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Capital Christie
Murder, mystery and majesty combine in this new Special Edition of the Queen of Crime's very best short stories set in London.
Agatha Christie is recognized throughout the world as the writer of remarkable country house mysteries and ingenious murders set in faraway countries. Yet many of her books and stories were set in the city she new best and for many years called London.
From Poirot's flat in Whitehaven Mansions to Scotland Yard, the Old Bailey to Harley Street, Lyons Tea Rooms to the Savoy, Paddington Station to the London Underground, Agatha Christie knew and loved London, and mined it for its rich seam of storytelling opportunities.
100 years after the first publication of 'Traitor Hands', the short story that became 'Witness for the Prosecution', this collection includes this original thriller, along with eleven other London mysteries featuring all the Christie Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, Harley Quin, Parker Pyne and Ariadne Oliver.
Join Christie’s iconic characters on their adventures around
The Affair at the Victory Ball
The Tuesday Night Club
The Case of the Discontented Soldier
The Adventure of the Clapham Cook
Traitor Hands
A Fairy in the Flat
The Kidnapped Prime Minister
The Listerdale Mystery
The Case of the Caretaker
The Lonely God
The Sign in the Sky
The Adventure of the Cheap Flat
Agatha Christie is recognized throughout the world as the writer of remarkable country house mysteries and ingenious murders set in faraway countries. Yet many of her books and stories were set in the city she new best and for many years called London.
From Poirot's flat in Whitehaven Mansions to Scotland Yard, the Old Bailey to Harley Street, Lyons Tea Rooms to the Savoy, Paddington Station to the London Underground, Agatha Christie knew and loved London, and mined it for its rich seam of storytelling opportunities.
100 years after the first publication of 'Traitor Hands', the short story that became 'Witness for the Prosecution', this collection includes this original thriller, along with eleven other London mysteries featuring all the Christie Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, Harley Quin, Parker Pyne and Ariadne Oliver.
Join Christie’s iconic characters on their adventures around
The Affair at the Victory Ball
The Tuesday Night Club
The Case of the Discontented Soldier
The Adventure of the Clapham Cook
Traitor Hands
A Fairy in the Flat
The Kidnapped Prime Minister
The Listerdale Mystery
The Case of the Caretaker
The Lonely God
The Sign in the Sky
The Adventure of the Cheap Flat
Audible Audio
Published May 22, 2025
25 people are currently reading
170 people want to read
About the author
Agatha Christie
5,800 books75k followersAgatha 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)
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)
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
July 16, 2025
This is a collection of Christie's short stories set in London. I had such fun reading these stories, some of them for the third time!
The Affair at the Victory Ball ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Tuesday Night Club ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Case of the Discontented Soldier ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Adventure of the Clapham Cook ⭐⭐⭐
Witness for the Prosecution ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A Fairy in the Flat ⭐⭐⭐
The Kidnapped Prime Minister ⭐⭐⭐
The Listerdale Mystery ⭐⭐⭐
The Case of the Caretaker ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Lonely God ⭐⭐⭐
The Sign in the Sky ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Adventure of the Cheap Flat ⭐⭐⭐
The Affair at the Victory Ball ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Tuesday Night Club ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Case of the Discontented Soldier ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Adventure of the Clapham Cook ⭐⭐⭐
Witness for the Prosecution ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A Fairy in the Flat ⭐⭐⭐
The Kidnapped Prime Minister ⭐⭐⭐
The Listerdale Mystery ⭐⭐⭐
The Case of the Caretaker ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Lonely God ⭐⭐⭐
The Sign in the Sky ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Adventure of the Cheap Flat ⭐⭐⭐
June 11, 2025
A nice collection of Agatha Christie short stories set in London. Although the Poirot stories (which I've all read before) were my favourites there are some fine stand alone stories here.
Many of the stories were first published in the 1920s and I especially enjoyed The Listerdale Mystery and The Lonely God.
Many of the stories were first published in the 1920s and I especially enjoyed The Listerdale Mystery and The Lonely God.
