Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie

Product Details

Synopsis

A bit of adventure and quick cash is all that good-natured drifter Anthony Cade is looking for when he accepts a messenger job from an old friend. It sounds so simple: deliver the provocative memoirs of a recently deceased Eurpoean count to a London publisher. But the parcel holds more than scandalous royal secrets. It contains a stash of letters that suggest blackmail and lead to the murder of a stranger who's been shadowing Anthony's every move. Discovering the dead man's identity means retracing his steps to the rambling estate of Chimneys where darker secrets, and deadlier threats, await anyone who dares to enter.

Library Journal

The Secret of Chimneys (1925), Christie's third novel, comes from the period when romance was almost as important to her as crime. Each of the guests at Chimneys, a country estate, is suspected of the murder of a foreign nobleman. Two of the accused, a young widowed aristocrat and a young man of seemingly dubious background, find themselves falling in love as they join forces to solve the case. Blackmail, a politician's memoirs, and a notorious thief, are mixed expertly into the highly entertaining plot. A French detective and a no-nonsense English cop seem to be prototypes for Hercule Poirot and Inspector Japp, who look into the puzzling death of Hercule's dentist in One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, from 1940. Hercule must solve the crime while preventing further deaths, with prominent financier Alistair Blunt a much-threatened target. As wonderful as Hugh Fraser is as Captain Hastings in the television adaptations of the Poirot tales, he is even better as the reader of both novels. Highly recommended for popular collections.-Michael Adams, CUNY Graduate Ctr. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Biography

Agatha Christie is nearly synonymous with upper-class British mysteries, for good reason. She set the standard for the genre in over 60 novels and dozens of short stories, also creating two classic detectives: the fastidious Belgian, Hercule Poirot, and English spinster Jane Marple. No one could match Christie's knack for weaving clues into her stories, then turning the whole thing inside out -- shocking her readers every time.