Customer Reviews

THE TUESDAY CLUB MURDERS

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The short stories herein are the first 5 of the Marple collection _The Thirteen Problems_. See my reviews if you're interested in the whole collection, which was divided into 3 separate unabridged recordings narrated by Joan Hickson. Where stories have appeared elsewhere under different names, the title used in this recording (which is the original title) is listed first.

"The Tuesday Night Club" (December, 1927) Raymond West, the writer, is visiting his aunt Jane Marple at her home in St. Mary Mead, and is playing host to a few friends when he opens the subject of unsolved mysteries. The company, representing several professions and outlooks on life, offers different opinions on who is best equipped to solve such problems, and they decide to put the issue to a practical test. Every Tuesday, one member will tell the story of a problem to which he or she knows the answer, and the others will try to solve it.

Unsurprisingly, Sir Henry Clithering, lately retired from Scotland Yard, is asked to tell his story first, and he selects a case that wasn't solved when it first arose; the solution has just come into his hands, and an arrest will soon be made. Middle-aged Mr. and Mrs. Jones, together with her companion Miss Clark, all shared a meal featuring tinned lobster just after Mr. Jones' return from a business trip; they were ill afterwards, and Mrs. Jones (who had the money) died of it. Local gossip prompted an official autopsy that found Mrs. Jones had died of arsenical poison, but no one seemed to have had an opportunity to poison her without poisoning everyone at the meal.

"The Idol House of Astarte", a.k.a. "The 'Supernatural' Murder" (1928) Dr. Pender, an elderly clergyman, tells a story of a tragic death at a house party in his youth. Richard Hayden liked the fancy that Silent Grove near his home was once a sacred grove, and had a kind of folly built to encourage the fancy. Diana Maberly, one of the beauties of the season who was flirting with Richard, his cousin Elliot, and a few others as well, took the fancy to heart, and asked for a costume party. But things went tragically awry.

"Ingots of Gold", a.k.a. "Miss Marple and the Golden Galleon" (1928) Raymond West doesn't know the answer to his problem, but Sir Henry does, and Miss Marple deduces it. He made the acquaintance of an authority on Elizabethan times, who was preparing a treasure-hunting expedition to salvage gold from the wreck of an Armada galleon off Cornwall. But the police were interested in quite another problem: how someone managed to make a lot of gold bullion vanish from the strongroom of the _Otranto_ - if it was ever aboard at all.

"The Bloodstained Pavement" (1928) Joyce Lampiere, like many another painter, stayed in a Cornish village to paint self-consciously picturesque scenery: in this case, the Polharwith Arms (give or take waiting for a boring couple and their flamboyantly dressed companion to get out of the way). A fisherman watching her sketch tells her the story of the near-destruction of the village by the Spanish, and she's annoyed that some of it got into her sketch - bloodstains on the pavement outside the hotel. But she looks up to find that she only painted what she'd really seen, although the fisherman didn't see it...

"Motive versus Opportunity" (1928) Locked-room. Mr. Petherick, Miss Marple's lawyer. After the death of his little granddaughter, Simon Clode made his grown nephew and nieces his heirs. Unfortunately, he got interested in spiritualism, and proposed to make a will leaving his estate to his favorite medium, Mrs. Spragg, against Mr. Petherick's advice (who marked her down as an old fraud). But when the time came to probate the will, Mr. Petherick's safe contained only blank sheets of paper, and nobody seemed to have both motive and opportunity to pull the switch.

"The Thumb Mark of St. Peter", a.k.a. "Ask and You Shall Receive" (1928) Miss Marple herself presents a problem that none of the others can work out. Her niece Mabel made an unfortuate marriage to a man with insanity in his family. After one particularly ugly quarrel, her husband became ill in the night and died suddenly. Not overly grief-stricken, Mabel didn't send for her aunt until she realized that she was suspected of poisoning her husband...

It looks like Amazon has taken the reviews of the audio casette set with the same name and put them on this product. There are 13 stories and not 5 as the cassette reviews state. They take up 6 CDs.

