The Sittaford Mystery [Paperback]

Agatha Christie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 1987

When a "psychic" parlor game at Sittaford House predicts the death of Captain Trevelyan, everyone laughs at what appears to be a joke, until his body is found a few hours later, and Miss Emily Trefusis must delve deep into the spirit world to reveal a very human murderer. Reissue.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Empress of the crime novel." Sunday Express "An excellent book to take away for a weekend reading." New York Times "You can't go wrong with this one, certainly the best of the always high-grade Christie items in quite some time." Books --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in 44 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (March 15, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425104060
• ISBN-13: 978-0425104064
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,054,420 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

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Murder in Desolate Dartmoor Combines Two Intricate Plots, October 2, 2005

By 

Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sittaford Mystery (St. Martin's Minotaur Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

The Sittaford Mystery (American title: Murder at Hazelmoor) opens on a wintry afternoon at the large mansion known as Sittaford House. The entertainment for the day is a seance which suggests that Captain Trevelyan, owner of the house, may be dead. The Captain has leased his home to a Mrs. Willett and her daughter Violet. These South African women had been so insistent on spending a typical British winter in the home that they convinced Trevelyan to move into a smaller home in nearby Exhampton. Major Burnaby, a friend of Trevelyan's, is present at the seance. Although he does not believe in spiritualism, he decides to check up on his friend and finds that Trevelyan has been murdered.

From this intriguing beginning the story moves to Trevelyan's sister, two nephews, and niece, all of whom had motive and opportunity to commit the crime. Also, a convict has escaped from a nearby prison and is added to the list of suspects along with the mysterious Willetts.

Christie weaves the murder beautifully into the novel's second plot which is the unexplained presence of the Willetts in Sittaford. This book, notable for its outstanding description of the stark and isolated setting, also introduces a gimmick that Christie will use again in her novella "Three Blind Mice."

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Neglected Mid-Period Masterpiece, July 11, 2006

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Sittaford Mystery (St. Martin's Minotaur Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

US readers used to know this one as "Murder at Hazelmoor," but nowadays they call it by the name Christie used, "The Sittaford Mystery." What a dull title! I guess the experience of slow sales with "The Listerdale Mystery" didn't teach her much, for this one also seems often to fall between the cracks when fans compile lists of Christie's best books, and I think it's the colorless title that does it, for otherwise this book is nearly the equal of the two midperiod masterpieces that followed it, CARDS ON THE TABLE and DEATH ON THE NILE. It lacks the complete assurance of the sleight-of-hand play of CARDS, and of course it is entirely missing the tragic dimension of the opera that is DEATH ON THE NILE, but THE SITTAFORD MYSTERY is indeed a wonderful treat for Christie readers. I wonder, if Poirot was in it, if it would be better known?

Instead we have the admirable Inspector Narracott, and his opposite number, the inventive, spirited, dazzling heroine Emily Trefusis, a sparkling Katharine Hepburn type no man can resist or outwit. Things look bleak of Emily at the beginning of the story as her sad sack boyfriend, Jim Pearson, is arrested for the murder of his uncle, Captain Trevelyan, in a little English village near Dartmoor--Sittaford--or Hazelmoor--one of them, I suppose. All I remember is that the book begins with a spooky seance of table turning, when the table raps, raps, raps, revealing Trevelyan's name and to the surprise of almost everyone present, the spirit voices say he has died! Six miles away, his body lies on the floor of his home, sandbagged, in the middle of a ferocious, historic blizzard.

Several other rough things happen to Emily during the course of the story, but she never loses heart, or if she does, it's only momentarily, and her common sense and high spirits come to her rescue, as she attempts to clear Jim's name and to free him from prison, even as he's battling an open and shut case against him. Everyone in Sittaford has a secret. I've read the book a good dozen times over the years, and still the utter simplicity, daring, and good humor of Christie's writing dazzles me every time I plunge in again. In some ways, this is the book to recommend to those who don't like Agatha Christie. It has everything Jane Austen has, and a little bit more.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a classic revisited, February 8, 2001

By 

kellytwo "kellytwo" (cleveland hts, ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sittaford Mystery (Paperback)

Ahhh. This is more like! A mystery reader/fan must, every now and then, return to the books of the great Dame Agatha. Yet, it becomes harder and harder to find one that perhaps hasn't been read for a while. It's important also, not to get sucked into a recently read title now masquerading under a new name.

I'm sure that at some time in my past, I've read The Murder at Hazelmoor, but not recently enough to have given the subsequently-named The Sittaford Mystery a familiar aura. S'wonderful, indeed.

No one captured the thirties quite so eloquently as did Christie, and this book is a prime example of her art. There is no Miss Marple or Hercule Poiret in this episode, however. Rather we have an intrepid young woman named Emily Trefusis, who has the misfortune to be engaged to the nephew of a man who is found murdered, after his death had been exposed by a 'table turning.' This is a version of the Ouija Board, which was enormously popular in the first decades of the 20th century.

Captain Trevelyan, who was rather fond of money, had been prevailed upon to let out his own Sittaford House to a widow and her daughter, apparently just arrived from South Africa. Never married, the Captain had few heirs: one sister and the three children of another, now deceased. It is James Pearson, one of this latter group, who has captured the fair Emily, and finds himself in jail under suspicion of having done in his uncle.

Emily knows better, however, and with the aid and assistance of a live-wire newspaper reporter, Charles Enderby, sets out to prove his innocence. Emily and Charles quite put in me mind of Tommy and Tuppence with their humorous bantering. (Perhaps they were the inspiration for Dame Agatha, as well.)

The prevalence and importance of trains and their schedules take one back to that time when almost no one owned an auto of their own, and walking twelve miles (round-trip, to be sure) for a visit was hardly any kind of bother at all. If one was fit, that is.

Village life along the moors is captured perfectly, along with the various eccentrics who reside there. It's a cracking good puzzle, with all the clues neatly laid out for the intrepid sleuth. A visit to Agatha Christie's England is good for us all every now and then. I'm looking forward to the next one!