June 6, 2025
The latest in HarperCollins’ series of themed collections of Agatha Christie’s short stories, this one, as the title suggests, is filled with stories set in London. There are twelve of them plus, as always, a short extract from Christie’s autobiography, which this time is taken from the period that she lived in London during the war when her husband was working at the Air Ministry. These hardbacks are gorgeously designed – colourful, with foil highlights and appropriate endpapers, this time with a pattern of pigeons’ footprints which made me smile. I always think they’d make great gifts (especially for yourself).
It always surprises me that, despite my life-long devotion to Ms Christie, each collection contains some stories I haven’t read before, or have read so long ago that I’ve forgotten them completely. Some stories do pop up more often than others – this one contains another version of Witness for the Prosecution, for example, this time going under the title of Traitor Hands. There’s usually a story from Miss Marple’s Tuesday Club stories – this time the first story, also titled The Tuesday Night Club – and one from Tommy and Tuppence’s Partners in Crime collection – the first one again, titled A Fairy in the Flat. Parker Pyne and Harley Quin, her lesser known protagonists, always show up too. And, of course, Poirot, who appears four times. Most of the stories collected here come from very early in Christie’s career – the early 1920s – and it’s a lot of fun seeing just how much she was influenced by Conan Doyle as she was starting out. Poirot is much more like Holmes than he is when he becomes established, and Hastings really is impersonating Watson!
Overall, I’d read about half of the stories before but it’s never a penance to re-read Christie’s stories, and half of them being new to me was a treat. I rated each story individually as either 4 or 5 stars, so no duds in the collection, but that’s hardly a surprise! So I’m not so much picking favourites with my little selection as highlighting a few of the stories that I didn’t know…
The Case of the Discontented Soldier – a Parker Pyne story from 1932. Parker Pyne advertises for clients in the newspaper – “Are you happy? If not, consult Mr Parker Pyne”. His mission is to make his clients happy but there’s always a twist – he moves in mysterious ways. A discontented soldier comes to him. Home from an exciting life in the colonies, he finds himself bored and restless, and all his friends have married and settled down. Mr Pyne sends him off to meet a man, but on the way he comes across a young woman being assaulted, saves her and is caught up in a mystery and adventure over why she had been attacked. This is fun, though it’s as much a romance as a mystery, and it has a cameo from a character who will later appear in several Poirot stories, Mrs Ariadne Oliver, in an unexpected role!
The Adventure of the Clapham Cook – Poirot, from 1923. Poirot is consulted by a woman who wants him to find her cook. The cook went off for her half-day out and never returned though she did later send for her trunk, which the maid found had been already packed with all her belongings. Poirot is ready to haughtily refuse the job as beneath him, but something about the story snags his attention. This must be one of Christie’s least likely plots but that doesn’t stop it being enjoyable. Hastings is there too, in full Watson mode, and honestly Christie captures the tone of Watson’s voice far better than the vast majority of people who have written actual pastiches over the years.
The Listerdale Mystery – a standalone from 1925. Mrs St Vincent is an impoverished widow with a grown-up son and daughter. They are living in horrible lodgings, and Mrs St Vincent fears this will hamper her daughter’s marriage prospects. So when she sees a lovely house being offered for a nominal rent with servants thrown in, she doesn’t ask too many questions. But of course there’s a mystery. Why did the owner of the house, Lord Listerdale, suddenly walk out of his club one day and disappear? Why is he renting the house so cheaply? This really is a romance despite the light mystery element, and it’s all pretty obvious where it’s heading. But Mrs St Vincent is a very likeable and unlikely romantic heroine and all’s well that end well. A sweet story.
The Case of the Caretaker – Miss Marple, from 1942. A young man with a new, rich wife buys the big house of which his family used to live in the dower house when he was a child. But the big house has fallen into disrepair, so he has it demolished and builds a brand new one. The caretaker of the old house is dismissed and, furious about it, hangs around and curses the young bride every time she goes out, until the poor young woman is terrified. If this is ringing bells, it’s because it’s the basis for what would become Endless Night twenty-five years later. I’m one of the minority who’s not a fan of Endless Night, and I found this origin story so much better. It’s a real example of how sometimes a story is more suited to short form than long. The story also benefits from having Miss Marple solve the mystery, whereas the book drops her entirely. So all those adaptations that add Miss Marple back in have a point in this case!
