Customer Reviews

Three Blind Mice (St. Martin's Minotaur Mysteries)

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I am a fourteen year old fan from Malaysia. I graduated from the 'Secret Seven' to 'Nancy Drew' over a few years, and when I became bored with and outgrew Carolyn Keene's novels, my mother suggested reading Agathe Christie. (Agatha who? I asked, and I had thought only 'old fogies' read Agatha Christie). Was i wrong! I read the 'Mousetrap' (recently renamed 'Three Blind Mice') once and i loved it. I recommend it to almost everyone I know. i think that anyone above the age of twleve can read it. (this is nothing compared to the violence on tv nowadays. trust me on this.) It provides nonstop suspense, excitement, and even some homour. The characters are warm and vividly described. What more can be said? Buy only a copy, and i'm sure you won't have enough to go around the house! And if you can, watch the play at St. Thomas theatre in London. I begged my mother to take me to it and it was just as good, if not better, than the story. If you need an introduction the queen of detective fiction, read 'Three blind mice nad other stories'. You'll be enthralled by the magnifient author, who has the famous ability of doing nothing by halves.

Unlike the superior short story collection TUESDAY CLUB MURDERS, which unifies its stories via various stylistic devices and a single detective (Miss Marple), THREE BLIND MICE AND OTHER STORIES presents a mixed bag in terms of both quality and leading characters. And simply stated, although many of the stories here have their charms, most of the titles here are not among the best of her short fiction. The collection does contain three stories that offer Christie at her stylistic and plot-twisting best: "The Case of the Perfect Maid," featuring Jane Marple, and "Third Floor Flat" and "The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly," both featuring Hercule Poirot. Indeed, the first of the three is as fine as anything Christie ever wrote in any form, a cleverly crafted tale of a maid unjustly accused of theft that Christie expertly guides through a number of unexpected turns to a completely unexpected conclusion. But such titles as "Strange Jest," "Tape-Measure Murder," "The Case of the Caretaker," "Four and Twenty Blackbirds," and "The Love Detectives" are utterly transparent at worst, minor works at best.

The centerpiece of the collection, of course, is "Three Blind Mice." This rather long story--more of a novella than a short--caused quite a stir among mystery readers when it debuted, and it would go on to considerably greater fame when Christie adapted it to the stage as THE MOUSETRAP, which has the distinction of being the single longest running play in theatrical history. But whatever its merits on the stage, and in spite of one of Christie's more startling plot turns, the style of the piece is decidedly melodramatic, artificial, and now and then down right clunky. This is a collection more likely to appeal to determined Christie fans, particularly those who are interested in tracing out Christie's unique ability to reconstruct the plots of her minor short stories into considerably more successful full-length works. While the stories here are certainly readable (and considerably more interesting than the short fiction of such Christie contemporaries as Dorothy Sayers, whose style was less at home in short story format), this is not a collection I would greatly recommend to new fans. Such readers would do better to select THE TUESDAY CLUB MURDERS.

--GFT (Amazon Reviewer)--

This book, full of mysteries, would be great for those who enjoy page-turners. Out of five stars I would rate this book a four, because, it really kept me intrigued. I also liked how there is always a twist to things; even if someone seems like they fit the profile for the criminal, there is always another possibility.

The first (and main,) story, Three Blind Mice, all starts when a blinding snow storm hits, trapping Molly and her husband in their newly started guesthouse with the four occupants of the rooms, stranded. With a homicidal maniac on the loose, its only a matter of time before the maniac is revealed...

The other eight stories are all thrillers, full of clever criminals, and sneaky crimes. Some of the titles include "Tape Measure Murder" and, "The Case of the Perfect Maid." Miss Marple, an elderly woman, has deep explanations for almost every problem that occurs in her "peaceful" town of St. Mary Mead. Hercule Poirot; the other detective; gets down to the point with ease and confidence.

I enjoyed the tension and suspense in this book. While being short, the stories still gave enough context behind the characters, so that you still feel like you get to know them. I liked how these stories really cut to the chase, in that there wasn't anything in the story that didn't serve a purpose; no unnecessary parts as there sometimes is in other stories.

