Murder in the Mews

Rating:
Summary: gripping and amazing
Review: 4 stories are fantasticlly good.hercule flaunts his shrewd wit in this book.if you are an aficionado of whodunnit books,you must not miss this suspense treat.i think that is enough.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Agatha Christie once again captivated me in her mysterious work, "Murder in the Mews. It is a short story that you just can not put down. While you are at it, read the other three short stories combined into the book! I highly suggest this and all other Christie masterpieces to anyone who loves a good mystery! If Christie were still alive, I would say "You've done it again! Excellent!"

Rating:
Summary: Christie's Best Collection of Shorter Stories
Review: Murder in the Mews begins with a country house murder in the perfect Christie fashion in "Dead Man's Mirror" (ideas of which seemed to have filtered into the film, Gosford Park). This book consists of three more longish stories that outshine most of those in Agatha Christie's other short story collections. These stories are all typically English of their period and show off their great detective creation, Hercule Poirot, in a less pompous form than the novels often portray him. The author has taken the time in these short pieces to assemble a large cast and a great variety of clues to hold any reader's interest. Almost as good as her full novels and that is saying a lot.

Rating:
Summary: Christie's Best Collection of Shorter Stories
Review: Murder in the Mews begins with a country house murder in the perfect Christie fashion in "Dead Man's Mirror" (ideas of which seemed to have filtered into the film, Gosford Park). This book consists of three more longish stories that outshine most of those in Agatha Christie's other short story collections. These stories are all typically English of their period and show off their great detective creation, Hercule Poirot, in a less pompous form than the novels often portray him. The author has taken the time in these short pieces to assemble a large cast and a great variety of clues to hold any reader's interest. Almost as good as her full novels and that is saying a lot.

Rating:
Summary: Christie's Best Collection of Shorter Stories
Review: Murder in the Mews begins with a country house murder in the perfect Christie fashion in "Dead Man's Mirror" (ideas of which seemed to have filtered into the film, Gosford Park). This book consists of three more longish stories that outshine most of those in Agatha Christie's other short story collections. These stories are all typically English of their period and show off their great detective creation, Hercule Poirot, in a less pompous form than the novels often portray him. The author has taken the time in these short pieces to assemble a large cast and a great variety of clues to hold any reader's interest. Almost as good as her full novels and that is saying a lot.

Rating:
Summary: A vintage collection of Christie's
Review: Murder in the Mews brought together 4 short stories by Agatha Christie, most if not all were also published in other collections (albeit with minor alternations). I did feel a little cheated when I discovered it. Nonetheless, the two which I had not read did give undeniable pleasure.

Murder in the Mews took place on a location which Poirot and Inspector Japp happened to stroll by on the night of the crime. Despite it being Guy Fawkes day, it was such a place that they remarked it would have been perfect for a murder. And the next day, they were summoned to attend to a suspicious suicide at the very same location. In this short story, Christie tantalised the readers with a myriad of clues, most of which would mislead rather than clarify. A worthwhile mystery.

In the Dead Man's Mirror, Poirot was summoned by an old fashioned aristocrat, only to arrive moments before he apparently committed suicide. This story appeared in another publication as "The Second Gong". Suspicions were cast on the dead man's adopted daughter and his nephew - especially when it came to light that the aristocrat intended to cut them off without a penny if they did not abide by his wishes to marry each other. It was important in this story for the reader to visualise as accurately as possible the scene of the murder in order to find proof whether it was suicide or murder.

The Incredible Theft was almost a carbon copy of "The Submarine Plans". Two leading British politicians had a small weekend party which included a well-suspected female spy. Ostensibly, she was included to entrap her, to catch her in the act. However, when vital plans were stolen without a clue, the politicians had to call in Poirot to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Poirot had to question all those present carefully to clear their names, or nail them with the evidence.

The last story, "Triangle at Rhodes", had Poirot on holiday in a resort at Rhodes. Other guests at the resort included a glamourous socialite who was flirting with other men despite the presence of a jealous husband. In the absence of Hastings (which would not have fitted well into the setting), Christie used another female guest to hold conversations with Poirot to flesh out the narration. Being familiar now with Christie's sleight-of-hand tricks, I was not misdirected. However, it took an unrevealed-before-hand witnessing of Poirot to nail the culprit when someone did die in the triangle of passion.