I love these collections and if you’re looking for a gift for a Christie fan (aka yourself) you couldn’t do better. Great stuff!
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
It always surprises me that, despite my life-long devotion to Ms Christie, each collection contains some stories I haven’t read before, or have read so long ago that I’ve forgotten them completely. Some stories do pop up more often than others – this one contains another version of Witness for the Prosecution, for example, this time going under the title of Traitor Hands. There’s usually a story from Miss Marple’s Tuesday Club stories – this time the first story, also titled The Tuesday Night Club – and one from Tommy and Tuppence’s Partners in Crime collection – the first one again, titled A Fairy in the Flat. Parker Pyne and Harley Quin, her lesser known protagonists, always show up too. And, of course, Poirot, who appears four times. Most of the stories collected here come from very early in Christie’s career – the early 1920s – and it’s a lot of fun seeing just how much she was influenced by Conan Doyle as she was starting out. Poirot is much more like Holmes than he is when he becomes established, and Hastings really is impersonating Watson!
Overall, I’d read about half of the stories before but it’s never a penance to re-read Christie’s stories, and half of them being new to me was a treat. I rated each story individually as either 4 or 5 stars, so no duds in the collection, but that’s hardly a surprise! So I’m not so much picking favourites with my little selection as highlighting a few of the stories that I didn’t know…
The Case of the Discontented Soldier – a Parker Pyne story from 1932. Parker Pyne advertises for clients in the newspaper – “Are you happy? If not, consult Mr Parker Pyne”. His mission is to make his clients happy but there’s always a twist – he moves in mysterious ways. A discontented soldier comes to him. Home from an exciting life in the colonies, he finds himself bored and restless, and all his friends have married and settled down. Mr Pyne sends him off to meet a man, but on the way he comes across a young woman being assaulted, saves her and is caught up in a mystery and adventure over why she had been attacked. This is fun, though it’s as much a romance as a mystery, and it has a cameo from a character who will later appear in several Poirot stories, Mrs Ariadne Oliver, in an unexpected role!
The Adventure of the Clapham Cook – Poirot, from 1923. Poirot is consulted by a woman who wants him to find her cook. The cook went off for her half-day out and never returned though she did later send for her trunk, which the maid found had been already packed with all her belongings. Poirot is ready to haughtily refuse the job as beneath him, but something about the story snags his attention. This must be one of Christie’s least likely plots but that doesn’t stop it being enjoyable. Hastings is there too, in full Watson mode, and honestly Christie captures the tone of Watson’s voice far better than the vast majority of people who have written actual pastiches over the years.
The Listerdale Mystery – a standalone from 1925. Mrs St Vincent is an impoverished widow with a grown-up son and daughter. They are living in horrible lodgings, and Mrs St Vincent fears this will hamper her daughter’s marriage prospects. So when she sees a lovely house being offered for a nominal rent with servants thrown in, she doesn’t ask too many questions. But of course there’s a mystery. Why did the owner of the house, Lord Listerdale, suddenly walk out of his club one day and disappear? Why is he renting the house so cheaply? This really is a romance despite the light mystery element, and it’s all pretty obvious where it’s heading. But Mrs St Vincent is a very likeable and unlikely romantic heroine and all’s well that end well. A sweet story.
The Case of the Caretaker – Miss Marple, from 1942. A young man with a new, rich wife buys the big house of which his family used to live in the dower house when he was a child. But the big house has fallen into disrepair, so he has it demolished and builds a brand new one. The caretaker of the old house is dismissed and, furious about it, hangs around and curses the young bride every time she goes out, until the poor young woman is terrified. If this is ringing bells, it’s because it’s the basis for what would become Endless Night twenty-five years later. I’m one of the minority who’s not a fan of Endless Night, and I found this origin story so much better. It’s a real example of how sometimes a story is more suited to short form than long. The story also benefits from having Miss Marple solve the mystery, whereas the book drops her entirely. So all those adaptations that add Miss Marple back in have a point in this case!
