Author | Agatha Christie |
---|---|
Country | United Kingdom United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Detective fiction short stories |
Publisher | Dodd, Mead and Company |
Publication date | 1950 |
Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
Pages | 250 |
Preceded by | A Murder Is Announced |
Followed by | They Came to Baghdad |
Three Blind Mice and Other Stories is a collection of short stories written by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1950. [1] The first edition retailed at $2.50. [1]
Stories from the collection later appeared in the British collections The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (1960), Poirot's Early Cases (1974), Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories (1979), and Problem at Pollensa Bay (1992). However, the title story, an alternate version of the play The Mousetrap , has not been published in book form in the UK.[ citation needed ]
During a blinding snowstorm, a homicidal maniac traps a small group of people in an isolated boarding house. Giles and Molly Davis have just inherited Monkswell Manor from Molly’s Aunt Katherine, and they have decided to open it as a guest house. During a heavy blizzard, an intriguing cast of characters are trapped together, yet not everything is what it appears. After one of the guests is found dead, the question is, who is the killer? Well, it can only be someone on the inside. It is a tale of intrigue and murder coming from the past. Is everyone who they say they are? Who will live through the night? Will the murderer who kills to the tune of Three Blind Mice kill them all? [2] [3] [4] [5]
Characters:
During a party hosted by Miss Marple’s friend Jane Helier, Miss Marple is approached by a young couple who need her help. The couple was promised by their uncle that when he died they would inherit a great fortune. Yet, when the uncle died, he left them a letter telling them that their inheritance was hidden. The couple invites Miss Marple to their family home. She sets out to clear up the mystery and help this couple find their happiness. [6]
Characters:
Miss Marple comes to the aid of Inspector Slack once again. The Skinner sisters are a mystery to the village. While one sister lies around suffering from mysterious ailments, the other manages everything she needs. Then the sisters fire their maid, Gladys, claiming she is a thief, only to have things continue to disappear. Now the perfect maid has come to replace her, but when the perfect maid goes missing, who do you get to help solve the crime? [7]
Characters:
Miss Marple is called as a character witness for Mr. Spenlow, who is accused of murdering his wife. This is because Mr. Spenlow seems to be unaffected by the loss of his wife. With the help of her friend Colonel Melchett and the incredulous Inspector Slack, Miss Marple searches for the truth about who really killed Mrs. Spenlow. Will a man that Miss Marple feels is innocent hang for the crime? [8]
Characters:
Doctor Haydock, the resident GP in the small village of St. Mary Mead, hopes to cheer up Miss Marple as she recovers from the flu. He feels the best solution is to give her a problem that will challenge her mind rather than her body. He decides to ask for her assistance in solving a murder because what better way was there to keep her spirits up than to find a killer. Harry Lexton, the devilishly handsome black sheep son, has made good and returned to his childhood home with his new wife to start a life. However, the villagers cannot stop talking about Harry’s past and at least one person cannot forgive him for tearing down the old house. When Harry’s new wife dies unexpectedly, was it a witch’s curse that did it or someone with darker plans? [9]
Characters:
A woman’s body is found in a flat. She was discovered by a group of four resourceful young people who had been locked out of their flat. Luckily for them, Hercule Poirot is nearby to lend his assistance. Who murdered this poor woman? Is there more to this story then meets the eye? Can Poirot discover the truth before it is too late for someone else? [10]
Characters:
When a three-year-old child is kidnapped and held for ransom, Hercule Poirot must use his little gray cells to find the truth. Yet, when suspicion falls on the household, Poirot must face the difficult challenge of uncovering the location of the little boy. [11]
Characters:
Hercule Poirot is pulled into another mystery. While sitting down to dinner with an old friend, he notices the eating habits of one of the other patrons who the staff call “Old Father Time” as no one knows his name. He comes in every Tuesday and Thursday like clockwork, but one day he suddenly stops coming. Poirot believes he knows the truth behind the mystery, but could the truth be fatal? [12]
Characters:
A messy love triangle ends in murder. Is the widowed wife and her lover really to blame? Mr. Satterthwaite teams up once again with the mysterious Mr. Harley Quin to discover why Sir James Dwight was murdered. [13]
Characters:
The four Miss Marple stories appeared in the 1979 collection Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories . "The Third Floor Flat" and "The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly" appeared in the 1974 collection Poirot's Early Cases , while "Four and Twenty Blackbirds" appeared in the 1960 collection The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding . "The Love Detectives" appeared in the 1991 collection Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories .
