, leaving him to keep a look out while she tries to free the woman. A few moments pass and Tommy is startled by a hand upon his shoulder, but it is Tuppence, having left by the front door of the house. She informs Tommy that the case is solved. Hermione Leigh Gordan is at the nursing home of her own free-will. Having put on weight during the 2 years Stavansson was at the North Pole, she had gone to Dr. Horriston for a high-priced (and strictly confidential) weight loss treatment. The only problem was that Stavansson had returned early, just at the time she had started the treatments.
Feeling somewhat foolish, the young detectives leave quickly, with Tommy commenting that there is no need to place the case in their records as, "It has absolutely no distinctive features."
At the Bltiz, they are soon joined by two men who have been observing the pair and say that the Blunt's have been pointed out to them, although one of them confesses that he didn't know that Theodore Blunt was blind. They were on the way to see them but were told they were out to lunch and by coincidence have stopped at the same place. One of the men introduces himself as the Duke of Blairgowrie and his friend is Captain Harker. The Duke's daughter has been kidnapped "under somewhat peculiar circumstances" which mean that he cannot call in the police and he wants the Blunts to accompany them to his house immediately. Tommy agrees but not before he has drunk a cup of coffee and given Tuppence instructions for a meal at the hotel tomorrow that he is having with the French Prefect of Police. That done, they leave with Tommy and the Duke taking a different car to that of Captain Harker and Tuppence.
It is a trap and the "Duke" is in reality connected with the Russian letters. He prods a pistol at Tommy and takes him to a hideout where he is bound to a chair while the "Duke" gloats over him. He tells Tommy that the floor of the room they are in is metal and now electrified. Even though he is blind, he is going to make Tommy walk across the floor. If he steps on a contact point, he will die. He hands him his white cane and unties him and the "game" is about to commence. Tommy coolly takes out a cigarette and match but he has anticipated the trap and instead lights a magnesium
wire he is carrying. The flare blinds the "Duke" who lowers his pistol and then he finds himself at the point of Tommy's cane – in reality, a swordstick
. Tommy reveals that his dark shades were actually false and he has been able to see all the time. The "Duke" springs forward with rage and steps on a contact point, dying instantly. Tommy escapes the house and rings Tuppence from a call box. She is safe. Tommy's order at the hotel were codewords from Clinton Stagg's stories for Albert to fetch help. He tailed Tuppence and he and the police freed her from "Captain Harker".
Their discussion as to what this could mean is interrupted when a shabbily-dressed and aggressive young man bursts into the hotel. Sitting near Tommy and Tuppence he tells them that his name is James Reilly, he is a pacifist poet and is enamoured of Gilda Glen who once cared for him but no longer after her engagement to Lord Leconbury. Still angry he leaves as suddenly as he arrived.
Tommy and Tuppence make their way to Morgan's Avenue. There is a thick fog in the air and Tuppence is startled when a policeman looms up out of the mist just near to the White House. Recovering herself, they see Reilly enter the house and the Policeman confirms it is the residence of a Mrs. Honeycott and he saw someone who resembles Miss Glen enter there a few minutes before.
About to enter the house, they hear a muffled cry and Reilly runs out of the house, leaving what looks like red paint on his hand on a gatepost as he does so. The two go into the house and meet Ellen, the maid who is indignant about the visit by Reilly and then they meet Mrs. Honeycott herself. Mistaking Tommy for a real priest she asks for his help with Gilda who she reveals is her sister. Some twenty years before, at the age of seventeen, she married a man against the wishes of her family and now wants a divorce to marry Lord Leconbury. Her husband is refusing to grant her this wish although the marriage took place so long ago that Mrs. Honeycott can't remember the name of the man. She confirms that it wasn't Reilly who she saw rush upstairs and as quickly down again. Nervous as to what might have happened, Tommy asks to be shown upstairs where they find Gilda's body, her head smashed in on one side by some unknown blunt instrument. Tuppence fetches the policeman from outside and it is confirmed by questioning that Mrs. Honeycott heard her sister entering the house at eight minutes past six as she was re-setting the main clock. This confirms with the time that the policeman himself saw the actress enter, just before Tommy and Tuppence walked up Morgan's Avenue.
The next day, Reilly has been arrested and Tommy and Tuppence meet with the accused man's solicitor, Mr. Marvell. Reilly insists that the woman was already dead when he entered her room but as there was no one else in the house at the time that would mean either Ellen or Mrs. Honeycott killed her. Tommy suddenly realises that no one inside the house actually saw Gilda enter – they only heard her – but prior to that the two women already in the house were in the kitchen where they couldn't see or hear anyone with a key entering. Just because they heard the door banging, it doesn't prove anything – it could just as easily have been someone leaving the house – like the policeman outside who loomed up out of the fog by the gate and who carries a truncheon which would serve as a blunt instrument to carry out the deed, especially if the policemen is Gilda's husband of twenty years ago.
seems to be the starting point for most of the notes that have been found (although some have come from across the channel
) and the police are especially interested in the activities of a Major Laidlaw who is involved in racing
circles and he and his French wife always seem to have a lot of money. Although it could be a coincidence, a large number of the notes emanated from a gambling
club used by the Laidlaws and this, together with the racing, could be an ideal way of distributing the forgeries. Another friend of the Laidlaws is Lawrence St. Vincent (from A Pot of Tea above) and Marriot thinks he could introduce the Beresfords into the set.
Marriot leaves and Tommy and Tuppence make their plans to catch the head of the forgers, or 'The Crackler' as Tommy calls him, named after the sound that a rustled banknote
makes.
The two are soon ensconced within the Laidlaw's circle of friends. As well as the Laidlaw's themselves, Mrs. Laidlaw's French father, M. Heroulade, is an object of suspicion. They observe how notes are passed by the Laidlaws to lay their bets and in among the wad of notes, there always seem to be some forgeries. Marguerite Laidlaw is a striking woman and has a string of admirers. Among them is a visiting wealthy American called Hank Ryder who tells Tommy that she is in fear of her husband. He's also been a victim of the forged notes as he tried to pay some into his bank
that he'd received from his winnings and they were rejected over the counter.
The next night Tommy is at the gambling club that Marriot mentioned and Mrs. Laidlaw passes him several notes to exchange for one of a higher denomination. Among them are several forgeries. His immediate suspicions are directed to M. Heroulade but his attention is caught when he leaves the club and finds Hank Ryder drunk
in the street outside. Within his slurred ramblings he tells Tommy how Mrs. Laidlaw took him on a treasure hunt which included a visit to Whitechapel
where she "found" five hundred pounds. Tommy takes Ryder to the district and the exact house where they went to earlier. As the row of mean terraced dwellings look identical, Tommy chalks a small cross at the base of the back door before they enter. Ryder thinks he hears someone coming and goes back out to investigate. Tommy goes further into the house and finds the counterfeiting gang and The Crackler himself – Hank Ryder. He tells the captured Tommy that he has been suspicious of him from the start and that in case the chalk mark on the back door was a lead to Tommy's accomplices as to his whereabouts he has put similar marks on all the other doors. His satisfaction is cut short when Marriot and the police burst into the room and arrest the gang. Tommy tells Ryder that he was equally suspicious of him and so, when he was chalking the door, he also emptied a bottle of valerian
on the ground, thus attracting all the neighbourhood cats to the smell. This was his pre-arranged sign for Albert who, on his orders, followed them to Whitechapel.
Mystery.
The facts are that two men, Captain Anthony Sessle and Mr. Hollaby, business partners and both members of Sunningdale Golf Club, played a full round of golf
on the course
on a Wednesday and decided to play a few more holes before it went dark. As they approached the tee on the seventh hole, Hollaby saw Sessle talking to a mysterious woman in a brown coat. These two went off talking down a side path and after a moment Sessle reappeared. Something had upset him for his game fell apart and two holes later Sessle gave up and walked off alone, ostensibly to his bungalow home. The existence of the woman in brown, Sessle's temporary departure with her and his subsequent poor game were all witnessed by two other members who were on the previous hole and awaiting their turn.
The next morning, Sessle was found dead on the seventh tee, stabbed with a hatpin
through the heart. The police found forensic evidence on the man which led them to trace a young girl called Doris Evans. She was arrested and told a story of meeting Sessle at a cinema. He invited her to his bungalow on a day when, as she subsequently found out, his wife and servants would be away. On the day in question, the man met her as he arrived home from the golf course. He behaved strangely and then, suggesting a stroll, he took her to the golf course. On the aforementioned seventh tee he suddenly became deranged and produced a revolver
, wildly suggesting a suicide pact. Doris escaped his grasp and ran off. One further fact which has come to light is that Sessle and Hollaby's assurance
business is in liquidation
and the funds embezzled
.
Over their table, Tuppence counters that Doris would not have murdered the man as very few women nowadays use hatpins and that suggests that a man, not conversant with present fashions, committed the crime and tried to frame a woman. Tommy soon remembers that near to the seventh hole on the course is a small hut and the two talk about the possibility that the woman in brown could have been a man in disguise. This leads them to wonder who it could have been and, linked to a theory of Tuppence's that the embezzler of the company was not Sessle but Hollaby and his son, they speculate if the woman was Hollaby Junior, who is also connected with the assurance firm. They reconstruct the crime: Hollaby's son lures Sessle away in full view of the other two players on the course. He stabs him with a hatpin and hides the body in a hut, changing clothes with the dead man. The two witnesses on the course see at a distance the deterioration in his game and "Sessle" then goes to his bungalow where he meets Doris Evans as arranged and goes through a series of actions which lead to the innocent girl being arrested.
The Beresfords wonder how to convince the police of the plausibility of their theory but they have failed to spot Inspector Marriot at the next table. He has overheard the conversation and, already suspicious of the Hollaby's, promises to set enquiries in motion.
poisoning and that this is the third occurrence in the area of such a gift and its after-effects. What perturbs Miss Hargreaves is that the paper in which the chocolates were wrapped was re-used from a previous parcel sent to the Grange, evidenced by a small doodle of three intertwined fish that she drew on it in a moment of abstraction after it had been used to wrap a parcel of silk stockings sent from London. The poisoner is therefore someone in her own home.
Miss Hargreaves is a rich heiress. She inherited her fortune from her aunt, a Lady Radclyffe, who post-deceased her husband, a self-made man. Lois lived with her aunt in her widowhood but she always made it clear to her niece that she intended to leave the bulk of her estate to Dennis Radclyffe, her late husband's nephew. However, when she had a violent quarrel with the young man she changed her will
in favour of Lois who, in turn, has made a will leaving her money to Dennis. He lives at the Grange with her, as does Miss Logan, an old lady who is a distant cousin of Dennis and a former companion to Lady Radclyffe. The final member of the house, servants aside, is Mary Chilcott, an old schoolfriend of Lois. The servants are a cook and kitchenmaid, a parlourmaid called Esther and an elderly maid called Hannah.