I would recommend reading the book but not buying it.

Rating:
Summary: A vintage collection of Christie's
Review: Murder in the Mews brought together 4 short stories by Agatha Christie, most if not all were also published in other collections (albeit with minor alternations). I did feel a little cheated when I discovered it. Nonetheless, the two which I had not read did give undeniable pleasure.

Murder in the Mews took place on a location which Poirot and Inspector Japp happened to stroll by on the night of the crime. Despite it being Guy Fawkes day, it was such a place that they remarked it would have been perfect for a murder. And the next day, they were summoned to attend to a suspicious suicide at the very same location. In this short story, Christie tantalised the readers with a myriad of clues, most of which would mislead rather than clarify. A worthwhile mystery.

In the Dead Man's Mirror, Poirot was summoned by an old fashioned aristocrat, only to arrive moments before he apparently committed suicide. This story appeared in another publication as "The Second Gong". Suspicions were cast on the dead man's adopted daughter and his nephew - especially when it came to light that the aristocrat intended to cut them off without a penny if they did not abide by his wishes to marry each other. It was important in this story for the reader to visualise as accurately as possible the scene of the murder in order to find proof whether it was suicide or murder.

The Incredible Theft was almost a carbon copy of "The Submarine Plans". Two leading British politicians had a small weekend party which included a well-suspected female spy. Ostensibly, she was included to entrap her, to catch her in the act. However, when vital plans were stolen without a clue, the politicians had to call in Poirot to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Poirot had to question all those present carefully to clear their names, or nail them with the evidence.

The last story, "Triangle at Rhodes", had Poirot on holiday in a resort at Rhodes. Other guests at the resort included a glamourous socialite who was flirting with other men despite the presence of a jealous husband. In the absence of Hastings (which would not have fitted well into the setting), Christie used another female guest to hold conversations with Poirot to flesh out the narration. Being familiar now with Christie's sleight-of-hand tricks, I was not misdirected. However, it took an unrevealed-before-hand witnessing of Poirot to nail the culprit when someone did die in the triangle of passion.

I would recommend reading the book but not buying it.

Rating:
Summary: Four Fine Mysteries
Review: Poirot is at it again solving two suicides (or are they?), a theft, and anticipating one homicide. Christie turns in three novellas and a short story, and all four are excellent. Christie, however, proves predictable in her unpredictability. In three of the stories, simply pick out the least suspicion-worthy individual in the cast of suspects and you have your perpetrator.

"Dead Man's Mirror" tells the story of the apparent suicide of a megalomaniac nobleman. It starts off as fine locked room mystery, and the motives for murder among the suspects are numerous. Poirot pieces the matter together from the array of clues he uncovers and eventually nabs the killer by the exercise of his "little grey cells". He didn't have to work nearly that hard. Christie overlooks one phenomenon of close range gunshot wounds--backspatter. All Poirot had to do was look around and see who had clothing begrimed by backspattered blood.

In "The Incredible Theft" the culprit is obvious from the outset, but who among the cast of suspects did the culprit use to actually purloin the papers? Poirot works through the problem with admirable insight and solves the mystery quite handily. I set the story down quite satisfied, but then it occurred to me that the problem was seriously flawed. When you finish the story, see if you can't figure out a simple way for the thief to have taken the papers completely without detection.

"Murder in the Mews", another apparent suicide case, serves up a story so realistic it could have actually happened. Christie sets out clue after clue to show that the death wasn't suicide, but again she omits one telling clue. In my experience, most women who commit suicide with a handgun shoot themselves in the chest, not in the head. This serves as a good rule of thumb, but women shoot themselves in the head often enough that you can't completely rule out suicide on that basis alone. Poirot's solution dumbfounds the police and the reader alike, but the story comes to a very satisfying conclusion.

