Murder in the Mews [Paperback]

Agatha Christie (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Berkley Books (1993)
• ASIN: B000WO49NI
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,942,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Agatha Christie was born in 1890 and created the detective Hercule Poirot in her debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920). She achieved wide popularity with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) and produced a total of eighty novels and short-story collections over six decades.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Christie's Best Collection of Shorter Stories, November 28, 2003

By 

Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murder in the Mews (Hardcover)

Murder in the Mews begins with a country house murder in the perfect Christie fashion in "Dead Man's Mirror" (ideas of which seemed to have filtered into the film, Gosford Park). This book consists of three more longish stories that outshine most of those in Agatha Christie's other short story collections. These stories are all typically English of their period and show off their great detective creation, Hercule Poirot, in a less pompous form than the novels often portray him. The author has taken the time in these short pieces to assemble a large cast and a great variety of clues to hold any reader's interest. Almost as good as her full novels and that is saying a lot.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Collection a.k.a. Dead Man's Mirror, May 30, 2002

By 

Michele L. Worley (Kingdom of the Mouse, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder in the Mews and Other Stories (Hercule Poirot) (Paperback)

This collection has appeared under 2 titles that I know of: _Murder in the Mews and Other Stories_ and _Dead Man's Mirror_.

Where a story has appeared elsewhere under an alternate title, the title given in this book is listed first.

"Dead Man's Mirror", a.k.a. "Hercule Poirot and the Broken Mirror" - An alternate version of this story also appears as "The Second Gong" in _The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories_. The dead man in question engaged Poirot to come to his country home to clear up an unspecified scandal, but before their first face-to-face encounter, the client is found shot dead in a locked room containing a broken wall mirror.

"The Incredible Theft" - Essentially the same story as "The Submarine Plans" in _The Under Dog and Other Stories_.

"Murder in the Mews", a.k.a. "Good Night for a Murder" - Always thrifty with good ideas, Christie used the same story structure in "The Market Basing Mystery" (see _The Under Dog and Other Stories_), although the stage setting, personalities of the supporting characters, and motives are different.

"Triangle at Rhodes", a.k.a. "Before It's Too Late", "Double Alibi" - As Poirot remarks to a fellow-guest at the seaside, he finds human behaviour somewhat monotonous, since it repeats itself so often - in patterns, such as the triangle. In this case, the notorious beauty Valentine Chantry, accompanied by her 5th (or is he 6th?) husband Commander Chantry is a fellow-guest, and despite her hulking brute of a husband, appears to be taking an interest in Douglas Gold - a handsome man with a pleasant wife but apparently no wits to speak of. Poirot, foreseeing trouble, eventually makes one of his rare attempts to prevent a crime before it takes place. Such attempts are rarely successful...

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars By Many Other Names, April 29, 2011

By 

R. Chaffey "beckahi" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murder in the Mews (Paperback)

As with many of Agatha Christie's works, "Murder in the Mews" goes by another title ("Dead Man's Mirror") which is one of four stories included in this Poirot collection. No matter what it is called, it is a fine example of the queen of mystery at her prime as her erudite sleuth unravels a few very tangled mysteries.

The collection begins with the title piece, in which a young widow has apparently committed suicide. Yet several things stick in Poirot's craw making him think that the facts presented do not match up to the verdict given. "Dead Man's Mirror" is a closed set mystery, so the suspects are few. When summoned rather curtly by Sir Gervase Chevenix-Gore on a matter of some delicacy, Poirot is insulted and perplexed, but strangely curious. Upon his arrival, Sir Gervase is found dead in his study of apparent suicide, but Poirot knows it was murder, and since several people within the house had a motive, it is a tricky case of solving which one committed the deed. "The Incredible Theft" features spying and the disappearance of important and sensitive documents at a time of great danger and is frankly a little too easy to solve. The collection wraps up with "Triangle at Rhodes" where Poirot hopes for a quiet vacation but encounters a crime of passion - just his luck. This time Poirot witnesses the killer in action, making the drama leading up to the event more exciting than the solving, which is also a tad easy.

Featuring her usual twists and turns, the four stories collected in Christie's "Murder in the Mews" are delightful puzzles for any mystery fan. It is a fast-paced, delightful escape into a time that was with motives that exist still today.