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays, and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975.
Miss Jane Marple is a fictional character in Agatha Christie's crime novels and short stories. Miss Marple lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur consulting detective. Often characterized as an elderly spinster, she is one of Christie's best-known characters and has been portrayed numerous times on screen. Her first appearance was in a short story published in The Royal Magazine in December 1927, "The Tuesday Night Club", which later became the first chapter of The Thirteen Problems (1932). Her first appearance in a full-length novel was in The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930, and her last appearance was in Sleeping Murder in 1976.
Sleeping Murder: Miss Marple's Last Case is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in October 1976 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed for £3.50 and the US edition for $7.95.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a detective novel by the British writer Agatha Christie, her third to feature Hercule Poirot as the lead detective. The novel was published in the UK in June 1926 by William Collins, Sons, having previously been serialised as Who Killed Ackroyd? between July and September 1925 in the London Evening News. An American edition by Dodd, Mead and Company followed in 1926.
Ariadne Oliver is a fictional character in the novels of Agatha Christie. She is a mystery novelist and a friend of Hercule Poirot.
St Mary Mead is a fictional village created by popular crime fiction author Dame Agatha Christie.
Five Little Pigs is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in May 1942 under the title Murder in Retrospect and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in January 1943. The UK first edition carries a copyright date of 1942 and retailed at eight shillings while the US edition was priced at $2.00.
The Moving Finger is a detective novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the USA by Dodd, Mead and Company in July 1942 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1943. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence.
Dead Man's Folly is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in October 1956 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 November of the same year. The US edition retailed at $2.95 and the UK edition at twelve shillings and sixpence (12/6). It features Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver.
Murder in Mesopotamia is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 6 July 1936 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. The cover was designed by Robin McCartney.
Mrs McGinty's Dead is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1952 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 3 March the same year. The US edition retailed at $2.50 and the UK edition at nine shillings and sixpence (9/6). The Detective Book Club issued an edition, also in 1952, as Blood Will Tell.
Poirot Investigates is a short story collection written by English author 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 this book, published by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1925, featured a further three stories. The UK first edition featured an illustration of Poirot on the dust jacket by W. Smithson Broadhead, reprinted from the 21 March 1923 issue of The Sketch magazine.
Poirot's Early Cases is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by Collins Crime Club in September 1974. The book retailed at £2.25. Although the stories contained within the volume had all appeared in previous US collections, the book also appeared there later in 1974 under the slightly different title of Hercule Poirot's Early Cases in an edition retailing at $6.95.
Murder in the Mews and Other Stories is a short story collection by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by Collins Crime Club on 15 March 1937. In the US, the book was published by Dodd, Mead and Company under the title Dead Man's Mirror in June 1937 with one story missing ; the 1987 Berkeley Books edition of the same title has all four stories. All of the tales feature Hercule Poirot. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the first US edition at $2.00.
The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1939. The first edition retailed at $2.00.
The Alphabet Murders is a 1965 British detective film directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Tony Randall as Hercule Poirot. It is based on the 1936 novel The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie.
In Agatha Christie's mystery novels, several characters cross over different sagas, creating a fictional universe in which most of her stories are set. This article has one table to summarize the novels with characters who occur in other Christie novels; the table is titled Crossovers by Christie. There is brief mention of characters crossing over in adaptations of the novels. Her publications, both novels and short stories, are then listed by main detective, in order of publication. Some stories or novels authorised by the estate of Agatha Christie, using the characters she created, and written long after Agatha Christie died, are included in the lists.
Lists of adaptations of the works of Agatha Christie:
John Curran is an Irish literary scholar and archivist, best known as an expert on the work of Dame Agatha Christie, English author of detective fiction and the world's bestselling novelist. He was born in Dublin and for years edited the Agatha Christie newsletter, subscriptions to which are handled through the author's official website. He wrote his doctoral thesis on Christie at Trinity College. He served as a National Trust consultant during the restoration of Christie's Devon residence, the Greenway Estate.
Hercule Poirot is a series of full cast BBC Radio drama adaptations of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels and short stories adapted by Michael Bakewell, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1985 and 2007. With the exception of the first two adaptations, the series stars John Moffatt as Poirot.