MURDER IN THE MEWS
US title: DEAD MAN'S MIRROR
Other titles: THE INCREDIBLE THEFT (in a US 1940s reprint with only 3 stories)
US publication: 1937 (Collins)
US publication: 1937 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Hercule Poirot
Genre: Short stories
Plot
summary and comments: Only four stories appear in this volume, all
of them much longer than the average Christie short story. The English
title story, Murder in the Mews, is novella-length and finds Poirot and
Inspector Japp collaborating (more closely than usual) to solve a murder
disguised as a suicide in a mews house in Mayfair, which they stumble
across after dining out together. Dead Man's Mirror, used as the title
of the American edition, is also very long, and is an expanded version
of "The Second Gong", written earlier but unpublished at the
time. Here, Mr. Satterthwaite (of the Harley Quin stories and Three-Act
Tragedy) is among the characters. The story is an example of the body-in-the-library
genre, complete with plan of study and hall, and Poirot measuring footprints
in the wet grass. The Incredible Theft does not appear in the American
edition (and is still unpublished in the US); it is an expanded version
of "The Submarine Plans", also written earlier and published
much later. The stolen plans are now those of a bomber, and Poirot recovers
them with ingenuity. The fourth story, Triangle at Rhodes, is shortest,
and reaches beyond the murder-mystery genre; the title refers, in fact,
to a love triangle among English tourists.
::READERS REVIEWS::
"Poirot
is at it again solving two suicides (or are they?), a theft, and anticipating
one homicide. Christie turns in three novellas and a short story, and
all four are excellent. Christie, however, proves predictable in her unpredictability.
In three of the stories, simply pick out the least suspicion-worthy individual
in the cast of suspects and you have your perpetrator.
"Dead Man's Mirror" tells the story of the apparent suicide of a megalomaniac nobleman. It starts off as fine locked room mystery, and the motives for murder among the suspects are numerous. Poirot pieces the matter together from the array of clues he uncovers and eventually nabs the killer by the exercise of his "little grey cells". He didn't have to work nearly that hard. Christie overlooks one phenomenon of close range gunshot wounds--backspatter. All Poirot had to do was look around and see who had clothing begrimed by backspattered blood.
In "The Incredible Theft" the culprit is obvious from the outset, but who among the cast of suspects did the culprit use to actually purloin the papers? Poirot works through the problem with admirable insight and solves the mystery quite handily. I set the story down quite satisfied, but then it occurred to me that the problem was seriously flawed. When you finish the story, see if you can't figure out a simple way for the thief to have taken the papers completely without detection.
"Murder in the Mews", another apparent suicide case, serves up a story so realistic it could have actually happened. Christie sets out clue after clue to show that the death wasn't suicide, but again she omits one telling clue. In my experience, most women who commit suicide with a handgun shoot themselves in the chest, not in the head. This serves as a good rule of thumb, but women shoot themselves in the head often enough that you can't completely rule out suicide on that basis alone. Poirot's solution dumbfounds the police and the reader alike, but the story comes to a very satisfying conclusion.
"Triangle at Rhodes" serves up another story that is true-to-life enough to have actually happened. Poirot, on vacation, observes a love triangle developing on the sunny beachs of Rhodes, and successfully predicts murder. He fails in his attempt to prevent the murder, but is on had to see to it that justice is meted out to the guilty. The least true-to-life aspect of the story is Poirot's prescience in predicting not only the pending murder, but the victim and the guilty. How he does this is not revealed, and the clues provided in the leadup were not enough for anyone to be able to predict murder with any degree of certainty."
"Agatha
Christie once again captivated me in her mysterious work, "Murder
in the Mews. It is a short story that you just can not put down. While
you are at it, read the other three short stories combined into the book!
I highly suggest this and all other Christie masterpieces to anyone who
loves a good mystery! If Christie were still alive, I would say "You've
done it again! Excellent!"
::YOUR OPINION::