The next day, by agreement with Lois, Tommy and Tuppence plan to travel down to the Grange but before they go they receive a shock – Lois is dead, killed by some unknown poison which also affected Dennis and Miss Logan who are both seriously ill. The cause is supposed to be fig
paste in some sandwiches eaten by the three but not by Mary Chilcott who is unaffected. They meet Dr. Burton who is looking after the patients and who tells them that Dennis has now died as well but that he has not yet identified the poison used this time, however it was not arsenic. Investigating the matter, they discover that Dennis was out when the sandwiches were eaten for tea and it is supposed that he ate one on his return to the house. Tommy, however, finds that he was seen to drink a cocktail
by one of the maids and manages to get hold of the glass before it is washed.
In speaking with everyone in the house, they meet Hannah, who appears to have undergone a religious mania, quoting scripture and bringing fire and brimstone
on all concerned. She has in her possession a strange item – an old book by a man called Edward Logan on medicines and poisons which appears to have belonged to Miss Logan's father, a pioneer of serum therapeutics
. They confirm this from the ill old lady, noting how she has a mass of small pinpricks on her arm.
They call at Dr. Burtons and find out that the poison has been identified as Ricin
and, from the entry in Edward Logan's old book, deduce that Miss Logan is the murderer. The pinpricks on her arm are from injections of small amounts of the poison she has been giving herself to build up immunity. As Dennis' next of kin she would inherit once he and Lois were dead. The near-mad Hannah, having previously suspected Miss Logan when she saw her reading the book and smiling to herself, hears this accusation and bursts into Miss Logan's room and attacks her, starting a fire in the process. Tommy stifles the flames but the shock of this event causes Miss Logan to die of a heart attack. Dr. Burton confirms that the cocktail glass also contained traces of Ricin.
n girl called Una Drake who he has fallen violently in love with. Talking of their mutual love of detective stories, she has made a bet with him that he cannot break an alibi she has set up for herself. She has agreed that if he wins he can ask her for anything he likes and it is his intention to ask her for her hand in marriage. Knowing full well that he is not known for his intelligence, Montgomery Jones asks the Beresfords to take on the task for him.
The alibi is that on the previous Tuesday Miss Drake dined at a Soho
restaurant, saw a West End show and then had supper with a Mr. le Marchant at the Savoy Hotel
. At the same time, she also stayed the night at the Castle Hotel in Torquay
and returned to London the next morning. Armed with a photograph of Miss Drake and the knowledge of the methods of Inspector French, Tommy and Tuppence interview Mr. le Marchant who confirms that he was with the young lady for part of the evening in question. He also states that Miss Drake made an oblique comment to being in Devonshire at the same time, which he considers strange since a friend of his was at the Castle Hotel and did indeed think that he saw her there. The two then investigate the Soho restaurant (where a positive identification of the girl is not forthcoming) and then travel to Torquay where they find plenty of evidence that Miss Drake was in the hotel throughout the night and also travelled to the resort at a time compatible with her also being in London. Their final questioning is back in London of some people who saw her at the Savoy and also of her flatmate and charwoman who both attest that she spent the night in her own bed.
Working all evening on trying to puzzle out the problem, the Beresfords confess that they are stumped. Sleeping on the problem, the next morning Tuppence awakes to a flash on inspiration and sends off a cable to test her idea. Later that day she returns to their office with the solution – Una has a twin sister who, the cable to Australia has confirmed – arrived in England the day before the events in question. The fun-loving sisters thought the stunt would be an amusing joke to play on Montgomery Jones.
, which scared all their guests and their income away. A Dr O'Neill from a Society for Physical Research has visited them and has offered to buy the house from them to continue his investigations. Monica however is certain that he is also younger man in disguise who previously made them an offer for the house. The only other resident in the house now is Crockett, an elderly maid of Monica's aunt who has a younger nephew of whom she is very proud.
Tommy and Tuppence travel to the "Red House" and begin their investigations, harbouring suspicions that the old lady has hidden money in the building which would account for the remainder of her fortune being missing. Tommy makes a visit to the local bank and manages to the find out from the manager that the aunt did indeed withdraw all of her money some time before she died. Under the guise of potential buyers, they explore the house and Monica gives them various papers of her aunt's. Before they can investigate these further, they hear a crash and find a jug and basin broken in a room overhead. They quickly interview Crockett and notice that she is out of breath. Mentioning to her that they intend to buy the house, Monica receives a message soon afterwards from "Dr O'Neill" that his own offer has increased – it is obvious that the old maid is the one creating "disturbances" and that the "Doctor" is her nephew trying to get the house in order that he can investigate himself the location of the missing fortune.
Tommy and Tuppence look over the papers and realise that one of them contains a puzzle anagram
. They work it out and the solution is "potatoes". Another of the papers, on the theme of recipes, refers to the trick of burying new potatoes in a tin to keep them fresh for the winter and they realise that this is their lead. They question the gardener to see if the old lady ever used this technique and find out that she did. They dig in the spot and find several tins of potatoes and, in one of the tins, a bag containing two hundred pounds in gold sovereigns, twenty thousand pounds in banknotes and a string of expensive pearls. Monica Deane and her mother will have their fortune and she and the Beresfords will be each able to celebrate a happy Christmas.
Ambassador
to Great Britain
. He arrived back from a trip to his home country a week ago. Soon after his return, his valet
informed him that his kit bag, which carried his initials, had been mistakenly taken by another passenger on board the liner with the same initials – Senator
Ralph Westerham, also from the US – but quickly returned by that man's valet. The puzzle is that Mr. Wilmott met Mr. Westerham yesterday and the Senator denied such a mistake having taken place, especially as he did not have such an article amongst his luggage on board the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean
. Mr. Wilmott knows the matter is a trivial one but his curiosity has been piqued and he wishes the agency to investigate.
At Mr. Wilmott's invitation, the Beresfords visit the US Embassy
and speak to Richards, his valet, who confirms the basics of the tale told by the Ambassador. Just before the other valet called for the bag, he had started to unpack and glimpsed the contents of it. It contained boots and toilet things, a tin of bath salts
being glimpsed. Tommy wonders if the Ambassador's bag could have been tampered with on the voyage and Richards recalls the incident of a young lady called Eileen O'Hara being taken ill just outside the Ambassador's cabin on the liner and he having to fetch a doctor for her, leaving the cabin alone. When he returned with the medical man, the patient seemed fine.
Tommy decides that their next line of action is to advertise for Miss O'Hara to come forward, even though they risk putting her on her guard if she isn't innocent of any action relating to the kit bag. Two days later, Albert shows into Tommy's office a Miss Cicely March who is answering the advertisement but before she can relate what she knows they are interrupted by a big, dark Spanish-looking man who holds them up at gunpoint. He has followed Miss March, having recognised her from being a passenger on the liner and he suspects that she is about to meddle in their plans. Before he can carry out any of his threats, he is accosted by Albert, disarmed and Tommy throws him out, deciding not to involve the police.
Alone with Miss March, she tells Tommy a tale of having also seen the incident of Miss O'Hara on the liner but she was also witness to the supposedly ill woman, when she thought she was alone and unobserved, going into Mr. Wilmott's cabin and putting something into the lining of a boot through a slit which she cut. Worried about what she had done to the boot, Miss March later went into the empty cabin and extracted the object from the lining. It was a slip of paper with verses of the bible on it which yesterday, through an accident, she got wet and which revealed hidden writing on it of what looks like the plans of a harbour. The paper is back at her place of work – a beauty parlour in Bond Street
where she is the US agent for preparations sold there. Tommy leaves a note for Tuppence and he and Miss March go there. Preparing to take a taxi, Tommy spots that the cab has just refused a fare further down the road and, suspicious that they are being watched, insists on walking to Bond Street. Once there, they pass through the front shop past a woman customer and two waiting men and go into a back office where instantly Tommy is set upon. Rescue is immediate however as the woman in the front of the shop is Tuppence and the two men are policemen, alerted by Tommy's note. He noticed a look of disappointment on Miss March's face when their assailant at the agency was overcome and realised that she was in the enemy's camp. He had also worked out that it wasn't the Ambassador's bag that was important but that a bag of some nature was in the Ambassador's possession for an hour or two thereby bypassing customs for reasons of diplomatic immunity. He delayed their arrival at the parlour thus giving Tuppence time to get herself and the police there. They search the premises and find tins of bath salts which are found to contain cocaine
.
has become suspicious of the failure to hear from their agents and that they have despatched a man to investigate. The agent is known to them, having caused them problems in the past, but he is master of disguise and linguistics. He is also the deviser of the "No. 16" code and they expect him to turn up at Blunts although he has never met the real Theodore Blunt and doesn't know that Tommy has been impersonating him. The Beresfords are given other known codes to watch out for and are asked to cooperate as much as they can with "No. 16" to help Carter get to him.
The two go back to the agency where they find that too many leaves have been torn from a calendar and that it shows the date as Sunday the sixteenth, six days hence. Albert tells them that could only have been done by a client who waited for some time for them that morning – a hospital nurse.
After a short while, another client is shown in - a fair, bearded man who goes by the name of Prince Vladiroffsky who starts to use the codes communicated to them by Mr. Carter. Upon being questioned, the Beresfords tell him that treachery is afoot. "No. 16" assumes that Tuppence is an agent known as "Marise" and suggests that she lunch with him at the Blitz hotel and that they then meet Tommy later on at Headquarters. They leave and Tommy communicates with Mr. Carter whose men have been listening into the conversation in the office. Going to the Blitz, the "Prince" and Tuppence dine, served by waiters some of whom are policemen in disguise. They then go up in the lifts to the "Prince"'s suite but when they fail to appear some time later, the lift boy tells Tommy and Mr. Carter that he took them to a different floor instead. They have been spotted going into the room of a Mrs. Van Snyder of Detroit and, breaking into this room, they find the room's occupant bound and gagged. "No. 16" took Tuppence through into an adjoining room booked by an invalid French man and his nurse (more agents of No. 16) and made his escape that way with Tuppence as a hostage, drugged and disguised as the invalid.
Tommy is distraught at the thought of what might be happening to Tuppence. Albert tries to cheer him up, reminding him of Tuppence's resourcefulness. In talking to Albert, Tommy is struck by an idea and races back to the Blitz where he and one of Carter's men go back to Mrs. Van Snyder's room. They find the lady still there, recovering on the bed. Under the bolster
on the bed, Tommy finds Tuppence – he realised that there wasn't enough time to bind and gag Mrs. Van Snyder, drug Tuppence and disguise her as a Frenchman. Therefore she must still have been in the room and, remembering the bolster as a hiding place from childhood games, saw that as the only place she could be. He also unmasks "No. 16" – Mrs. Van Snyder in disguise.
Tuppence quickly recovers and the two decide to give up the agency, for no other reason that, as a delighted Tommy is informed, Tuppence is expecting a baby.
