About book The Listerdale Mystery And Eleven Other Stories (2006)
THE LISTERDALE MYSTERY, Agatha Christie1934, sweet, slightly mysterious stories from Christie, most originally published in magazines in 1920s; very old-fashioned style, but still gently entertaining. Three-and-one-half-stars.[date= when first published]1924 02tThe Girl in the Train— sweet spy tale mixed with large dollops of Wodehousian attitude1924 08tMr. Eastwood's Adventure apa Mystery of the Second Cucumber, ttapa Mystery of the Spanish Shawl— the author as detective - fun look at the writing process and its problems, mixed with a bit of con-artistry1924 08tJane in Search of a Job— excellent scam story, same tone as Tommy&Tuppence "Adversary"1924 11tPhilomel Cottage— a true classic, often anthologized, about a nice little wife and her peculiar new husband in rural England; excellent pacing and effective psychological touches.1924 12tThe Manhood of Edward Robinson apa The Day of His Dreams— a man, a fast car, a beautiful woman, and Romance... but, as always with Christie, a twist.1925 12tThe Listerdale Mystery apa The Benevolent Butler— wonderfully sweet little gem of a Cinderella tale, Christie-style, and one of my favorites of her short stories1926 07tThe Rajah's Emerald— Light-hearted caper tale, starring a stuffy young man who prevails in the end, and learns a profitable lesson1926 09tSwan Song— Sad, nearly maudlin, unfortunately predictable revenge tale that nonetheless is well-written and interesting, if only for the psychological insights shown1928 08tA Fruitful Sunday— Poor young couple takes a trip and finds a fortune, or do they?1929 08tThe Golden Ball apa Playing the Innocent— Lovely, fluffy caper story about lovers found - and kept! Totally implausible, but entertaining1929 12tSing a Song of Sixpence— nicely calibrated "domestic homicide" - sort of...1929 12tAccident apa Uncrossed Path— a repeat murderess meets up with a retired detective; beautifully twisted, especially the ending
A collection of light, fluffy crime stories by Dame Agatha. Most of them end with a marriage proposal from one practical stranger to another. The one story ("Philomel Cottage") that has been adapted into a play and subsequent movie is a bit darker. (view spoiler)[In this one, a woman marries a near stranger and is fairly happy until some things unsettle her enough for her to go looking through her husband's stuff. She finds old newspaper clippings from a case years before in which her now husband was found not guilty of killing his wife (& though convicted of other charges had subsequently escaped). Fearing for her own life, she poisons him before he can murder her. I couldn't help but think it would have made an even more horrifying ending if it turned out that he hadn't been plotting to kill her after all and had been innocent of his former wife's murder all along. (hide spoiler)]
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This was not one mystery. It was a collection of eleven short stories. In fact, there really weren't any mysteries in the collection. Instead each story was a cute little piece with a twist ending. I have to admit that I enjoyed every single one of them. They weren't deep, they weren't tricky, but they were all fun and entertaining. There were stolen jewels and poisonings and romance and mistaken identities. There were all the things that make Agatha Christie fun sprinkled throughout the collection. I enjoyed them immensely.
—Andy Madajski
I didn't realise upon first picking up this book that it was actually a short story collection rather than a full-length novel, but seeing as I'd enjoyed several of Christie's other short stories I wasn't too upset. Unfortunately these short stories weren't particularly memorable or exciting. In many of the stories the plot seemed curtailed by the length allocated to it and there was a distinct lack of warmth in any of the characters too that meant that I struggled to engage with any of their situations. Out of all of these stories the only one I liked really was the last story, Swan Song, which doesn't bode well considering there are twelve stories in this collection. Nonetheless, this earned two stars just because it held my interest long enough for me to finish the collection.
—Tali
It was interesting to see different mysteries that are not always revolving around a murder. I did not like them all but most of them were well rounded up and some even funny. It is always difficult to judge a collection of short stories because they are short thus they need to be straight to the point. Indeed in that novel there is not the same psychological pictures of characters yet in those short excerpt they were well defined. I particularly liked 'The manhood of Edward Robinson' because first it was fun to see a man reading romance novel and to comment on them. I also liked the fact that he evolves at the end, a bit like a bildungs roman but condensed. Other are sometimes a bit odd like 'Accident' it starts in media res and ends in a weird fashion.Yet I think it is a good way to see new things from Agatha Christie, she is known for her detective stories were there is a murderer and a detective, in these novel she picks random people to solve a mystery that's I think an aspect that made me want to read this book.
—Thetravelingpanda
