By the Pricking of my Thumbs [Paperback]

Agatha Christie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1992

Agatha Christies genius for detective fiction is unparalleled. Her worldwide popularity is phenomenal, her characters engaging, her plots spellbinding. No one knows the human heartor the dark passions that can stop it -- better than Agatha Christie. She is truly the one and only Queen of Crime.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'The most macabre and eerie Christie I have read for a long time.' Sunday Express 'All beautifully plotted in the way that Mrs Christie is famous for. The title is from Macbeth: "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes." Wicked indeed!' Best Sellers 'Ladies disappearing from homes of rest, sinister empty houses, hints of gang-leaders mixed with black magic -- mystery at the usual high Christie level.' Evening Standard 'Devised with fiendish ingenuity in the classic Christie cast.' Illustrated London News --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

Narrator Information: Alex Jennings enjoyed a highly-successful run at the Old Vic in Too Clever By Half for which he won an Olivier Award, the Drama Magazine Award, and the Plays and Players Award for Actor of the Year. He has also won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Peer Gynt. Among his numerous television credits are Inspector Alleyn, Hard Times and the lead role in Bad Blood. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins (Mm) (February 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061003352
• ISBN-13: 978-0061003356
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,321,720 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

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of the Tommy & Tuppence Novels is Quietly Chilling, April 9, 2002

By 

Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: By The Pricking Of My Thumbs (Tommy and Tuppence) (Paperback)

BY THE PRICKINGS OF MY THUMBS certainly offers the sense of adventure, wit, and charm we have come to expect from Christie's Tommy and Tuppence Beresford--but unlike their other outings, which might best be described light-hearted romps, this novel possesses a quietly chilling tone that intensifies as the story progresses.

The story finds Tuppence interested in a painting recently inherited from Tommy's aunt, a painting of a country house by a bridge. Convinced that she has seen the original subject, she decides to track it down--and when she does, she stumbles into stories of a series of unsolved child murders that occurred in the district many years before... and some one is displeased enough about her curiosity to become lethal.

This is the best of Christie's Tommy and Tuppence novels, a neat mixture of the characters' bright and witty personalities, an interesting story that takes several unexpected turns, and a surprisingly charged atmosphere that haunts the memory. While most serious critics dismiss the Tommy and Tuppence books, BY THE PRICKINGS OF MY THUMBS is the equal of any of Christie's best work, and long-time fans and newcomers alike should find it a thoroughly enjoyable--and unexpectedly disquieting--read.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tommy and Tuppence's Crowning Achievement, October 13, 2005

By 

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

This review is from: By The Pricking Of My Thumbs (Tommy and Tuppence) (Paperback)

By the Pricking of My Thumbs marked a wonderful return of Tommy and Tuppence (truly her novel, though) Beresford that captures them as older people but still with all of the charm of the characters they were during the era of the flappers. The big advantage of this chapter in their fictional lives over previous ones is that Agatha Christie does not have them embroiled in a rather weak political/spy drama, naive politics always being a flaw in her writing. This is actually one of better of Christie's mysteries with many wonderfully dark ideas throughout that provide more fun than the usual stock amount of red herrings. This book effectively combines the dark deeds of the author's later books with the sense of fun of the earlier ones which can sometimes be lacking in the later Christies.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Late Christie, Even-Paced Mystery, January 5, 2005

By 

D. Recio, SJ (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: By The Pricking Of My Thumbs (Tommy and Tuppence) (Paperback)

By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968) marks the penultimate appearance of Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. It is one of the novels which I return to periodically because I find that the novel continues to provide a certain amount of entertainment.

In By the Pricking of My Thumbs, we have less the espionage element that might have characterized their earlier adventures, The Secret Adversary, N or M?, or even possibly Partners in Crime. Instead, this novel represents a novel later in Christie's career in which she began to explore alternative reasons for murder. I am reminded of the sort of ingenuity that Christie utilizes in a late Miss Marple Mystery, Nemesis, written around this same period.

The reader should be aware that this even-paced thriller belongs to the brand of mystery in which the reader will have to sit back and enjoy Tuppence's wanderings with only a mysterious painting as an initial clue. The couple is older and their concerns focus little on employment but on the reasons why a woman has disappeared from a nursing home.

I recommend By the Pricking of Thumbs to people who are looking for something a little different from the genre which ordinarily belongs to Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. While By the Pricking of My Thumbs is not as odd as Endless Night, I would place this work among her works which emphasize subtle yet insistent menace, drawing on the ordinary as a means of hiding past crimes.