The review in The New York Times Book Review
of September 22, 1929 began: "To describe adequately such a book as this is no easy matter. It is a group of short detective stories within a detective novel, for there is a rather sketchy, but nonetheless absorbing plot which holds the separate tales together. The entire book and the separate stories may be taken as hilarious burlesque or parodies of current detective fiction, or they may be taken as serious attempts on the part of the author to write stories in the manner of some of the masters of the art. Taken either way they are distinctly worth while." The review concluded, "The result is the merriest collection of detective stories it has been our good fortune to encounter."
The Scotsman
of September 16, 1929 said, "Detective fiction, like mathematics, tends to develop a language of its own which to the uninitiated can be a little troublesome. It is not so much a matter of 'blue-nosed automatics' and other jargon of the craft of detective fiction; the trouble is that many of the writers seem to have little command of English and cannot make their characters speak naturally. Agatha Christie is a notable exception. In this volume of stories she has conceived the ingenious idea of setting her two amateur detectives...to work out their problems after the fashion of various heroes of detective fiction. This enables her to parody the methods of various writers...in a way that is most enjoyable, for her literary skill is equal to the task. At the same time the stories are genuinely detective stories. They are well wrought and ingenious. The writer has the saving grace of humour and she does not let her detectives win too easily. By having two detectives who are usually alternately successful she has always a foil, less obtuse than 'my dear Watson'".
The Daily Express
issue of October 10, 1929 gave the book a review of a couple of lines which concluded that the stories were "not quite up to her level, although they are entertaining enough".
Robert Barnard
: "Tommy and Tuppence in a series of short stories which parody detective writers and their methods. Many of these are long forgotten, but the parodies are not sharp enough for this to matter very much. The House of Lurking Death anticipates the solution of Dorothy L. Sayers
's Strong Poison
."
was at 10.30pm from New York City
. There are differing accounts of who starred in the adaptation. Peter Haining states that the stars were Barbara Bel Geddes
as Tuppence and Lee Bowman
as Tommy but other sources state that the stars were Ronald Reagan
and Cloris Leachman
"Nash Airflyte Theatre" The Case of the Missing Lady (1950). The adaptation was written and directed by Marc Daniels
.
's London, Midland and Scottish Home Service
from Monday, April 13 to Monday, July 13, 1953. The half-hour episodes starred Richard Attenborough
as Tommy and Sheila Sim
as Tuppence, taking advantage of the actor's then-current starring roles in The Mousetrap
. Oscar Quitak
appeared in all episodes as Albert. Aside from a 1948 adaptation of Ten Little Niggers
, this was the first adaptation of a Christie book for radio in the UK.
with James Warwick as Tommy and Francesca Annis
as Tuppence and Reece Dinsdale
as Albert. It was first broadcast in the UK between October 16, 1983 and January 14, 1984.
Chapters from the book appeared in Agatha Christie's Crime Reader, published by Cleveland Publishing in 1944 along with other selections from Poirot Investigates and The Mysterious Mr. Quin.
and 1928
, principally The Sketch
magazine. For publication in book form, Christie rearranged the story order and changed the framing device of several of the chapters to make the flow of the book easier. The original order and publication details of the stories are as follows:
After a gap of four years a final story, The Unbreakable Alibi, appeared in Holly Leaves, the annual Christmas
special of the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
in December, 1928. This formed the basis for chapter 19 of the book.
of the first UK edition (which is carried on both the back of the dustjacket and opposite the title page) reads:
"This delightfully witty book will come as a pleasant surprise to all admirers of these ingenious detective thrillers for which Agatha Christie is famous. It tells the story of the amazing adventures of two amateur detectives – Tommy, a remarkable young man of thirty-two, and his equally remarkable wife, Tuppence – who follow the methods of famous detective heroes, such as Sherlock Holmes, Inspector French, Roger Sherringham, Bulldog Drummond, Father Brown and even Monsieur Poirot himself. Problem after problem comes before them for solution, and the account of their endeavours to live up to their slogan, ‘Blunt’s Brilliant Detectives! Any case solved in twenty-four hours!’ makes delicious reading.".
The blurb was incorrect in that "Sapper's
" Bulldog Drummond
stories were not parodied although the character and the situations that he encountered were briefly mentioned in The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger.
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 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...
in the US in 1929
1929 in literature
The year 1929 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Candide by Voltaire is declared obscene by the United States Customs and seized in 1930....
and in the UK by William Collins & Sons
William Collins (publisher)
William Collins was a Scottish schoolmaster and publisher.Collins was born near Glasgow in 1789. In 1819 he set up a publishing business, initially selling religious books. He produced the first Collins dictionary in 1824, when he also obtained a licence to publish the Bible...
on September 16 of the same year. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition 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).
All of the stories in the collection had previously been published in magazines (see First publication of stories below) and feature her detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
s Tommy and Tuppence
Tommy and Tuppence
Tommy and Tuppence are two fictional detectives, recurring characters in the work of Agatha Christie. Their full names are Thomas Beresford and Prudence Cowley....
Beresford, first introduced in The Secret Adversary
The Secret Adversary
The Secret Adversary is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the United Kingdom by The Bodley Head in January 1922 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company later in that same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition...
(1922).
Plot introduction
The Beresfords' old friend, Mr. Carter (who works for an unnamed government intelligence agency) arrives bearing a proposition for the adventurous duo. They are to take over 'The International Detective Agency', a recently cleaned out spy stronghold, and pose as the owners so as to intercept any enemy messages coming through. But until such a message arrives, Tommy and Tuppence are to do with the detective agency as they please - an opportunity that delights the young couple. They employ the hapless but well-meaning Albert, a young man also introduced in The Secret Adversary, as their assistant at the agency.Eager and willing, the two set out to tackle several cases. In each case mimicking the style of a famous fictional detective of the period, including Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock 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...
and Christie's own 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...
.
At the end of the book, Tuppence reveals that she is pregnant, and as a result will play a diminished role in the spy business.
The stories and their detective parodies
- A Fairy in the Flat / A Pot of Tea - Introduces the setup of Tommy & Tuppence at The International Detective Agency. Reminiscent of Malcolm Sage, detective (1921) by Herbert George JenkinsHerbert George JenkinsHerbert George Jenkins was a British writer and the owner of the publishing company Herbert Jenkins Ltd. His writing style varied from mystery to comedy and popular non-fiction. Two of his novels and several of his short stories were made into short movies...
. - The Affair of the Pink Pearl - This first case is in the vein of the detective Dr ThorndykeDr ThorndykeDr John Evelyn Thorndyke is a fictional detective in a long series of novels and short stories by R. Austin Freeman . Thorndyke was described by his author as a 'medical jurispractitioner': originally a medical doctor, he turned to the bar and became one of the first - in modern parlance - forensic...
by R. Austin Freeman. - The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger - An espionage story, following in the footsteps of Valentine Williams and the detective brothers Francis and Desmond Okewood. One of the Williams' books in particular - The Man with the Clubfoot (1918) is named by Tuppence in the story.
- Finessing the King / The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper - This two part story is a spoof of the nowadays almost forgotten Isabel Ostrander, with parallels to the story The Clue in the Air (1917) and the detectives Tommy McCarty (an ex-policeman) and Denis Riordan (a fireman).
- The Case of the Missing Lady - This story references Arthur Conan DoyleArthur Conan DoyleSir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
's Sherlock HolmesSherlock HolmesSherlock 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...
story The Disappearance of Lady Frances CarfaxThe Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax"The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is one of the eight stories in the cycle collected as His Last Bow.-Synopsis:...
(1911). - Blindman's Buff - Matches Clinton H. Stagg's stories around the blind detective Thornley Colton.
- The Man in the Mist - In the style of G. K. ChestertonG. K. ChestertonGilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....
's Father BrownFather BrownFather Brown is a fictional character created by English novelist G. K. Chesterton, who stars in 52 short stories, later compiled in five books. Chesterton based the character on Father John O'Connor , a parish priest in Bradford who was involved in Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism in 1922...
stories. - The Crackler - A spoof on Edgar WallaceEdgar WallaceRichard Horatio Edgar Wallace was an English crime writer, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright, who wrote 175 novels, 24 plays, and numerous articles in newspapers and journals....
's style of plotting. - The Sunningdale Mystery - The tale is in the style of Baroness OrczyBaroness OrczyBaroness Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála "Emmuska" Orczy de Orczi was a British novelist, playwright and artist of Hungarian noble origin. She was most notable for her series of novels featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel...
's The Old Man in the CornerThe Old Man in the CornerCreated by Baroness Orczy, author of the famous Scarlet Pimpernel series, The Old Man In the Corner was one of the earliest armchair detectives, popping up with so many others in the wake of the huge popularity of the Sherlock Holmes stories....
(1909) with Tuppence playing the role of journalist Polly Burton and Tommy tying knots in a piece of string in the same way as Orczy's character, Bill Owen. - The House of Lurking Death - Recreates the style of A. E. W. Mason and his French detective Inspector HanaudInspector HanaudInspector Gabriel Hanaud is a fictional French policeman depicted in a series of novels and short stories by the British writer A. E. W. Mason. He has been described as the "first major fiction police detective of the Twentieth Century"....
. - The Unbreakable Alibi - Modelled after Freeman Wills CroftsFreeman Wills CroftsFreeman Wills Crofts was an Irish mystery author, one of the 'Big Four' of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.-Birth and education:Crofts was born at 26 Waterloo Road, Dublin, Ireland...
, known for his detective stories centred around alibis and the Scotland YardScotland YardScotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
detective Inspector Joseph French. - The Clergyman's Daughter / The Red House - A two part story, this is a parody on detective Roger Sherringham by Anthony Berkeley, with plot elements reminding of The Violet Farm by H. C. BaileyH. C. BaileyHenry Christopher Bailey was an English author of detective fiction. Bailey wrote mainly short stories featuring a medically-qualified detective called Reggie Fortune...
(although the latter was not published until 1928). - The Ambassador's Boots - Following the style of H. C. BaileyH. C. BaileyHenry Christopher Bailey was an English author of detective fiction. Bailey wrote mainly short stories featuring a medically-qualified detective called Reggie Fortune...
with Dr. Reginald Fortune and Superintendent Bell as the parodied detectives. - The Man Who Was No. 16 - This story parodies Christie's own The Big FourThe Big Four (novel)The Big Four is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on January 27, 1927 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It features Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings, and Inspector Japp...
, featuring Hercule PoirotHercule PoirotHercule 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...
.
A Fairy in the Flat / A Pot of Tea
Prudence ("Tuppence") Beresford, who has been married to Tommy for six years, is bored with life, although not with her husband. She flippantly discusses what exciting things she would wish to happen to her, mainly adventures involving German spies or spying trips to Bolshevik RussiaSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Mr. Carter (See The Secret Adversary
The Secret Adversary
The Secret Adversary is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the United Kingdom by The Bodley Head in January 1922 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company later in that same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition...
