Jane in Search of a Job

by Agatha Christie, Hugh Fraser (Reading)

Jane Cleveland is in desperate need of a job, and when she sees an ad for a woman of her description needed to impersonate a grand duchess, she cannot believe her luck. The royal retainers tell Jane that the job will be dangerous because attempts have been made on the Grand Duchess Pauline's life, but this only serves to make the job more appealing. Jane's disguise initially goes according to plan, but when she is kidnapped and drugged, it appears that her new employers are not all that they seem...

Librarians' note: this short story can be found in The Listerdale Mystery and Other Stories.

Genres: Mystery, Agatha Christie, Short Stories, Fiction, Audiobook, Crime, Classics

Audiobook

First published August 1, 1924

About the author

Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.

Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Princess swap!
Sort of.
A young woman (Jane) who needs some money answers an advertisement looking for someone who fits her description and can speak French. As a reader, we know this is ALWAYS a bad idea, but our heroine has yet to figure that out.



When a princess asks her to act as a body double and agrees to pay even more than was originally offered, Jane jumps at the chance for adventure.
And she gets her money's worth!
The story takes several crazy twists and turns and ends with one of Christie's signature HEAs.
I thought it was cute, but of course not at all plausible.

Originally published in 1924 in The Grand Magazine.
Read as part of the short story collection The Golden Ball and Other Stories.

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Agatha Christie Book Reading Challenge

2 Stars

BOOK 47 :- October 2022

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jane in Search of a Job is a short story by Agatha Christie. The story was first published in The Grand Magazine in August 1924. It later appeared in the UK as part of the story collection The Listerdale Mystery. It was not published in the US until 1971 when it was included in The Golden Ball and Other Stories.

Jane Cleveland needs a job. She's a bit down on her luck and living in a less than desirable boarding house. One day she sees an ad in the personal column in the newspaper. The ad offers a job to a woman with a slim build, light hair, a straight nose and who can speak French. Jane jumps at the chance for a job....and ends up getting much more than she bargained for!

This story is a light and cute short mystery, but certainly not very realistic. But then again, I'm not reading Christie for realism! Very enjoyable read. I listened to this story in audio format. I couldn't find a copy of The Listerdale Mystery, so listened to it as part of The Golden Ball and Other Stories (HarperAudio), narrated by Hugh Fraser. Fraser (who played Hastings in the Poirot television series) is an excellent narrator and brings the story to life.

This story was adapted for the television show The Agatha Christie Hour in 1982 (episode 9). The story was changed just a bit, but the changes are minor. For the most part, it follows the original quite closely. Fun to watch! I'm glad they went back and dramatized some of these short stories. Wish someone would do the rest of them!

On to the next story!

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute, funny, light-hearted. Easily recommended for a quick treat.

[Whitney (The Cover Collector) · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars. This was dumb!

[Deneé · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was interesting. It just ended very abruptly.

[Brooklyn Tayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cute little re read.

[Maria Ventura · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun quick read

I didn't expect the ending; this story had a great twist. These characters are clever and fun. Agatha Christie never disappoints.

[NILTON TEIXEIRA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great premises, silly ending.
This story was recently published in the newest compilation of short stories: “Midsummer Mysteries, Tales from the Queen of Mystery”.

[Jack Heath · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars. A light short story, very enjoyable, but it ended too quickly. I once read that Agatha Christie in the 1920s would seek magazines looking for short stories - mysteries, adventures, and romances. She would confirm the number of words needed and the payment, and then write to order. This short appeared in Grand Magazine in 1924. For Jane in Search of a Job, it really looks like she was 8/10ths of the way through and realized, "I need to wrap up or I'll go over the word count!" The 9th section seems missing as she quickly shifted to the 10th - need I say, the romantic conclusion. Read and you'll understand. Jane Cleveland is out of work and starving. She sees an advert in the Daily Leader looking for a young woman of her age, hair and body type. Imagine her astonishment; she's adventurous but skeptical. Despite a long line of young women applying, she gets the job. It turns out that the Grand Duchess Pauline of Ostrova is in London and needs a body double as rumours are rampant that she may be kidnapped. For 2,000 pounds Jane is game, as long as she doesn't end up dead. Outrageous but fun. (Ja2026)

[Watchdogg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jane in Search of a Job: A Short Story by Agatha Christie
First published in The Grand Magazine in August 1924.