"Triangle at Rhodes" serves up another story that is true-to-life enough to have actually happened. Poirot, on vacation, observes a love triangle developing on the sunny beachs of Rhodes, and successfully predicts murder. He fails in his attempt to prevent the murder, but is on had to see to it that justice is meted out to the guilty. The least true-to-life aspect of the story is Poirot's prescience in predicting not only the pending murder, but the victim and the guilty. How he does this is not revealed, and the clues provided in the leadup were not enough for anyone to be able to predict murder with any degree of certainty.

Rating:
Summary: Four Fine Mysteries
Review: Poirot is at it again solving two suicides (or are they?), a theft, and anticipating one homicide. Christie turns in three novellas and a short story, and all four are excellent. Christie, however, proves predictable in her unpredictability. In three of the stories, simply pick out the least suspicion-worthy individual in the cast of suspects and you have your perpetrator.

"Dead Man's Mirror" tells the story of the apparent suicide of a megalomaniac nobleman. It starts off as fine locked room mystery, and the motives for murder among the suspects are numerous. Poirot pieces the matter together from the array of clues he uncovers and eventually nabs the killer by the exercise of his "little grey cells". He didn't have to work nearly that hard. Christie overlooks one phenomenon of close range gunshot wounds--backspatter. All Poirot had to do was look around and see who had clothing begrimed by backspattered blood.

In "The Incredible Theft" the culprit is obvious from the outset, but who among the cast of suspects did the culprit use to actually purloin the papers? Poirot works through the problem with admirable insight and solves the mystery quite handily. I set the story down quite satisfied, but then it occurred to me that the problem was seriously flawed. When you finish the story, see if you can't figure out a simple way for the thief to have taken the papers completely without detection.

"Murder in the Mews", another apparent suicide case, serves up a story so realistic it could have actually happened. Christie sets out clue after clue to show that the death wasn't suicide, but again she omits one telling clue. In my experience, most women who commit suicide with a handgun shoot themselves in the chest, not in the head. This serves as a good rule of thumb, but women shoot themselves in the head often enough that you can't completely rule out suicide on that basis alone. Poirot's solution dumbfounds the police and the reader alike, but the story comes to a very satisfying conclusion.

"Triangle at Rhodes" serves up another story that is true-to-life enough to have actually happened. Poirot, on vacation, observes a love triangle developing on the sunny beachs of Rhodes, and successfully predicts murder. He fails in his attempt to prevent the murder, but is on had to see to it that justice is meted out to the guilty. The least true-to-life aspect of the story is Poirot's prescience in predicting not only the pending murder, but the victim and the guilty. How he does this is not revealed, and the clues provided in the leadup were not enough for anyone to be able to predict murder with any degree of certainty.

Rating:
Summary: Collection a.k.a. Dead Man's Mirror
Review: This collection has appeared under 2 titles that I know of: _Murder in the Mews and Other Stories_ and _Dead Man's Mirror_.

Where a story has appeared elsewhere under an alternate title, the title given in this book is listed first.

"Dead Man's Mirror", a.k.a. "Hercule Poirot and the Broken Mirror" - An alternate version of this story also appears as "The Second Gong" in _The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories_. The dead man in question engaged Poirot to come to his country home to clear up an unspecified scandal, but before their first face-to-face encounter, the client is found shot dead in a locked room containing a broken wall mirror.

"The Incredible Theft" - Essentially the same story as "The Submarine Plans" in _The Under Dog and Other Stories_.

"Murder in the Mews", a.k.a. "Good Night for a Murder" - Always thrifty with good ideas, Christie used the same story structure in "The Market Basing Mystery" (see _The Under Dog and Other Stories_), although the stage setting, personalities of the supporting characters, and motives are different.

"Triangle at Rhodes", a.k.a. "Before It's Too Late", "Double Alibi" - As Poirot remarks to a fellow-guest at the seaside, he finds human behaviour somewhat monotonous, since it repeats itself so often - in patterns, such as the triangle. In this case, the notorious beauty Valentine Chantry, accompanied by her 5th (or is he 6th?) husband Commander Chantry is a fellow-guest, and despite her hulking brute of a husband, appears to be taking an interest in Douglas Gold - a handsome man with a pleasant wife but apparently no wits to speak of. Poirot, foreseeing trouble, eventually makes one of his rare attempts to prevent a crime before it takes place. Such attempts are rarely successful...