Tuesday

The Seven Dials Mystery - Book Review



I am trying to read through the novels of Agatha Christie in the order in which they were written and write a review on each one.





  

The Seven Dials Mystery. 


1929  


An Inspector Battle Mystery.


Shelfari Description



Reclusive tycoon, Sir Oswald Coote, and his melancholy wife, Lady Maria, have come upon the ideal plan to spice up their quiet lives.

They'll host a lavish weekend party at Chimneys, their isolated estate, and invite only "bright young things". But the festive mood is clouded by doom. A practical joke involving seven clocks and a sleeping guest has ended in accidental death-and cause for alarm.

For the guests may not be all that they appear.
And as whispers of a strange club called Seven Dials echo through the halls of Chimneys, all hands will be pointing to murder...






My Thoughts


This is the 10th book by Agatha Christie and the 2nd for Inspector Battle.

We see a return to the home of Bundle whom we remember from "The Secret of Chimneys"

This time I found the characters easier to remember - I suppose it helped that there were a few in this story that had been in the other Chimneys one too - and I read through the story quicker, with less breaks which is always a good sign.

A few red herrings appearing and I few twists which I always enjoy but the logical working out of the solution is still there. The title is a good title for the story but probably makes the reader make an assumption that is also made by several of the characters.

Inspector Battle again was a good detective but not the uniqueness of Poirot or Miss Marple.

I had read the book many, many years ago but had forgotten it so I thoroughly enjoyed it and have to admit I did work out part of it, but not all and had to wait to the end to see what everyone wants to see.

I'll give you one little clue to think over if you decide to read this book - a woman may not always be as you are led to believe.
This however is not about the revealing of that person you need to get to at the end.

This Novel was adapted for television in 1981 by ITV and was kept quite true to the original story which makes me happy. I didn't have it on DVD so I hunted and managed to get a "not too expensive" copy of it on Ebay. I really did want to get it because one of the characters was played by the same actor who played Tommy in The Secret Adversary and I was not disappointed because he played it well and did not keep making me think of Tommy.









Here is a link to a list of her novels on Shelfari
Books by Agatha Christie