Introduction -
Jane Cleveland is in desperate need of a job, when she sees an advert for a woman of her description is needed to impersonate a grand duchess she cannot believe her luck. The royal retainers tell Jane that the job will be dangerous because attempts have been made on the Grand Duchess Pauline’s life, but this only serves to make the job appeal to her even more. Jane’s disguise initially goes according to plan, until she is kidnapped and drugged – it appears that her new employers are not all that they seem…

My thoughts -
A well written short story with a surprise twist and a happy ending. Not great literature, but entertaining and well worth reading.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a short story about Jane, who, whilst job hunting sees a job mysterious job advert which she applies for, that, although she is fully qualified for, does not fully know what it is for. The money is worth the risk.

Whilst getting used to the ‘short story style’ by Christie, I feel that in some cases, and this story is no exception (hence the lower star rating) that it ends just too quickly.

[Elysa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked it until the very last bit. Still, a great and fun mystery. Jane is a great character!

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jane answers a want ad. She desperately needs a job. It appears to be to act as a body double for a Russian aristocrat. It pays well. Quite the ending.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super cute short story. Excellent narration by Hugh Fraser.

[Joop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leuk kort verhaal met verrassende wending.

[Brianna Bello · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was super interesting. She’s hired to be a lookalike for a duchess. Only to be played in the end. Or that’s what I thought anyways. The ending was a good one.

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is worth reading if for nothing else the dialogue. Very reminiscent of Wodehouse in parts.

[Mo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable.

Audiobook
45 minutes

[Mike Lisanke · Rating 3 out of 5]

can't be a memorable story as I've fallen asleep to it twice.

** It's important Not to be sleepy while reading! When I was playing cards with my sister Mom and Grandmother, my sister kept playing slower and slower and Grandma said, sleepy people don't play cards... and I quipped, sleepy people don't drive cars. And we laughed about not wasting time doing things while disabled by being groggy. QED

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jane answers an advertisement for a woman with her very specific looks with the promise of a job. She learns that it will pay $2000 to impersonate the grand duchess who is in exile from her county and is receiving death threats. So they need Jane to act as a decoy. When she is whisked away after an event it is clear that the driver is not the normal driver and is instead kidnapping her. She is not afraid because she is obviously not the grand duchess so she thinks that they will figure it out eventually and release her. But she is drugged and once she wakes up she is dressed in her own clothes, not the duchess’, and sees in the paper that there was a robbery at the event and she is wanted for the theft! She has no idea how she will fight these charges until a newspaper man turns up in the same house saying that he had followed her because he was suspicious since she had different shoes than the duchess but he was hit over the head and detained. Luckily for them, the Scotland Yard investigator hears the whole thing and believes them. Reminded me of Tommy and Tuppence’s adventures.

[Sapphire Detective · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised with this one. After the previous solo/non-main-detective stories of this collection had been kind of lackluster, I was dreading this one, especially since it was a complete no name and, by what it seemed, one of Christie's "adventure" stories more than her mysteries. And, let me be clear, it was, but I had a lot of fun with it. I liked Jane a lot, and the twists and turns this one went on were fun to ride with!

My rating: 4.75/5 (rounded up)
Would I own/re-read?: Sure!
TW: Kidnapping, Drugging
Does the animal die?: No animals are harmed in Jane's quest for a job.

[Abeer Albossany · Rating 3 out of 5]

What makes this story a good one is that it doesn't end in a way that readers wish for it to. In fact the story has told us since the start that there is a catch, which justifies the whole matter perfectly.

[a ☕︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

i was ready to find this very boring, as the duchess switch premise didn’t seem to be going anywhere very fun, but the romantic ending came out of nowhere and was nicely silly. delphiniums…or lupins…or no, it doesn’t matter.

[itchy · Rating 4 out of 5]

eponymous-ey sentence:
p4: To put it plainly, Jane was out of a job, and the position was becoming acute.

Those too specific qualifications had me justifiably worried.

Read as part of the collection The Listerdale Mystery and Eleven Other Stories.

[Selah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, except for the ending.

[Thomas Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Golden Ball and Other Stories.

[Vin Vineeta · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit hotchpotch for my taste, but a fun little tale of a desperate girl being roped into a dutchess's body double-jewel robbery scheme.

[Barbara Nutting · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read 2020

[Yazlina Saduri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sort of a thrilling read, I kept on guessing what the job is all about. But then romantic ending, I can't quite understand. Too soon haha