) who asks them to take over The International Detective Agency whose manager, Theodore Blunt, is now in prison. They are to undertake any of the cases that the agency receives whilst all the time watching for letters on blue paper sent to Mr. Blunt with a Russian
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
stamp on them from a supposed ham
Ham
Ham is a cut of meat from the thigh of the hind leg of certain animals, especiallypigs. Nearly all hams sold today are fully cooked or cured.-Etymology:...
merchant anxious to trace his refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
wife. They will have a "16" written under the stamp and they are also to be alert for any reference to said number.
A few days later, the two have installed themselves in the office. Tommy's alias is Mr. Blunt while Tuppence is his confidential secretary, Miss Robinson. The porter from their flat, Albert (Mrs. Vandemeyer's lift boy from The Secret Adversary) is their office boy. After a week of divorce cases, which Tuppence finds distasteful, they receive a visit from Lawrence St. Vincent. He is the nephew of and heir to the Earl of Cheriton. He has fallen for a young girl called Janet who works in a hat shop in Brooks Street but she has disappeared from the shop and has not been seen at her lodgings. St. Vincent heard several mentions of the detective agency from Janet and now wants them to find her. The Beresfords take on the case which Tuppence solves with ease. Janet is a friend of hers from her wartime nursing days who was working at the hatshop where Tuppence makes her purchases. She asked Janet to make the mentions of "Blunts" and then disappear. St. Vincent would ask them to take on the case (for which they get publicity) and they would "find" Janet, provoking St. Vincent into a proposal of marriage.
The Affair of the Pink Pearl
Tommy sorts out a pile of books in the office. They are a number of volumes of famous detective stories and he thinks it would be a good idea to base their techniques on the different styles of their fictional counterparts. He has also bought a good camera for taking photographs of footprints and "all that sort of thing".They receive a client. It is a young woman named Miss Kingston Bruce. She lives in Wimbledon
Wimbledon, London
Wimbledon is a district in the south west area of London, England, located south of Wandsworth, and east of Kingston upon Thames. It is situated within Greater London. It is home to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and New Wimbledon Theatre, and contains Wimbledon Common, one of the largest areas...
with her parents and last night one of their guests lost a valuable pink pearl. They do not wish to call in the police yet and the Blunts were recommended to them by Lawrence St. Vincent who was also one of the guests.
The Beresfords travel to Wimbledon and meet Colonel Kingston Bruce. He proudly tells them that Lady Laura Barton, daughter of the late Earl of Carroway, is staying with them together with an American couple, Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton Betts, who wanted to meet a titled lady. During a 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 after dinner, the clasp of Mrs. Betts' pearl pendant necklace broke. She laid it down on a small table and forgot to take it upstairs. The next morning, the necklace was still there but the pearl itself had gone. Aside from the Kingston Bruce's, the Betts, Lady Laura and St. Vincent, the only other guest was a Mr. Rennie who is paying court to Miss Kingston Bruce. Her father doesn't like or trust the man as he is a socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
. No one has been allowed to leave the house since the pearl was discovered to be missing except for their daughter when she went to the Blunts. They are given approval to search the house as part of their investigations.
Tommy tries to look impressive by using his new camera whilst Tuppence tactfully questions the servants. They overhear a scrap of conversation between Mrs. Kingston Bruce and her daughter about someone hiding a teaspoon in their muff and wonder who this can be. Later on, Tuppence ferrets out of Lady Laura's French maid, Elise, that her employer is something of a kleptomania
Kleptomania
Kleptomania is an irresistible urge to steal items of trivial value. People with this disorder are compelled to steal things, generally, but not limited to, objects of little or no significant value, such as pens, paper clips, paper and tape...
c and five times in the past items have gone missing when she had been staying at friend's houses. They start searching Lady Laura's bedroom and bathroom, momentarily getting stuck in the latter room when Elise cannot open the door. Tommy takes pictures in the bedroom with Elise's assistance and then quietly tells Tuppence that he has an idea and has to go out to pursue it. In the meantime, she is not to let Lady Laura out of the house.
Some time later Tommy returns with Inspector Marriot of Scotland Yard. They go straight back to the bathroom and cut the cake of soap in half. Inside it is the pearl. The reason Elise couldn't open the door was that she had soap on her hands after depositing the pearl there. Tommy's photographs included one of the maid and she handled one of the glass slides, thus leaving her fingerprints. The Yard have identified her from their records as a missing criminal and arrested her. Being the maid of a lady suspected of kleptomania was the best cover she could have.
The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger
Bored with little to do at the agency, Tuppence receives a package. It is an engraved silver cigarette case to General Francis Haviland whom she drove in the First World WarWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and who is getting married. Tommy's disparaging remarks about the General are interrupted by the arrival of the post and the first of the promised blue Russian letters. Their perusal of the letter is interrupted by the arrival of a large man with a club foot
Club foot
A club foot, or congenital talipes equinovarus , is a congenital deformity involving one foot or both. The affected foot appears rotated internally at the ankle. TEV is classified into 2 groups: Postural TEV or Structural TEV....
who states that he is Dr Charles Bower of Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
. Twice in the last week he has been summoned away to an urgent case but on each occasion the call has been a hoax. On arriving back home, he has found signs that his study has been carefully searched in his absence, probably for papers he has on his studies of alkaloid
Alkaloid
Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids...
s, these papers being securely held in a secret drawer in his desk. He has received another summons to a patient who is now in Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
but in checking on this summons he has found it to be another decoy. Another search of his study should therefore take place that night and Bower wants Blunts to be there when the third attempt is made.
Bower leaves and his club foot reminds Tuppence of the brothers Oakwood. Tommy resolves to be Desmond while she is Francis. Their next visitor is Detective Inspector Dymchurch from Scotland Yard, a colleague of Marriot's, who knows of the need to keep a watch on the blue letters and is following Bower. The doctor's real purpose is to decoy the Berefords away from their office that night in order that it can be searched and the latest letter retrieved. Tommy and Dymchurch make another plan to return to the office that night and catch the agents in the act. They do so but it is a trap and Tommy is bound. Dymchurch is a foreign agent with several of his men with him. Bower (real spelling, Bauer) is also one of his gang. He threatens Tommy with torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
to reveal the whereabouts of the blue letter. He tells them that Tuppence has it and writes a letter summoning her to the office but he signs this 'Francis' and shows them the General's wedding present as proof that this is his real name and not Theodore Blunt. Tuppence arrives but, alerted by the false name in the note, she has brought Inspector Marriot with her and several armed policemen. 'Dymchurch' and his co-conspirators are arrested.
Finessing the King / The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper
Tuppence is bored and, reading the 'Daily Leader' newspaper, decides that she wants to go dancing. A reluctant Tommy tries to distract her attention by pointing out to her the interesting fact that dots in the mastheadMasthead (publishing)
The masthead is a list, published in a newspaper or magazine, of its staff. In some publications it names only the most senior individuals; in others, it may name many or all...
of the newspaper indicate the different days on which the paper was produced but his tenacious wife has spotted an advert in the personal column
Personal advertisement
A personal or personal ad is an item or notice traditionally in the newspaper, similar to a classified ad but in nature. In British English it is also commonly known as an advert in a lonely hearts column. With its rise in popularity, the World Wide Web has also become a common medium for...
which reads, "I should go three hearts. 12 tricks. Ace of Spades. Necessary to finesse the King." She deduces that this refers to the Three Arts Ball which is to take place tomorrow night, "12 tricks" means twelve o'clock midnight and the "Ace of Spades" refers to a somewhat decadent nightclub-cum-eating place in Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
where it is fashionable to go to after events like the Three Arts Ball. Wondering what is meant by "Necessary to finesse the King" and feeling that they need to hone their detective skills, she decides that she and Tommy will go the following night to investigate in both their ball costumes and in their detective roles of Tommy McCarty and Dennis Riordan.
At the 'Ace of Spades', Tommy and Tuppence sit in one of the private booths and peer through the door at the various other costumed and masked patrons. The booth next door is soon taken by a woman dressed as Alice's
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
Queen of Hearts and a man outfitted as the gentleman dressed in newspaper. After a while, they hear a cry from the woman followed by the man laughing and then see him leaving. After a few minutes, suspicious, Tuppence makes Tommy follow her into the booth and they find the woman stabbed through the heart. She whispers, "Bingo did it" before she dies...
The next day, Inspector Marriot brings Sir Arthur Merivale, the husband of the dead woman, Lady Vere Merivale, round to the Beresford's flat. "Bingo" Hale is known to both of them and he is stunned that his best friend could have killed his wife. Hale had been staying with them and was arrested that morning for murder. Merivale is perplexed as to what the motive could have been and is incensed at the suggestion from Marriot that the two were lovers and that Vere was threatening Hale who was paying attention to a rich American woman. Tuppence shows Sir Arthur the advert from the "Daily Leader" and the way the two communicated with each other using this device. Before she died, Vere tore off a piece of Bingo's newspaper costume and the police intend to match this up with the discarded costume.
Marriot returns to the Beresford's later on with photographs of the fragment and the section of the costume it came from – he has the last link to convict Hale but Tuppence senses that he is far from satisfied with the conclusion to the case. When he has gone, she spots that the dots in the masthead of the two pieces don't match. They invite Sir Arthur back round and confront him with the evidence. Tuppence puts it to him that he too was at the 'Ace of Spades' dressed in a near identical masked costume. Hale alleges that he was slipped a note asking him not to approach Vere and he complied. Sir Arthur took his place and killed his own wife. The man laughs at this suggestion and Tuppence recognises it as the same laugh she heard from the booth. Marriot is hidden in their flat listening in but Sir Arthur throws himself out of the window and falls to his death before he can be taken. Marriot tells them that the motive wasn't jealously but money. Vere Merivale was the one in the marriage with the money and if she'd left her husband he would have been destitute.
The Case of the Missing Lady
The International Detective Agency receives a visit from Gabriel Stavansson, the famous explorer, who has just returned from a two year expedition to the North PoleNorth Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...
. Tommy and Tuppence impress him with their initial display of observational and deductive powers (whilst in reality using their common sense and a judicious read of the Daily Mirror earlier that day) and he entrusts his case to them.
Stavansson explains that before he went on the expedition, he became engaged to the Honourable Mrs. Hermione Leigh Gordon, whose previous husband was killed in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Upon his return to England, a fortnight sooner than expected, his first thought was to rush to London and see his fiancé who had been staying with her Aunt, Lady Susan Clonray, in Pont Street
Pont Street
Pont Street is a fashionable street in Knightsbridge and Belgravia, central London, England, not far from the Knightsbridge department store Harrods to the north-west. The street crosses Sloane Street in the middle, with Beauchamp Place to the west and Cadogan Place, and Chesham Place, to the east,...
. However, Lady Susan was surprised to see him and proved evasive about her niece's whereabouts, saying that she was moving between friends in the north of the country. Stavansson and Lady Susan had never really got on well, partially due to his dislike of fat women (of which Lady Susan is one example) and partially due to his perception that she disapproved of the engagement. Nevertheless he insisted on the names and address of the various people that Hermione was supposed to be staying with and traveled north to see them – finding not one of them had had recent contact with his fiancé.
