THE REGATTA MYSTERY
UK publication: (not published in UK)
US publication: 1939 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Marple, Poirot, Pyne
Genre: Short stories
Plot summary and comments: 9 short stories, including 5 Poirot stories, one Miss Marple, and two featuring Parker Pyne. The volume was never published in the UK, but all of the stories except "Yellow Iris" have appeared there in other collections. Contents: The Regatta Mystery, in which Parker Pyne clears someone from suspicion of having stolen a diamond from a merchant, Isaac Pointz (the theft takes place during lunch at a restaurant overlooking the marina); this story was also published in "Poirot Lends a Hand" (a wartime pamphlet) and Thirteen for Luck. The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest, a Poirot mystery narrated by Hastings, later rewritten and expanded as "The Mystery of the Spanish Chest" in The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. How Does Your Garden Grow, in which Poirot gains insight into a crime by remembering the nursery rhyme; also published in Poirot's Early Cases. Problem at Pollensa Bay, set on Majorca, where Parker Pyne solves a problem for a middle-aged English tourist; this story also published in Thirteen for Luck. Yellow Iris, a Poirot story which contains many plot elements repeated in the novel Sparkling Cyanide although Poirot himself does not appear there---and which contains his long-ago deportation from Argentina. Miss Marple Tells a Story, the only Marple mystery narrated by herself, also published in Miss Marple's Final Cases. The Dream, a far-fetched Poirot story, also published in The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding; Poirot discovers the murderer of millionaire Benedict Farley. In a Glass Darkly, one of Christie's supernatural tales, which is quite out of place in this volume; it was also published (equally out of place) in Miss Marple's Final Cases. Problem at Sea, a Poirot story in which a passenger on an ocean liner is stabbed while the ship is docked at Alexandria; also published in Poirot's Early Cases as "The Mystery of the Crime in Cabin 66", and by itself as a pamphlet under the title "Crime in Cabin 66". The two Parker Pyne stories are the only appearances by Mr. Pyne outside of the volume Parker Pyne Investigates.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
::READERS REVIEWS::
This
was a very delightful collection of stories. I loved when Mr. Parker Pyne
found who stole the diamond. He is ranked with Agatha Christie's most
demanding detectives in this book and he deserves it! Of course, Hercule
Poirot and Miss Marple, the most demanding detectives, are up to their
usual perfection, solving murders and other such things.
I
love Hercule Poirot! He is the most complex detective. Everyone else is
utterly baffled and M. Poirot has everything figured out in his "little
grey cells", and who could forget about Miss Marple? She is the queen
of mystery and Hercule Poirot is the king! If these two were to work together
then no evil mastermind could win. Miss Marple is as great as Dorothy
Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax. Her cunning outsmarts us all. I just LOVED this
book!
::YOUR OPINION::