I love these collections and if you’re looking for a gift for a Christie fan (aka yourself) you couldn’t do better. Great stuff!
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
July 30, 2025
Rated in comparison to other ACs. Short story collections capped at 3 stars as often a mixed bag of gems and oddities. Quite a lot of overlap with other recent short story collections (e.g. the seasonal collections) which is a bit disappointing.
August 22, 2025
Wederom een feestje! Prachtige uitgave met verhalen in en rondom Londen waar we twee weken geleden nog waren!
June 15, 2025
I've listened to/read all of the stories except for:
- The Listerdale Mystery: rather too implausible, a kind of Cinderella story.
- The Lonely God: more romance than mystery.
- The Listerdale Mystery: rather too implausible, a kind of Cinderella story.
- The Lonely God: more romance than mystery.
November 10, 2025
Every ten years or so I decide I should give Agatha Christie another try.
She is, of course, still wildly popular. Any Barnes and Nobles will have a good selection of her books. She is also still popular with critics. She makes every list of the greatest crime writers, usually at or near the top. I am always reading that she is unfairly stereotyped as formulaic, that her plots are not as silly as claimed, that her books are sociological pictures of England in the 20th century, etc.
I saw this handsome collection of her short stories set in London. I was in a weakened condition because I was in a very cute bookstore in London and this was such a cute little book.
After reading these twelve stories written from 1923 to 1942, I can say, again, that Agatha Christie's stories are formulaic, the plots are silly, and the settings are stereotypes. Also, the writing is pedestrian. That's it. I am never giving her another try.
(She also uses the "not to say" phrase three times in this short book, as in,"Mr. Mayherne was a small man precise in manner, neatly, not to say foppishly dressed." It is an affectation that always causes you to stop to straighten out the sentence. "neatly, but not foppishly, dressed" is better.) (I know I am a cranky old man.)
She is, of course, still wildly popular. Any Barnes and Nobles will have a good selection of her books. She is also still popular with critics. She makes every list of the greatest crime writers, usually at or near the top. I am always reading that she is unfairly stereotyped as formulaic, that her plots are not as silly as claimed, that her books are sociological pictures of England in the 20th century, etc.
I saw this handsome collection of her short stories set in London. I was in a weakened condition because I was in a very cute bookstore in London and this was such a cute little book.
After reading these twelve stories written from 1923 to 1942, I can say, again, that Agatha Christie's stories are formulaic, the plots are silly, and the settings are stereotypes. Also, the writing is pedestrian. That's it. I am never giving her another try.
(She also uses the "not to say" phrase three times in this short book, as in,"Mr. Mayherne was a small man precise in manner, neatly, not to say foppishly dressed." It is an affectation that always causes you to stop to straighten out the sentence. "neatly, but not foppishly, dressed" is better.) (I know I am a cranky old man.)
July 12, 2025
Nette Kurzgeschichten Sammlung von Agatha Christie. Unter dem Überbegriff von London sind hier Kurzgeschichten zusammengetragen, die eine Verbindung zur britischen Hauptstadt haben. Bei der Hälfte der Geschichten ist diese Verbindung sehr weitläufig oder besteht lediglich in der bloßen Erwähnung von London.
Die Kurzgeschichten an sich waren teilweise sehr unterhaltsam, manche aber auch recht flach und ja, viel zu kurz.
Leider habe ich schon bessere Kurzgeschichtensammlungen von Christie gelesen, dennoch war es eine nette Lektüre für den Bus und für Zwischendurch.
Die Kurzgeschichten an sich waren teilweise sehr unterhaltsam, manche aber auch recht flach und ja, viel zu kurz.
Leider habe ich schon bessere Kurzgeschichtensammlungen von Christie gelesen, dennoch war es eine nette Lektüre für den Bus und für Zwischendurch.
July 23, 2025
This collection of short stories by Agatha Christie is a very mixed bag. There are a couple of great 5*ones (Witness for the Prosecution and The Case of the Caretaker) but some 2* stories which are really not worthy of inclusion (A Fairy in the Flat and The Lonely God).