Lady Susan seemed genuinely upset when told this news but a telegram arrived as she and Stavansson were talking, purportedly from Hermione and addressed from Maldon saying she was going to Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
. Stavansson travelled to Maldon but was, once again, unable to find any trace of Hermione, prompting his visit to Blunt's International Detective Agency.
Taking up the case, Tommy and Tuppence travel to Maldon themselves and draw a similar blank on the whereabouts of the missing woman. It is then that Tuppence realizes that there are two Maldons – one in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
which they have been investigating and another small place of the same name in Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
. They travel there and find out that there is an isolated private nursing home
Nursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...
near the village. Investigating this lead, Tuppence inquires at the nursing home and is told they do not have a patient named Mrs. Leigh Gordan. Next Tommy poses as a journalist seeking an interview with Dr. Horriston, but he too is unable to gain access to the house. Next the sleuths overhear a conversation which fuels their suspicions further, so Tommy leaves Tuppence to keep watch while he goes to make some phone calls in the village. Upon his return he informs Tuppence that he'd found out that Dr. Horriston has a reputation as "a most unscrupulous quack..."
After dark, the two return to the house to further their investigation. Tuppence ascends a ladder to a second floor window, where she sees a woman strapped to the bed and writhing in pain. She recognizes the woman as Mrs. Leigh Gordan from the photograph provided by Stavansson. While Tuppence is watching, a nurse enters the room and injects the woman with an unknown substance. Tuppence informs Tommy of what she has seen and then ascends the ladder again, leaving him to keep a look out while she tries to free the woman. A few moments pass and Tommy is startled by a hand upon his shoulder, but it is Tuppence, having left by the front door of the house. She informs Tommy that the case is solved. Hermione Leigh Gordan is at the nursing home of her own free-will. Having put on weight during the 2 years Stavansson was at the North Pole, she had gone to Dr. Horriston for a high-priced (and strictly confidential) weight loss treatment. The only problem was that Stavansson had returned early, just at the time she had started the treatments.
Feeling somewhat foolish, the young detectives leave quickly, with Tommy commenting that there is no need to place the case in their records as, "It has absolutely no distinctive features."
Blindman's Buff
Tommy receives a phone call from Mr. Carter warning him and Tuppence that the people connected with the Russian letters on blue paper have become aware that they have taken Blunt's place and to expect developments any time soon. Tommy suggests Tuppence waits in the safety of their home but she refuses. To pass over the quiet time that the agency is currently experiencing, Tommy suggests in exercise in following the methods of the blind detective Thornley Colton. He dons a pair of black eyeshades and practises (badly) his awareness of his surroundings by use of his other senses. Tommy decides he and Tuppence will go for lunch at the Blitz hotel in order that he can practise further in the surroundings of the restaurant.At the Bltiz, they are soon joined by two men who have been observing the pair and say that the Blunt's have been pointed out to them, although one of them confesses that he didn't know that Theodore Blunt was blind. They were on the way to see them but were told they were out to lunch and by coincidence have stopped at the same place. One of the men introduces himself as the Duke of Blairgowrie and his friend is Captain Harker. The Duke's daughter has been kidnapped "under somewhat peculiar circumstances" which mean that he cannot call in the police and he wants the Blunts to accompany them to his house immediately. Tommy agrees but not before he has drunk a cup of coffee and given Tuppence instructions for a meal at the hotel tomorrow that he is having with the French Prefect of Police. That done, they leave with Tommy and the Duke taking a different car to that of Captain Harker and Tuppence.
It is a trap and the "Duke" is in reality connected with the Russian letters. He prods a pistol at Tommy and takes him to a hideout where he is bound to a chair while the "Duke" gloats over him. He tells Tommy that the floor of the room they are in is metal and now electrified. Even though he is blind, he is going to make Tommy walk across the floor. If he steps on a contact point, he will die. He hands him his white cane and unties him and the "game" is about to commence. Tommy coolly takes out a cigarette and match but he has anticipated the trap and instead lights a magnesium
Magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole...
wire he is carrying. The flare blinds the "Duke" who lowers his pistol and then he finds himself at the point of Tommy's cane – in reality, a swordstick
Swordstick
A swordstick or cane-sword is a cane incorporating a concealed blade. The term is typically used to describe European weapons from around the 18th century, but similar devices have been used throughout history, notably the Japanese shikomizue and the Ancient Roman dolon.- Popularity :The swordstick...
. Tommy reveals that his dark shades were actually false and he has been able to see all the time. The "Duke" springs forward with rage and steps on a contact point, dying instantly. Tommy escapes the house and rings Tuppence from a call box. She is safe. Tommy's order at the hotel were codewords from Clinton Stagg's stories for Albert to fetch help. He tailed Tuppence and he and the police freed her from "Captain Harker".
The Man in the Mist
Tommy and Tuppence have had a setback in that they have failed to solve their latest case which involves a stolen pearl necklace. Instead, the local police inspector had managed to apprehend the culprit. Having withdrawn to lick their wounds with cocktails in a hotel, they meet an old acquaintance, Mervyn Estcourt – known as 'Bulger' – who is in the company of the famous actress Gilda Glen, a woman who is renowned for her beauty and rumoured for her lack of intelligence. Miss Glen seems puzzled by Tommy's Father Brown disguise and Tommy ambiguously confirms his detective credentials. Getting directions from Bulger as to the way back to the station they are told to walk down Morgan's Avenue. Miss Glen seems startled by this advice and Bulger laughs at her belief in a local tale that the road in question is haunted by the ghost of a policeman who was killed and yet still walks his spectral beat. Miss Glen leaves hurriedly at this point. Bulger tells them that she is engaged to marry Lord Leconbury who they have just seen meeting the actress outside the door to the hotel. Bulger himself leaves soon afterwards and it is then that Tommy receives a note from Miss Glen asking for his help and for him to call on her at The White House, Morgan's Avenue at 6.10pm.Their discussion as to what this could mean is interrupted when a shabbily-dressed and aggressive young man bursts into the hotel. Sitting near Tommy and Tuppence he tells them that his name is James Reilly, he is a pacifist poet and is enamoured of Gilda Glen who once cared for him but no longer after her engagement to Lord Leconbury. Still angry he leaves as suddenly as he arrived.
Tommy and Tuppence make their way to Morgan's Avenue. There is a thick fog in the air and Tuppence is startled when a policeman looms up out of the mist just near to the White House. Recovering herself, they see Reilly enter the house and the Policeman confirms it is the residence of a Mrs. Honeycott and he saw someone who resembles Miss Glen enter there a few minutes before.
About to enter the house, they hear a muffled cry and Reilly runs out of the house, leaving what looks like red paint on his hand on a gatepost as he does so. The two go into the house and meet Ellen, the maid who is indignant about the visit by Reilly and then they meet Mrs. Honeycott herself. Mistaking Tommy for a real priest she asks for his help with Gilda who she reveals is her sister. Some twenty years before, at the age of seventeen, she married a man against the wishes of her family and now wants a divorce to marry Lord Leconbury. Her husband is refusing to grant her this wish although the marriage took place so long ago that Mrs. Honeycott can't remember the name of the man. She confirms that it wasn't Reilly who she saw rush upstairs and as quickly down again. Nervous as to what might have happened, Tommy asks to be shown upstairs where they find Gilda's body, her head smashed in on one side by some unknown blunt instrument. Tuppence fetches the policeman from outside and it is confirmed by questioning that Mrs. Honeycott heard her sister entering the house at eight minutes past six as she was re-setting the main clock. This confirms with the time that the policeman himself saw the actress enter, just before Tommy and Tuppence walked up Morgan's Avenue.
The next day, Reilly has been arrested and Tommy and Tuppence meet with the accused man's solicitor, Mr. Marvell. Reilly insists that the woman was already dead when he entered her room but as there was no one else in the house at the time that would mean either Ellen or Mrs. Honeycott killed her. Tommy suddenly realises that no one inside the house actually saw Gilda enter – they only heard her – but prior to that the two women already in the house were in the kitchen where they couldn't see or hear anyone with a key entering. Just because they heard the door banging, it doesn't prove anything – it could just as easily have been someone leaving the house – like the policeman outside who loomed up out of the fog by the gate and who carries a truncheon which would serve as a blunt instrument to carry out the deed, especially if the policemen is Gilda's husband of twenty years ago.
The Crackler
Blunt's detective agency is doing well and Tommy considers the need for a larger office, in part to accommodate the shelf-space needed if they are to store the "classics" of Edgar Wallace if they are to copy his methods of detection. Inspector Marriot calls on the two sleuths with his latest mission for them; a large number of well-forged one-pound notes are in circulation and he wants them to track down the source. The West EndWest End of London
The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...
seems to be the starting point for most of the notes that have been found (although some have come from across the channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
) and the police are especially interested in the activities of a Major Laidlaw who is involved in racing
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
circles and he and his French wife always seem to have a lot of money. Although it could be a coincidence, a large number of the notes emanated from a gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
club used by the Laidlaws and this, together with the racing, could be an ideal way of distributing the forgeries. Another friend of the Laidlaws is Lawrence St. Vincent (from A Pot of Tea above) and Marriot thinks he could introduce the Beresfords into the set.
Marriot leaves and Tommy and Tuppence make their plans to catch the head of the forgers, or 'The Crackler' as Tommy calls him, named after the sound that a rustled banknote
Banknote
A banknote is a kind of negotiable instrument, a promissory note made by a bank payable to the bearer on demand, used as money, and in many jurisdictions is legal tender. In addition to coins, banknotes make up the cash or bearer forms of all modern fiat money...
makes.
The two are soon ensconced within the Laidlaw's circle of friends. As well as the Laidlaw's themselves, Mrs. Laidlaw's French father, M. Heroulade, is an object of suspicion. They observe how notes are passed by the Laidlaws to lay their bets and in among the wad of notes, there always seem to be some forgeries. Marguerite Laidlaw is a striking woman and has a string of admirers. Among them is a visiting wealthy American called Hank Ryder who tells Tommy that she is in fear of her husband. He's also been a victim of the forged notes as he tried to pay some into his bank
Bank
A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...
that he'd received from his winnings and they were rejected over the counter.
