Midsummer Mysteries: Secrets and Suspense from the Queen of Crime by Agatha Christie

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A fabulous collection of summertime mysteries selected from the works of the Queen of Golden Age Crime, Agatha Christie.

Miss Marple hears a tale of murder from a Cornish fishing village…
Poirot investigates an audacious jewellery theft…
Parker Pyne’s holiday is interrupted by a fellow guest who believes she is being poisoned…
The mysterious Mr Quin is present for another opera of star-crossed lovers…
Poirot assists in the investigation into the brutal murder of an Italian nobleman…
A young woman answers a job advert and finds herself embroiled in royal intrigue…
Poirot reviews the case of an alarming disappearance of a financier…
Miss Marple solves the mystery of death by supernatural influence…
A young man finds himself implicated in the theft of a Rajah’s emerald…
Parker Pyne may be the only hope to thwart a plot of kidnap and ransom…
Tommy and Tuppence Beresford are asked to investigate the ransacking of private papers…
Poirot is called upon to uncover the whereabouts of stolen submarine plans…

A companion volume to ‘Midwinter Murder’, ‘Midsummer Mysteries’ features twelve short stories taken from a variety of previous collections; the detectives investigating daring thefts, mysterious disappearances and malicious murders. From sleepy coastal English villages to the majestic shores of Egypt, experience the fiendishness of Agatha Christie’s plotting and the psychological authenticity of her characterisations.

As with the previous volume, I’d encountered many of these stories in the past, but it was a thrill to revisit them, while the standalone stories (which originally featured in ‘The Listerdale Mystery’) were new to me. Those stories featuring Poirot and Miss Marple shone, despite my familiarity with them. Agatha Christie’s stories can be revisited again and again and never grow old. Included here are Poirot’s first encounter with Countess Vera Rossakoff, Miss Marple at her finest solving puzzles from the comfort of her armchair, and many more. Highly recommended for both the stalwart Christie fan and newcomer alike, these seasonal collections are intensely enjoyable and make for pure escapism.

Featuring twelve delicious slices of nostalgia and intrigue, ‘Midsummer Mysteries’ is comfort-reading at its finest. So grab your refreshments and bask in the sunshine and sea breeze as you delve into these tales of mystery and murder. But, be warned: as a wise man once said, “there is evil everywhere under the sun.”



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