Over all, I would definitely recommend this book to all. It keeps you on the edge of your seat. Not once did I grow bored of this book. Three Blind Mice is full of brilliant disguises, clever plans, rich explanations, great dialogue, and overall delight.

These short stories all appear under their original titles (alternate titles are noted). If you're interested in Joan Hickson's unabridged narration of the 4 Jane Marple stories herein, see the recording MISS MARPLE INVESTIGATES. They are among the few Marple short stories that don't appear in THE THIRTEEN PROBLEMS collection. Two of the Poirot cases, on the other hand, appear in HERCULE POIROT'S EARLY CASES, while the third appears in THE ADVENTURE OF THE CHRISTMAS PUDDING collection.

"Three Blind Mice" - None of Christie's regular characters appear; this tale corresponds to the play 'The Mousetrap'. Once upon a time, in 1940, three young children were evacuated and sent to live at Longridge Farm. The Greggs treated them barbarously, and after one boy died, Mr. Gregg was killed escaping from the police, and Mrs. Gregg went to prison. Now Mrs. Gregg has been murdered just after her release from prison, and the next target appears to be a young woman at Monkswell Manor - but the murderer could be either the boy or the girl (now grown up), the Davises don't know the background of any of their paying guests - and they're snowed in.

"Strange Jest" - Miss Marple has a missing will problem - except that in this case, the assets rather than the will itself are hidden. The stories I can think of with this theme are all of the form: wealthy uncle decides to amuse himself at his heirs' expense, and hides their inheritance. (Sayers' "The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will" from LORD PETER VIEWS THE BODY is a stronger story than "Strange Jest" - the uncle not only had a purpose in hiding the will, but a wicked sense of humor.)

"Tape-Measure Murder" and "The Case of the Perfect Maid", like most Marple short stories (and unlike the novels) are set in St. Mary Mead. In the first case, mild Mr. Spenlow is suspected by the village of murdering his wife, whose body was discovered by a dressmaker coming in for a fitting. In the second, Miss Marple is asked to intercede with the Skinner sisters when they fire their maid, Gladys, with an implication of theft. The slur on her character is compounded when the Skinners bring in an outsider who appears to be a paragon - too good to be true. (As a bonus, the village eagerly awaits Dr. Haydock's first professional encounter with the hypochondriac Miss Emily, and he comes up to scratch.)

To speed Miss Marple's recovery from a serious illness, Dr. Haydock writes up "The Case of the Caretaker" as a story-within-a-story for Miss Marple to get her teeth into. The end of Haydock's manuscript is an implied 'Challenge to the Reader', since at that point one has all the information needed to solve the puzzle; most of the stories of the Marple collection THE THIRTEEN PROBLEMS share this feature, although the other 3 Marple stories in this collection do not.

"The Third-Floor Flat" When Patricia Garnett finds herself locked out of her 4th floor flat after a double date, one of the young men climbs up the coal lift ("Pat *never* locks and bolts things"), but gets out on the wrong floor - and discovers the body of Pat's downstairs neighbour. Poirot, her upstairs neighbour, offers his help after being roused by the commotion.

"The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly" (a.k.a. "At the Stroke of Twelve") The only Poirot story in this collection narrated by Hastings. Why did the kidnapper send threatening notes to the Waverlys *before* snatching their little boy?

"Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds", a.k.a. "Poirot and the Regular Customer" - Listening to this one read by David Suchet may make you hungry; be warned. A friend of Poirot's has taken him to the Gallant Endeavour, a picturesque restaurant with very reliable cooking. The friend points out an elderly fellow diner who appears twice a week like clockwork and has very predictable eating habits, so the staff knows him, although they don't know his name, business, or anything else about him. Molly, the waitress, adds that he came in on *Monday* the previous week, and ordered stuff he ordinarily couldn't abide - she worried that she'd forgotten what day of the week it was! Poirot feels uneasy - later he felt that he should have forseen what was coming, and prevented it. :)

"The Love Detectives", a.k.a. "At the Crossroads" (30 October 1926) - One of the few Quin & Satterthwaite stories that doesn't appear in THE MYSTERIOUS MR. QUIN. Satterthwaite, staying with an old friend who happens to be chief constable, is carried along to a murder investigation. After finding out about the blunt instrument and the body in the library, you may start taking a hard look at the butler, but the investigators are themselves aware of the cliche, so don't be suckered on appearances.