The next night Tommy is at the gambling club that Marriot mentioned and Mrs. Laidlaw passes him several notes to exchange for one of a higher denomination. Among them are several forgeries. His immediate suspicions are directed to M. Heroulade but his attention is caught when he leaves the club and finds Hank Ryder drunk
Drunkenness
Alcohol intoxication is a physiological state that occurs when a person has a high level of ethanol in his or her blood....
in the street outside. Within his slurred ramblings he tells Tommy how Mrs. Laidlaw took him on a treasure hunt which included a visit to Whitechapel
Whitechapel
Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, England. It is located east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Fashion Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and The Highway on the...
where she "found" five hundred pounds. Tommy takes Ryder to the district and the exact house where they went to earlier. As the row of mean terraced dwellings look identical, Tommy chalks a small cross at the base of the back door before they enter. Ryder thinks he hears someone coming and goes back out to investigate. Tommy goes further into the house and finds the counterfeiting gang and The Crackler himself – Hank Ryder. He tells the captured Tommy that he has been suspicious of him from the start and that in case the chalk mark on the back door was a lead to Tommy's accomplices as to his whereabouts he has put similar marks on all the other doors. His satisfaction is cut short when Marriot and the police burst into the room and arrest the gang. Tommy tells Ryder that he was equally suspicious of him and so, when he was chalking the door, he also emptied a bottle of valerian
Valerian (herb)
Valerian is a hardy perennial flowering plant, with heads of sweetly scented pink or white flowers which bloom in the summer months. Valerian flower extracts were used as a perfume in the sixteenth century....
on the ground, thus attracting all the neighbourhood cats to the smell. This was his pre-arranged sign for Albert who, on his orders, followed them to Whitechapel.
The Sunningdale Mystery
Tommy takes Tuppence to lunch at an ABC shop where he decides to mimic the tastes and habits of "The Old Man in the Corner" with Tuppence playing the part of Polly Burton. To test his abilities as this detective he has brought along a cutting from a newspaper on the recent case of what is known as the SunningdaleSunningdale
Sunningdale is a large village and civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England.-Location:Sunningdale is located close to the present border with Surrey, and is not far from Ascot, Sunninghill and Virginia Water. It is situated 24 miles west of London and 7...
Mystery.
The facts are that two men, Captain Anthony Sessle and Mr. Hollaby, business partners and both members of Sunningdale Golf Club, played a full round of golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
on the course
Golf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
on a Wednesday and decided to play a few more holes before it went dark. As they approached the tee on the seventh hole, Hollaby saw Sessle talking to a mysterious woman in a brown coat. These two went off talking down a side path and after a moment Sessle reappeared. Something had upset him for his game fell apart and two holes later Sessle gave up and walked off alone, ostensibly to his bungalow home. The existence of the woman in brown, Sessle's temporary departure with her and his subsequent poor game were all witnessed by two other members who were on the previous hole and awaiting their turn.
The next morning, Sessle was found dead on the seventh tee, stabbed with a hatpin
Hatpin
A hatpin is a decorative pin for holding a hat to the head, usually by the hair. In Western culture, a hatpin is almost solely a female item and is often worn in a pair. They are typically around 20cm in length, with the pinhead being the most decorated part....
through the heart. The police found forensic evidence on the man which led them to trace a young girl called Doris Evans. She was arrested and told a story of meeting Sessle at a cinema. He invited her to his bungalow on a day when, as she subsequently found out, his wife and servants would be away. On the day in question, the man met her as he arrived home from the golf course. He behaved strangely and then, suggesting a stroll, he took her to the golf course. On the aforementioned seventh tee he suddenly became deranged and produced a revolver
Revolver
A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...
, wildly suggesting a suicide pact. Doris escaped his grasp and ran off. One further fact which has come to light is that Sessle and Hollaby's assurance
Life insurance
Life insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger...
business is in liquidation
Liquidation
In law, liquidation is the process by which a company is brought to an end, and the assets and property of the company redistributed. Liquidation is also sometimes referred to as winding-up or dissolution, although dissolution technically refers to the last stage of liquidation...
and the funds embezzled
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
.
Over their table, Tuppence counters that Doris would not have murdered the man as very few women nowadays use hatpins and that suggests that a man, not conversant with present fashions, committed the crime and tried to frame a woman. Tommy soon remembers that near to the seventh hole on the course is a small hut and the two talk about the possibility that the woman in brown could have been a man in disguise. This leads them to wonder who it could have been and, linked to a theory of Tuppence's that the embezzler of the company was not Sessle but Hollaby and his son, they speculate if the woman was Hollaby Junior, who is also connected with the assurance firm. They reconstruct the crime: Hollaby's son lures Sessle away in full view of the other two players on the course. He stabs him with a hatpin and hides the body in a hut, changing clothes with the dead man. The two witnesses on the course see at a distance the deterioration in his game and "Sessle" then goes to his bungalow where he meets Doris Evans as arranged and goes through a series of actions which lead to the innocent girl being arrested.
The Beresfords wonder how to convince the police of the plausibility of their theory but they have failed to spot Inspector Marriot at the next table. He has overheard the conversation and, already suspicious of the Hollaby's, promises to set enquiries in motion.
The House of Lurking Death
The Beresfords receive a professional visit from a smartly-dressed young woman who introduces herself as Lois Hargreaves of Thurnly Grange, a house in the country. One week before, her household received a box of chocolates anonymously through the post. Not liking chocolates, she was the only one in the house who didn't sample the unexpected gift and consequently, she was the only one who wasn't taken ill afterwards. It has since been proven that the cause was arsenicArsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...
poisoning and that this is the third occurrence in the area of such a gift and its after-effects. What perturbs Miss Hargreaves is that the paper in which the chocolates were wrapped was re-used from a previous parcel sent to the Grange, evidenced by a small doodle of three intertwined fish that she drew on it in a moment of abstraction after it had been used to wrap a parcel of silk stockings sent from London. The poisoner is therefore someone in her own home.
Miss Hargreaves is a rich heiress. She inherited her fortune from her aunt, a Lady Radclyffe, who post-deceased her husband, a self-made man. Lois lived with her aunt in her widowhood but she always made it clear to her niece that she intended to leave the bulk of her estate to Dennis Radclyffe, her late husband's nephew. However, when she had a violent quarrel with the young man she changed her will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
in favour of Lois who, in turn, has made a will leaving her money to Dennis. He lives at the Grange with her, as does Miss Logan, an old lady who is a distant cousin of Dennis and a former companion to Lady Radclyffe. The final member of the house, servants aside, is Mary Chilcott, an old schoolfriend of Lois. The servants are a cook and kitchenmaid, a parlourmaid called Esther and an elderly maid called Hannah.
The next day, by agreement with Lois, Tommy and Tuppence plan to travel down to the Grange but before they go they receive a shock – Lois is dead, killed by some unknown poison which also affected Dennis and Miss Logan who are both seriously ill. The cause is supposed to be fig
Common fig
The Common fig is a deciduous tree growing to heights of up to 6 m in the genus Ficus from the family Moraceae known as Common fig tree. It is a temperate species native to the Middle East.-Description:...
paste in some sandwiches eaten by the three but not by Mary Chilcott who is unaffected. They meet Dr. Burton who is looking after the patients and who tells them that Dennis has now died as well but that he has not yet identified the poison used this time, however it was not arsenic. Investigating the matter, they discover that Dennis was out when the sandwiches were eaten for tea and it is supposed that he ate one on his return to the house. Tommy, however, finds that he was seen to drink a cocktail
Cocktail
A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients—at least one of the ingredients must be a spirit.Cocktails were originally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. The word has come to mean almost any mixed drink that contains alcohol...
by one of the maids and manages to get hold of the glass before it is washed.
In speaking with everyone in the house, they meet Hannah, who appears to have undergone a religious mania, quoting scripture and bringing fire and brimstone
Fire and brimstone
Fire and brimstone is an idiomatic expression of signs of God's wrath in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. In the Bible, they often appear in reference to the fate of the unfaithful. "Brimstone," possibly the ancient name for sulfur, evokes the acrid odor of volcanic activity...
on all concerned. She has in her possession a strange item – an old book by a man called Edward Logan on medicines and poisons which appears to have belonged to Miss Logan's father, a pioneer of serum therapeutics
Medication
A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease.- Classification :...
. They confirm this from the ill old lady, noting how she has a mass of small pinpricks on her arm.
They call at Dr. Burtons and find out that the poison has been identified as Ricin
Ricin
Ricin , from the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, is a highly toxic, naturally occurring protein. A dose as small as a few grains of salt can kill an adult. The LD50 of ricin is around 22 micrograms per kilogram Ricin , from the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, is a highly toxic, naturally...
and, from the entry in Edward Logan's old book, deduce that Miss Logan is the murderer. The pinpricks on her arm are from injections of small amounts of the poison she has been giving herself to build up immunity. As Dennis' next of kin she would inherit once he and Lois were dead. The near-mad Hannah, having previously suspected Miss Logan when she saw her reading the book and smiling to herself, hears this accusation and bursts into Miss Logan's room and attacks her, starting a fire in the process. Tommy stifles the flames but the shock of this event causes Miss Logan to die of a heart attack. Dr. Burton confirms that the cocktail glass also contained traces of Ricin.
The Unbreakable Alibi
Tommy and Tuppence's latest client is a personable, rich but slightly dense young man called Mr. Montgomery Jones. He has met an AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n girl called Una Drake who he has fallen violently in love with. Talking of their mutual love of detective stories, she has made a bet with him that he cannot break an alibi she has set up for herself. She has agreed that if he wins he can ask her for anything he likes and it is his intention to ask her for her hand in marriage. Knowing full well that he is not known for his intelligence, Montgomery Jones asks the Beresfords to take on the task for him.
The alibi is that on the previous Tuesday Miss Drake dined at a Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
restaurant, saw a West End show and then had supper with a Mr. le Marchant at the Savoy Hotel
Savoy Hotel
The Savoy Hotel is a hotel located on the Strand, in the City of Westminster in central London. Built by impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the hotel opened on 6 August 1889. It was the first in the Savoy group of hotels and restaurants owned by...
. At the same time, she also stayed the night at the Castle Hotel in Torquay
Torquay
Torquay is a town in the unitary authority area of Torbay and ceremonial county of Devon, England. It lies south of Exeter along the A380 on the north of Torbay, north-east of Plymouth and adjoins the neighbouring town of Paignton on the west of the bay. Torquay’s population of 63,998 during the...
and returned to London the next morning. Armed with a photograph of Miss Drake and the knowledge of the methods of Inspector French, Tommy and Tuppence interview Mr. le Marchant who confirms that he was with the young lady for part of the evening in question. He also states that Miss Drake made an oblique comment to being in Devonshire at the same time, which he considers strange since a friend of his was at the Castle Hotel and did indeed think that he saw her there. The two then investigate the Soho restaurant (where a positive identification of the girl is not forthcoming) and then travel to Torquay where they find plenty of evidence that Miss Drake was in the hotel throughout the night and also travelled to the resort at a time compatible with her also being in London. Their final questioning is back in London of some people who saw her at the Savoy and also of her flatmate and charwoman who both attest that she spent the night in her own bed.
Working all evening on trying to puzzle out the problem, the Beresfords confess that they are stumped. Sleeping on the problem, the next morning Tuppence awakes to a flash on inspiration and sends off a cable to test her idea. Later that day she returns to their office with the solution – Una has a twin sister who, the cable to Australia has confirmed – arrived in England the day before the events in question. The fun-loving sisters thought the stunt would be an amusing joke to play on Montgomery Jones.