There are some excellent narrators reading these stories but they all read at different speeds (David Suchet reads the Poirot stories at breakneck speed compared to the other narrators) meaning I had to keep adjusting the speed.
There are some excellent narrators reading these stories but they all read at different speeds (David Suchet reads the Poirot stories at breakneck speed compared to the other narrators) meaning I had to keep adjusting the speed.
July 1, 2025
En fin samling af noveller fra Agatha Christies store samling. De fleste kendte jeg godt i forvejen. Men det gør ikke noget, for gode krimier kan altid genlæses!
Jeg hørte novellesamlingen som lydbog. Og sikke nogle dejlige stemmer - ja faktisk nogle af mine favoritter. Hugh Fraser og David Suchet er altid en stor fornøjelse at lytte til, og når så man lige får Christopher Lee med i købet, så er lykken da gjort!
Jeg hørte novellesamlingen som lydbog. Og sikke nogle dejlige stemmer - ja faktisk nogle af mine favoritter. Hugh Fraser og David Suchet er altid en stor fornøjelse at lytte til, og når så man lige får Christopher Lee med i købet, så er lykken da gjort!
July 19, 2025
This was so fun to read. I had previously only read Hercules Poirot books so reading mysteries where he wasn’t the main character and where sometimes no murder happened, was really fun and interesting. My favourite short story was The Lonely God and I of course loved all the ones with Poirot (especially the one with the prime minister). I really recommend, it’s so easy to read and fun to try to solve little mysteries.
August 30, 2025
There 12 stories in this book, many I'd either read before have been televised in the last series with David Suchet. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed them. Poirot, Tommy & Tuppence, Miss Marple, Sittaford and Quinn and others are all included. Classic Christie and I'm looking forward to the next one.
November 10, 2025
This was a really good collection of Christie mysteries set in London. There are 12 short stories in all; 4 Poirot mysteries, 2 Miss Marple, 1 Tommy and Tuppence, 1 Parker Pyne, 1 Harley Quinn and three standalones. I enjoyed listening to them all, even the ones I already knew from the Poirot tv-series.
November 24, 2025
I think I've read EVERYTHING Christie. so at this point, any new anthologies just new mixed tape of the short stories. the selection is not bad. But sadly I already know most of the them. The only new story is the little god. don't think I've read that one? that one felt very much like a Mary Westmacott.
June 7, 2025
All classic short stories from 1923-1942.From Miss Marple, Poirot, Tommy and Tuppence this collection is the third outing of Stories that have fallen through the history of Christie long forgotten stories. Also few more in the stle of Mary Westmacott than mystery stories.
October 25, 2025
3.5 stars
This was a solid short story collection. Some I really enjoyed and some I don’t think will stick with me.
Note: I did skip the miss Marple series because they were in another collection I’m reading
This was a solid short story collection. Some I really enjoyed and some I don’t think will stick with me.
Note: I did skip the miss Marple series because they were in another collection I’m reading
November 4, 2025
It's getting increasingly difficult to track all the Christie short stories I've read. I have a spreadsheet and yet I've still read at least one twice by accident.
Anyway this collection ticked off a few more short stories for me.
Anyway this collection ticked off a few more short stories for me.
December 7, 2025
A lovely, easy to read collection of short stories centered around London. The Lonely God was my favourite of the collection as the descriptions were so vivid I could picture the British Museum and its shelves (before its renovation).
December 16, 2025
An interesting little collection of short stories, some could have done with some more context though as it felt like you were dropped into the middle of the story - not sure if that was the original intent or modern editing.
June 2, 2025
I ❤️🔥 Agatha Christie
June 3, 2025
Good short story collection
June 6, 2025
New collection of the same stories. And some of the stories weren't even set in London!
June 21, 2025
Some of the stories were interesting, and as a collection, the idea is fun.
August 18, 2025
Some short stories. Enjoyable
August 26, 2025
A jolly good collection of short stories set in London. Some of the stories are so old fashioned as to be highly amusing.
December 21, 2025
An interesting collection of short stories set in London. Some with Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and others are with Tommy and Tuppence, Parker Pyne etc. A Fairy in the Flat is my favorite.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews