Status Updates From Toinen kutsu (Hercule Poiro...

8. Magnolia Blossom *** Not a crime story. As a woman is about to leave her husband for her lover she learns that his business firm has gone bankrupt. She chooses to return to her husband in order to help him through the crisis. But what she then learns may yet change her mind. First published in the Royal Magazine in March 1926.

7. Next to a Dog ** Not a crime story. A war-widow can’t find employment as a governess as she refuses to leave her invalid dog behind. The dog is her emotional crutch and single tie back to her deceased husband. She may be forced to marry a man that she hates. in order to survive. First published in the Grand Magazine in September 1929.

6. The Love Detectives *** Mr. Satterthwaite is dining with a local chief constable when they are called out to a murder scene and encounter the mysterious Mr. Harley Quin on the road. They carry on together and find that the wife and her lover are covering up for each other at the scene of the crime. First published in The Story-Teller magazine December 1926.

5. The Regatta Mystery A rare diamond goes missing at a dinner party from a locked room where apparently no one had the opportunity to remove it. A young man is the prime suspect and he goes to Parker Pyne to ask for help. Originally published as Hercule Poirot and the Regatta Mystery in The Strand magazine June 1936, but was later changed to a Parker Pyne story.

4. The Harlequin Tea Set *** Aging socialite Mr. Satterthwaite meets the mysterious Mr. Harley Quin after many years when he stops in at a tea shop. He invites Quin along to the afternoon tea he is going to with old friends, but Quin refuses. Satterthwaite arrives for tea in time to avert an attempted poisoning. No early magazine publication has been found. First published in Winter’s Crimes #3 (1971).

The Turkish coffee was brought in little cups of oriental pattern. Ali placed them with a smile and departed. Mr. Satterthwaite sipped approvingly.
'As sweet as love, as black as night and as hot as hell. That is the old Arab phrase, isn't it?'
Harley smiled over his shoulder and nodded.

3. Yellow Iris **** Hercule Poirot is called out to a restaurant where an apparent poisoning is about to take place. The story became the basis for the novel Sparkling Cyanide (1945) with Colonel Race as the sleuth instead of Poirot. But Christie’s 1-act play adaptation as Yellow Iris (1937) still featured Poirot. First published in The Strand magazine July 1937.

2. The Second Gong **** Hercule Poirot arrives at the home of an rich eccentric client expecting to investigate a fraud, but instead learns that his client has died by an apparent suicide. First published in The Strand magazine in July 1932 and later expanded into the novella Dead Man’s Mirror (1935) in the collection Murder in the Mews (1937).

1. Problem at Pollensa Bay **** #13 of the Parker Pyne stories. Pyne is on vacation but is dragged into a situation where an English mother disapproves of her son’s intended fiancée and asks for Pyne’s assistance in breaking them up. First published in The Strand magazine in November 1935 and collected in the later editions of ,Parker Pyne Investigates.