The Clergyman's Daughter / The Red House
It is just before Christmas when a young lady called Monica Deane calls at the Blunt's agency. She and her impoverished, invalid, widowed mother inherited a house from a well-off sister of her father's some time back. They also expected to inherit some money to go with the house but to their surprise there was little forthcoming. They didn't want to sell the house as it provided plenty of room for them compared to their small flat and they had plans to open it to paying guests to supplement their income. All went well for a time until they started to have strange occurrences with pictures falling off walls and crockery being smashed when no one was in the room – a poltergeistPoltergeist
A poltergeist is a paranormal phenomenon which consists of events alluding to the manifestation of an imperceptible entity. Such manifestation typically includes inanimate objects moving or being thrown about, sentient noises and, on some occasions, physical attacks on those witnessing the...
, which scared all their guests and their income away. A Dr O'Neill from a Society for Physical Research has visited them and has offered to buy the house from them to continue his investigations. Monica however is certain that he is also younger man in disguise who previously made them an offer for the house. The only other resident in the house now is Crockett, an elderly maid of Monica's aunt who has a younger nephew of whom she is very proud.
Tommy and Tuppence travel to the "Red House" and begin their investigations, harbouring suspicions that the old lady has hidden money in the building which would account for the remainder of her fortune being missing. Tommy makes a visit to the local bank and manages to the find out from the manager that the aunt did indeed withdraw all of her money some time before she died. Under the guise of potential buyers, they explore the house and Monica gives them various papers of her aunt's. Before they can investigate these further, they hear a crash and find a jug and basin broken in a room overhead. They quickly interview Crockett and notice that she is out of breath. Mentioning to her that they intend to buy the house, Monica receives a message soon afterwards from "Dr O'Neill" that his own offer has increased – it is obvious that the old maid is the one creating "disturbances" and that the "Doctor" is her nephew trying to get the house in order that he can investigate himself the location of the missing fortune.
Tommy and Tuppence look over the papers and realise that one of them contains a puzzle anagram
Anagram
An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
. They work it out and the solution is "potatoes". Another of the papers, on the theme of recipes, refers to the trick of burying new potatoes in a tin to keep them fresh for the winter and they realise that this is their lead. They question the gardener to see if the old lady ever used this technique and find out that she did. They dig in the spot and find several tins of potatoes and, in one of the tins, a bag containing two hundred pounds in gold sovereigns, twenty thousand pounds in banknotes and a string of expensive pearls. Monica Deane and her mother will have their fortune and she and the Beresfords will be each able to celebrate a happy Christmas.
The Ambassador's Boots
The Blunt's agency is visited by Randolph Wilmott, the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
to Great 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...
. He arrived back from a trip to his home country a week ago. Soon after his return, his valet
Valet
Valet and varlet are terms for male servants who serve as personal attendants to their employer.- Word origins :In the Middle Ages, the valet de chambre to a ruler was a prestigious appointment for young men...
informed him that his kit bag, which carried his initials, had been mistakenly taken by another passenger on board the liner with the same initials – Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Ralph Westerham, also from the US – but quickly returned by that man's valet. The puzzle is that Mr. Wilmott met Mr. Westerham yesterday and the Senator denied such a mistake having taken place, especially as he did not have such an article amongst his luggage on board the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
. Mr. Wilmott knows the matter is a trivial one but his curiosity has been piqued and he wishes the agency to investigate.
At Mr. Wilmott's invitation, the Beresfords visit the US Embassy
Diplomatic mission
A diplomatic mission is a group of people from one state or an international inter-governmental organisation present in another state to represent the sending state/organisation in the receiving state...
and speak to Richards, his valet, who confirms the basics of the tale told by the Ambassador. Just before the other valet called for the bag, he had started to unpack and glimpsed the contents of it. It contained boots and toilet things, a tin of bath salts
Bath salts
The term bath salts refers to a range of water-soluble, usually inorganic solid products designed to be added to a bath. They are said to improve cleaning, improve the experience of bathing, and serve as a vehicle for cosmetic agents...
being glimpsed. Tommy wonders if the Ambassador's bag could have been tampered with on the voyage and Richards recalls the incident of a young lady called Eileen O'Hara being taken ill just outside the Ambassador's cabin on the liner and he having to fetch a doctor for her, leaving the cabin alone. When he returned with the medical man, the patient seemed fine.
Tommy decides that their next line of action is to advertise for Miss O'Hara to come forward, even though they risk putting her on her guard if she isn't innocent of any action relating to the kit bag. Two days later, Albert shows into Tommy's office a Miss Cicely March who is answering the advertisement but before she can relate what she knows they are interrupted by a big, dark Spanish-looking man who holds them up at gunpoint. He has followed Miss March, having recognised her from being a passenger on the liner and he suspects that she is about to meddle in their plans. Before he can carry out any of his threats, he is accosted by Albert, disarmed and Tommy throws him out, deciding not to involve the police.
Alone with Miss March, she tells Tommy a tale of having also seen the incident of Miss O'Hara on the liner but she was also witness to the supposedly ill woman, when she thought she was alone and unobserved, going into Mr. Wilmott's cabin and putting something into the lining of a boot through a slit which she cut. Worried about what she had done to the boot, Miss March later went into the empty cabin and extracted the object from the lining. It was a slip of paper with verses of the bible on it which yesterday, through an accident, she got wet and which revealed hidden writing on it of what looks like the plans of a harbour. The paper is back at her place of work – a beauty parlour in Bond Street
Bond Street
Bond Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London that runs north-south through Mayfair between Oxford Street and Piccadilly. It has been a fashionable shopping street since the 18th century and is currently the home of many high price fashion shops...
where she is the US agent for preparations sold there. Tommy leaves a note for Tuppence and he and Miss March go there. Preparing to take a taxi, Tommy spots that the cab has just refused a fare further down the road and, suspicious that they are being watched, insists on walking to Bond Street. Once there, they pass through the front shop past a woman customer and two waiting men and go into a back office where instantly Tommy is set upon. Rescue is immediate however as the woman in the front of the shop is Tuppence and the two men are policemen, alerted by Tommy's note. He noticed a look of disappointment on Miss March's face when their assailant at the agency was overcome and realised that she was in the enemy's camp. He had also worked out that it wasn't the Ambassador's bag that was important but that a bag of some nature was in the Ambassador's possession for an hour or two thereby bypassing customs for reasons of diplomatic immunity. He delayed their arrival at the parlour thus giving Tuppence time to get herself and the police there. They search the premises and find tins of bath salts which are found to contain cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
.
The Man Who Was No. 16
Mr. Carter congratulates the Beresfords on their successes at the agency but he gives them a warning that MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
has become suspicious of the failure to hear from their agents and that they have despatched a man to investigate. The agent is known to them, having caused them problems in the past, but he is master of disguise and linguistics. He is also the deviser of the "No. 16" code and they expect him to turn up at Blunts although he has never met the real Theodore Blunt and doesn't know that Tommy has been impersonating him. The Beresfords are given other known codes to watch out for and are asked to cooperate as much as they can with "No. 16" to help Carter get to him.
The two go back to the agency where they find that too many leaves have been torn from a calendar and that it shows the date as Sunday the sixteenth, six days hence. Albert tells them that could only have been done by a client who waited for some time for them that morning – a hospital nurse.
After a short while, another client is shown in - a fair, bearded man who goes by the name of Prince Vladiroffsky who starts to use the codes communicated to them by Mr. Carter. Upon being questioned, the Beresfords tell him that treachery is afoot. "No. 16" assumes that Tuppence is an agent known as "Marise" and suggests that she lunch with him at the Blitz hotel and that they then meet Tommy later on at Headquarters. They leave and Tommy communicates with Mr. Carter whose men have been listening into the conversation in the office. Going to the Blitz, the "Prince" and Tuppence dine, served by waiters some of whom are policemen in disguise. They then go up in the lifts to the "Prince"'s suite but when they fail to appear some time later, the lift boy tells Tommy and Mr. Carter that he took them to a different floor instead. They have been spotted going into the room of a Mrs. Van Snyder of Detroit and, breaking into this room, they find the room's occupant bound and gagged. "No. 16" took Tuppence through into an adjoining room booked by an invalid French man and his nurse (more agents of No. 16) and made his escape that way with Tuppence as a hostage, drugged and disguised as the invalid.
Tommy is distraught at the thought of what might be happening to Tuppence. Albert tries to cheer him up, reminding him of Tuppence's resourcefulness. In talking to Albert, Tommy is struck by an idea and races back to the Blitz where he and one of Carter's men go back to Mrs. Van Snyder's room. They find the lady still there, recovering on the bed. Under the bolster
Bolster
A bolster is a long narrow pillow or cushion filled with cotton, down, or fibre. In western countries, it is usually placed at the head of bed and functions as head or back support...
on the bed, Tommy finds Tuppence – he realised that there wasn't enough time to bind and gag Mrs. Van Snyder, drug Tuppence and disguise her as a Frenchman. Therefore she must still have been in the room and, remembering the bolster as a hiding place from childhood games, saw that as the only place she could be. He also unmasks "No. 16" – Mrs. Van Snyder in disguise.
Tuppence quickly recovers and the two decide to give up the agency, for no other reason that, as a delighted Tommy is informed, Tuppence is expecting a baby.
Literary significance and reception
The review of the book in the Times Literary Supplements issue of October 17, 1929 seemed to recognise the tongue-in-cheek nature of the work when it stated, "Mrs. Christie has given an amusing twist to the episodes by suggesting that the two partners in "Blunt's Brilliant Detectives" assume on each occasion the method, the manner of speech, and the outlook favoured by some well-known detective of fiction. Holmes, Thorndyke, Father Brown and even Poirot are amiably parodied, and once or twice the solution as well as the dialogue is deliberately facetious". The review pedantically ended by saying that, "the author is incorrect in the explanation she gives of the printer's marks on newspapers, the distinction of dates which she makes really being one of editions".The review in 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 September 22, 1929 began: "To describe adequately such a book as this is no easy matter. It is a group of short detective stories within a detective novel, for there is a rather sketchy, but nonetheless absorbing plot which holds the separate tales together. The entire book and the separate stories may be taken as hilarious burlesque or parodies of current detective fiction, or they may be taken as serious attempts on the part of the author to write stories in the manner of some of the masters of the art. Taken either way they are distinctly worth while." The review concluded, "The result is the merriest collection of detective stories it has been our good fortune to encounter."
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 September 16, 1929 said, "Detective fiction, like mathematics, tends to develop a language of its own which to the uninitiated can be a little troublesome. It is not so much a matter of 'blue-nosed automatics' and other jargon of the craft of detective fiction; the trouble is that many of the writers seem to have little command of English and cannot make their characters speak naturally. Agatha Christie is a notable exception. In this volume of stories she has conceived the ingenious idea of setting her two amateur detectives...to work out their problems after the fashion of various heroes of detective fiction. This enables her to parody the methods of various writers...in a way that is most enjoyable, for her literary skill is equal to the task. At the same time the stories are genuinely detective stories. They are well wrought and ingenious. The writer has the saving grace of humour and she does not let her detectives win too easily. By having two detectives who are usually alternately successful she has always a foil, less obtuse than 'my dear Watson'".