"Three Blind Mice and Other Stories," by the absolutely outstanding "Queen of Crime" Agatha Christie, is an absolute gem of a book! All of the nine stories in this collection shed light on Christie's gift of creating unforgettable characters and spine-tinglingly suspenseful plots. I particularly enjoyed reading "Three Blind Mice," (the novella of the collection) because I had recently seen a high school production of "The Mousetrap," the play that Christie wrote after the novella was so successful. I enjoyed comparing the two, because both verstions, though similar have many differences. This novella does not feature any of Christie's series detectives, (Hercule Poirot, or Jane Marple,) but is is outstandingly brilliant in introducing characters that will stay with you long after the book is completed. I'll say one thing, I'll never look at the nursery rhyme "Three Blind Mice" the same way again! Readers are treated to four delightful stories featuring Miss. Marple, ("Tape Measure Murder," "The Case of the Perfect Maid," "The Case of the Caretaker," and "Strange Jest.") The are treated to three stories featuring Hercule Poirot, "The Third Floor Flat," The Adventure of Johnny Waverley," and (my personal favorite,) "Four and Twenty Blackbirds," in which Poirot examines the eating habits of a certain individual in order to solve a murder. There is also a special treat of a story featuring Mr. Harley Quin called "The Love Detectives." All in all, a wonderful feast of humor, mystery, and suspense, which I'm sure will be enjoyed by people for many years to come. Happy reading to you all, and take care!!

The title story was adapted to make the famous "Mousetrap," longest running play in the world. Though the novella has some creaky spots, I can see what a fun play it would be: people running in and out of rooms, doors slamming, and strange noises in the distance. The story wears fairly well, the motivation a little weak, but a nice zinger at the end.

The other stories are for the most part well chosen; "The Case of the Perfect Maid" is positively elegant with not even a murder involved. The construction is tight and Ms. Marple is a joy. Ms. Christie shows how a romance/mystery should be done in "The Case of the Caretaker." The reader gets a lovely romance, but we are never quite certain if love or avarice rules. Interestingly, Miss Marple works better in the short stories than does Hercule Poirot. I believe it is because Hercule takes some developing before we can take him seriously. "Four and Twenty Blackbirds," though it is one of Christie's more acclaimed short stories, did not strike my fancy. The plot is intricate, the method far-fetched, and I was not convinced. "The Love Detectives" features both Poirot and Mr. Harley Quin who Dame Agatha brings into play when things are going to get supernatural. Quin and Poirot make quite a crowd on the stage, and as I don't share Ms. C's fascination for the occult, I didn't much care for the story.

This selection has something for everyone, so you will probably find a few stories that suit you right down to the ground and a few more that will be entertaining. After being confronted with nine in a row of Ms. Christie's fearfully clever plots, I can't help but heave a sigh of relief that she decided to be a mystery writer rather than a con artist. She would have sheared us like sheep.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

This was my first Agatha Christie book and for the first it is a good sample of what Miss Christie can do.

Mollie and Giles Davis are starting to run a guest house. Their first guests have arrived. By name: Major Metcalf, Mrs. Boyle and Christopher Wren. Mrs. Lyon has died a mater of time before the guests arrived. The police have reason to beleive that the killer is at the the Davis' mansion, Monkswell manor. The killer has killed Mrs. Lyon, so one down and two to go.

That term "Obsessive Compulsive Disorder" (OCD) is tossed around a lot, now I'll confess: I am a OCD Agatha Christie fan of over blank-blank years standing. People just won't believe me when I say that I have read ALL her mysteries at LEAST 15 times--FACT! THREE BLIND MICE was one of the very first and, just like the stage play THE MOUSETRAP based on the book, it continues to entertain & surprise. THE MOUSETRAP is the longest running English play in history...and still keeps going & going & going. You can't really "do" London without seeing it--at least once (if you're fortunate enough to get tickets, that is.)

In another review I wondered how AC would have reacted to recent BBC productions depicting "gay" characters & sub-themes. In fact, she pretty much created an "Out" Lesbian couple in A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED. The characters involved were depicted quite honestly & kindly. The BBC treatment just nudged it a bit over the top--and actually, that was cool.

In THREE BLIND MICE the character Christopher Wren (a novice architect) is obviously Gay. Here too Agatha is compassionate rather than exploitative. He's got a lot of other problems not necessarily related to sexuality.

The plot is a twister that keeps you suspecting just about everybody as being a very strange sort of serial killer.

THRE BLIND MICE is a winner from the Mistress of Mystery.

PS. I realized I hadn't commented on the other short stories in this book. Actually, 3 BLIND MICE is a long short story that reads like a regular sized story, with some short stories. They're all good--some perhaps a little better than others, but here again--I've read them many times with much appreciation.

Three Blind Mice and Other Stories
By: Agatha Christie
Genre: Short Stories

Three blind mice is only one of the many great stories in this book. Three blind mice take place in old English time out in the country side where a murder is on the lose and is out to get revenge. Someone will die and one life will be saved but which one will it be. In this story it is a small world after all. Some of the other stories include Tape-Measure Murder and The Love Detectives and The Case of the Caretaker. This book relates to me because life is always a mystery and anyone around could have a horrible past and I also love reading mystery books. Agatha Christies writing is a piece of art. Her word choice is amazing. Her writing traps you into the book and slowly pulls into the books words and descriptive writing so that you can see yourself in the scene as though you are the main character. I have to say you might need to re-read parts because of the old English and you might need to go back a page or two to see the relationships with the people. All of the stories are a fast read in this book. I absolutely loved this book. I loved of course the writing and the stories just were amazing. I love the Tape-Measure Murder because of the way she was able to pack fabulous stories in to 15 pages of packed words. I also loved Three Blind Mice because it kept you hooked and you thought so many ways first you thought it was one person then the next. Three Blind Mice is one of those stories that you could read over and over again. This book is not like a lot of mystery stories because of the fabulous writing and the descriptive images that your mind makes.

THE MOUSETRAP and TEN LITTLE INDIANS were the very first Agatha Christie books I read and I suppose they didn't prepare me for the real Agatha Christie, who was a much tamer creature than you'd think from these two shockers. (Tamer, and more complex, I should add.) The Christie who wrote THE MOUSETRAP (or "Three Blind Mice," as they're calling it here) wasn't so much interested in Golden Age detection games as she was in creating old-fashioned, scream out loud sphincter clenching terror, and she didn't work in this mode very often, though there are Grand Guignol moments here and there (and, as Laura Thompson's new biography of Christie reveals, there are many more on the "cutting room floor"). But the murderous situation of THE MOUSETRAP, with its eerie, whistling prologue set in London, could have fit right in with the John Carpenter "Halloween" movies of the 1980s. Too bad film rights are tied up contractually until the end of the long running West End play! For it's a great script and what a part for a heroine too--a young woman, running a sort of "bed and breakfast" place way out in the middle of nowhere, "Monkswell Manor," with her husband Giles, who she realizes she actually doesn't know very well.... and this young woman, Molly, isn't as we find out entirely without secrets of her own--secrets she's practically been keeping from herself--it is a rich, psychologically multilayered characterization. Molly's background freed her up to a certain extent from the complacencies of ordinary bourgeois life, gave her the freedom to feel for and reach out to the gender-variant boarder, Christopher Wren. Whereas straight Giles feels awkward around and contemptuous of Wren, Molly's feelings are very different, she finds in him a fellow traveller as it were. All the while you're thinking, any one of these people might be the "three blind mice" whistling killer. It's scary as all getout.

The other stories in the collection are uneven, and every fan will have his or her likes and dislikes. I found some of the Marple ones a bit farfetched--like, she comes up with the solution without any evidence whatsoever, just her intuition. I guess that's okay, but outside of the frame of the "Tuesday Club" (and was "Strange Jest" left out of THE TUESDAY CLUB MURDERS by mistake?) the Marple short stories aren't that great. What was Christie thinking when she dreamed up the title "Tape Measure Murder"? For those who don't know, the title gives away the whole ending of the story! On the other hand, it's great to see the return of Quin and Satterthwaite in THE LOVE DETECTIVES; and the Poirot case of THE THIRD FLOOR FLAT is surely one of her greatest inventions.