There is one technical flaw. The labeling is wrong on four of the CDs. The number is correct (1-6) but the list of stories on 3 and 5 are swapped and 4 and 6 are swapped. Once you solve that mystery things go well.

These are short stories and not novels so you should not expect complex plot development or character descriptions. They are a good way to kill half an hour of otherwise wasted time in your life.

Christie has a way of peppering in intrigue, complications and duplicity, and supplying a common sense conclusion based on combining experience and appreciation of human nature and simplicity. "People are really much the same" is the catch phrase of this book they just opperate on different scales of vice and volume but the nature is the same and drawing conclusions from human nature the same whether in a small country town or a large city. Some of the endings were highly contrived.

This is the very first Christie book I read... and because of this awesome book I've been completely hooked ever since. It's a must read. Gave me chills!

Exactly what is a "Brigand Chief"? Make sure you know before reading this collection of short stories by the mistress of mayhem. The Tuesday Club is a casually executed frame story for a series of pithy little mysteries recounted by various persons at informal social gatherings. Among the guests is the highly respected Sir Henry Clithering (formerly of Scotland Yard) and the inconspicuous Miss Marple, whose long years living in the small town of St. Mary Mead have given her ample opportunity to study human nature in its most sordid details. Over the course of 13 evenings, various members of the cultural elite pose their problems for the group's analysis, and time and again, it is the quiet, unassuming old maid who cuts to the very heart of the problem.

This reviewer found this slim volume extremely entertaining, but modern American readers should not be surprised to find these mysteries too tough to crack. Differences in time, place and culture too often leave gaps in our understanding that swallow up the subtle details that the mystery too often hinges on. For example, how many of us know what kind of food the "hundreds and thousands" might be served on, even once we've figured out what "banting" is? Still, Christie's ingenuity, pat characterizations and easy prose make for fine entertainment for fans of the armchair detective genre.

The Tuesday Club Murders is a group of mysteries discussed once a week by Miss Marple and her friends. Each chapter has a new twist to unravel. A clever idea that proves that even every day people have experiences to share that may or may not have an explanation. Easy reading that keeps the reader interested.This book is a little different Marple, but nonetheless is worth it. I liked it very much.

I loved the book; it kept me riveted. I'm not up on the history of Miss Marple, but my vibe was this was the book that introduced her. It was first published in 1933. And I can see why it made Miss Marple famous, as there is something endearing and captivating about her. Agatha Christie strikes again. The only down-side I found to the book, however, and it's a relatively minor one, is that the endless numbers of unsolved murders and serious crimes without one tiny group of average people risk becoming ludicrous at a certain point. But if you can handle that, which it's not so hard to do, then the book's still a winner.

The book was good for what I bought if for--to read on the plane-- though not as good as Agatha Christies' regular mystery books. I do not usually like short stores, but since I am such an Agatha Chrisitie fan I thought I would make an exception. The book was okay but not as good as her regular books. This is for someone who does not want to invest a lot of time in reading a good mystery. The down side is that this is the same book as "the Thirteen Problems" also by Agatha Christie. I did not know that and bought both of them at the same time. If there are duplicate books with the same name I feel the customer should be told this by Amazon. I am not sure why one book should have two names. I should have returned one of these but thought it would be too much trouble since I had never had to return anything else I had purchased. I will keep it as a gift for someone later on.

Book arrived in good shape and on time. Thank you or a fun read!

Agatha Christie Audio CD (BOOKS ON TAPE) are absolutely wonderful . I have purchased all of mine from Amazon.com and will be purchasing more in the future from Amazon. Her Mysteries of Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot and other characters are absolutely wonderful . When listning on CD with head-phones on and your eyes closed you start an unbelievable journey every time . If you love Great Mysteries you have to try these , you'll love every exciting minute of these("SITTING ON THE EDGE OF YOUR CHAIR") stories ! If you want the best price , look no furter than Amazon.com as they have the best prices I have ever seen on these wonderful CD series . You can buy with Confidence and Trust from Amazon , there the Best. Sincerely, Pat Simmons