The Daily Express
Daily Express
The 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...
issue of October 10, 1929 gave the book a review of a couple of lines which concluded that the stories were "not quite up to her level, although they are entertaining enough".
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....
: "Tommy and Tuppence in a series of short stories which parody detective writers and their methods. Many of these are long forgotten, but the parodies are not sharp enough for this to matter very much. The House of Lurking Death anticipates the solution of Dorothy L. 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...
's Strong Poison
Strong Poison
Strong Poison is a 1929 novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, her fifth featuring Lord Peter Wimsey.-Plot introduction:It is in Strong Poison that Lord Peter first meets Harriet Vane, an author of police fiction. The immediate problem is that she is on trial for her life, charged with murdering her former...
."
The Case of the Missing Lady (1950)
This single story from Partners in Crime was presented as the twelfth episode in the twenty-six episode anthology series Nash Airflyte Theatre on Thursday, December 7, 1950 (possibly under the title of The Disappearance Of Mrs. Gordan). The 30-minute live transmission on CBSCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
was at 10.30pm from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. There are differing accounts of who starred in the adaptation. Peter Haining states that the stars were Barbara Bel Geddes
Barbara Bel Geddes
Barbara Bel Geddes was an American actress, artist and children's author. She is best known for her role in the television drama series Dallas as matriarch Eleanor "Miss Ellie" Ewing. Bel Geddes also starred in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the role of Maggie...
as Tuppence and Lee Bowman
Lee Bowman
Lee Bowman was an American film and television actor.Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Bowman graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1936 and began his film career playing a bit part in Swing High, Swing Low .His many film appearances include A Man to Remember , Love Affair , Third...
as Tommy but other sources state that the stars were Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...
"Nash Airflyte Theatre" The Case of the Missing Lady (1950). The adaptation was written and directed by Marc Daniels
Marc Daniels
Marc Daniels , born Danny Marcus, was an American television director.-Life and Career:After serving in World War II, Daniels was hired by CBS to direct its first dramatic anthology program, Ford Theater. He mastered live television directing, and was hired to direct the first 38 episodes of I...
.
1953 radio adaptation
Partners in Crime was adapted as a 13-part radio serial broadcast on the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's London, Midland and Scottish Home Service
BBC Home Service
The BBC Home Service was a British national radio station which broadcast from 1939 until 1967.-Development:Between the 1920s and the outbreak of The Second World War, the BBC had developed two nationwide radio services, the BBC National Programme and the BBC Regional Programme...
from Monday, April 13 to Monday, July 13, 1953. The half-hour episodes starred Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
as Tommy and Sheila Sim
Sheila Sim
Sheila Beryl Grant Attenborough, Lady Attenborough , known professionally by her maiden name Sheila Sim, is an English film and theatre actress and the wife of actor and director Richard Attenborough.- Career :...
as Tuppence, taking advantage of the actor's then-current starring roles in The Mousetrap
The Mousetrap
The Mousetrap is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. The Mousetrap opened in the West End of London in 1952, and has been running continuously since then. It has the longest initial run of any play in history, with over 24,500 performances so far. It is the longest running show of the modern...
. Oscar Quitak
Oscar Quitak
Oscar Quitak is a British film and television actor.His television credits include: Z-Cars, Man in a Suitcase, Doomwatch, Ace of Wands, Colditz, The Changes, The New Avengers, Open All Hours, Kessler as Josef Mengele, Chessgame, Howards' Way, A Very British Coup, Yes, Prime Minister and...
appeared in all episodes as Albert. Aside from a 1948 adaptation of Ten Little Niggers
And Then There Were None
And Then There Were None is a detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939 under the title Ten Little Niggers which was changed by Dodd, Mead and Company in January 1940 because of the presence of a racial...
, this was the first adaptation of a Christie book for radio in the UK.
1983 television adaptation
A television adaptation in ten episodes was made by London Weekend TelevisionLondon Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
with James Warwick as Tommy and Francesca Annis
Francesca Annis
Francesca Annis is an English actress, known for her film and television appearances, most recently in the BBC series Wives and Daughters, Cranford, and Deceit.-Early life and education:...
as Tuppence and Reece Dinsdale
Reece Dinsdale
Reece Dinsdale is an English actor of stage, screen and television.-Acting career:He trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1977 until 1980...
as Albert. It was first broadcast in the UK between October 16, 1983 and January 14, 1984.
Publication history
- 1929, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), 1929, Hardcover, 277 pp
- 1929, William Collins and Sons (London), September 16, 1929, Hardcover, 256 pp
- c.1929, Lawrence E. SpivakLawrence E. SpivakLawrence Edmund Spivak was an American publisher and journalist who was best known as the co-founder, producer and host of the prestigious public affairs program Meet the Press...
(New York), Abridged edition, 126 pp - 1943, Dodd Mead and Company, (As part of the Triple Threat along with Poirot InvestigatesPoirot InvestigatesPoirot Investigates is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by The Bodley Head in March 1924. In the eleven stories, famed eccentric detective Hercule Poirot solves a variety of mysteries involving greed, jealousy and revenge. The American version of...
and 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...
), Hardcover - 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, 189 pp - 1962, 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 (Great Pan G526), 203 pp - 1963, Dell Books (New York), Paperback, 224 pp
- 1986, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, ISBN 0-70-891540-X
- 2010, HarperCollins; Facsimile edition, Hardcover: 256 pages, ISBN 978-0-00-735463-4
Chapters from the book appeared in Agatha Christie's Crime Reader, published by Cleveland Publishing in 1944 along with other selections from Poirot Investigates and The Mysterious Mr. Quin.
First publication of stories
All of the stories in Partners in Crime first appeared in magazines between 19231923 in literature
The year 1923 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Fictional detective Lord Peter Wimsey makes his first appearance in print....
and 1928
1928 in literature
The year 1928 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Ford Madox Ford publishes Last Post. It is the final book of a four-volume work titled Parade's End published between 1924 and 1928....
, principally The Sketch
The Sketch
The 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. For publication in book form, Christie rearranged the story order and changed the framing device of several of the chapters to make the flow of the book easier. The original order and publication details of the stories are as follows:
- The First Wish: First published in issue 226 of The Grand MagazineThe Grand MagazineThe Grand Magazine was the first British pulp magazine. It was published monthly between February 1905 and April 1940. Published by George Newnes, it initially emulated Newnes's highly successful Strand Magazine, featuring a mix of fiction and non-fiction...
in December 1923. This formed the basis for chapters 20 and 21 of the book - The Clergyman's Daughter / The Red House. The story was illustrated by Arthur Ferrier. - Publicity: First published in issue 1652 of The Sketch on September 24, 1924. This formed the basis for chapters 1 and 2 of the book - A Fairy in the Flat / A Pot of Tea. This was the first in a sequence of twelve consecutive stories Christie wrote for The Sketch which appeared under the subtitle of Tommy and Tuppence.
- The Affair of the Pink Pearl: First published in issue 1653 of The Sketch on October 1, 1924. This formed the basis for chapters 3 and 4 of the book which uses the same chapter title.
- Finessing the King: First published in issue 1654 of The Sketch on October 8, 1924. This formed the basis for chapters 7 and 8 of the book - Finessing the King / The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper.
- The Case of the Missing Lady: First published in issue 1655 of The Sketch on October 15, 1924. This formed the basis for chapter 9 of the book which uses the same chapter title.
- The Case of the Sinister Stranger: First published in issue 1656 of The Sketch on October 22, 1924. This formed the basis for chapters 5 and 6 of the book which use the slightly amended title of The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger.
- The Sunninghall Mystery: First published in issue 1657 of The Sketch on October 29, 1924. This formed the basis for chapters 15 and 16 of the book which use the slightly amended title of The Sunningdale Mystery.
- The House of Lurking Death: First published in issue 1658 of The Sketch on November 5, 1924. This formed the basis for chapters 17 and 18 of the book which use the same chapter title.
- The Matter of the Ambassador's Boots: First published in issue 1659 of The Sketch on November 12, 1924. This formed the basis for chapter 22 of the book which uses the shortened title of The Ambassador's Boots.
- The Affair of the Forged Notes: First published in issue 1660 of The Sketch on November 19, 1924. This formed the basis for chapters 13 and 14 of the book using the different title of The Crackler.
- Blindman's Buff: First published in issue 1661 of The Sketch on November 26, 1924. This formed the basis for chapter 10 of the book which uses the same chapter title.
- The Man in the Mist: First published in issue 1662 of The Sketch on December 3, 1924. This formed the basis for chapters 11 and 12 of the book which uses the same chapter title.
- The Man who was Number Sixteen: First published in issue 1663 of The Sketch on December 10, 1924. This formed the basis for chapter 23 of the book which uses the same chapter title and was also the final story Christie ever wrote for The Sketch.
After a gap of four years a final story, The Unbreakable Alibi, appeared in Holly Leaves, the annual Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
special of the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News was an English weekly magazine founded in 1874 and published in London. In 1945 it changed its name to the Sport and Country, and in 1957 to the Farm and Country, before closing in 1970....
in December, 1928. This formed the basis for chapter 19 of the book.
Book dedication
As with most of Christie's short story collections, this book carried no dedication.Dustjacket blurb
The blurbBlurb
A blurb is a short summary or some words of praise accompanying a creative work, usually used on books without giving away any details, that is usually referring to the words on the back of the book jacket but also commonly seen on DVD and video cases, web portals, and news websites.- History :The...
of the first UK edition (which is carried on both the back of the dustjacket and opposite the title page) reads:
"This delightfully witty book will come as a pleasant surprise to all admirers of these ingenious detective thrillers for which Agatha Christie is famous. It tells the story of the amazing adventures of two amateur detectives – Tommy, a remarkable young man of thirty-two, and his equally remarkable wife, Tuppence – who follow the methods of famous detective heroes, such as Sherlock Holmes, Inspector French, Roger Sherringham, Bulldog Drummond, Father Brown and even Monsieur Poirot himself. Problem after problem comes before them for solution, and the account of their endeavours to live up to their slogan, ‘Blunt’s Brilliant Detectives! Any case solved in twenty-four hours!’ makes delicious reading.".
The blurb was incorrect in that "Sapper's
H. C. McNeile
Cyril McNeile MC was a British author, who published under the pen name Sapper.He was one of the most successful British popular authors of the Interwar period; his principal character was Bulldog Drummond.-Biography:Cyril McNeile was born in 1888 at Bodmin in Cornwall...
" Bulldog Drummond
Bulldog Drummond
Bulldog Drummond is a British fictional character, created by "Sapper", a pseudonym of Herman Cyril McNeile , and the hero of a series of novels published from 1920 to 1954.- Drummond :...
stories were not parodied although the character and the situations that he encountered were briefly mentioned in The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger.
External links
- Partners in Crime at the official Agatha Christie website