Agatha Christie
Detectives
and
Young Adventurers
The Complete Short Stories
Copyright
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk
This collection first published 2008
Copyright © 2008 Agatha Christie Ltd.
Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available at the British Library
The publishers would like to acknowledge the help of Karl Pike in the preparation of this volume.
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Source ISBN: 9780007284191
Ebook Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780007438983
Version: 2017-11-20
Contents
Cover
Title Page Agatha Christie Detectives and Young Adventurers The Complete Short Stories
Copyright
Part One - Tommy & Tuppence: Young Adventurers Ltd
Author’s Foreword
Chapter 1 - A Fairy in the Flat
Chapter 2 - The Affair of the Pink Pearl
Chapter 3 - The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger
Chapter 4 - Finessing the King
Chapter 5 - The Case of the Missing Lady
Chapter 6 - Blindman’s Buff
Chapter 7 - The Man in the Mist
Chapter 8 - The Crackler
Chapter 9 - The Sunningdale Mystery
Chapter 10 - The House of Lurking Death
Chapter 11 - The Unbreakable Alibi
Chapter 12 - The Clergyman’s Daughter
Chapter 13 - The Ambassador’s Boots
Chapter 14 - The Man Who Was No. 16
Part Two - The Mysterious Harley Quin
Author’s Foreword
Chapter 1 - The Coming of Mr Quin
Chapter 2 - The Shadow on the Glass
Chapter 3 - At the ‘Bells and Motley’
Chapter 4 - The Sign in the Sky
Chapter 5 - The Soul of the Croupier
Chapter 6 - The Man from the Sea
Chapter 7 - The Voice in the Dark
Chapter 8 - The Face of Helen
Chapter 9 - The Dead Harlequin
Chapter 10 - The Bird with the Broken Wing
Chapter 11 - The World’s End
Chapter 12 - Harlequin’s Lane
Chapter 13 - The Love Detectives
Chapter 14 - The Harlequin Tea Set
Part Three - Parker Pyne, Investigator
Author’s Foreword
Chapter 1 - The Case of the Middle-Aged Wife
Chapter 2 - The Case of the Discontented Soldier
Chapter 3 - The Case of the Distressed Lady
Chapter 4 - The Case of the Discontented Husband
Chapter 5 - The Case of the City Clerk
Chapter 6 - The Case of the Rich Woman
Chapter 7 - Have You Got Everything You Want?
Chapter 8 - The Gate of Baghdad
Chapter 9 - The House at Shiraz
Chapter 10 - The Pearl of Price
Chapter 11 - Death on the Nile
Chapter 12 - The Oracle at Delphi
Chapter 13 - Problem at Pollensa Bay
Chapter 14 - The Regatta Mystery
Part Four - Hercule Poirot: Belgian Detective
Editor’s note
Chapter 1 - The Submarine Plans
Chapter 2 - Christmas Adventure
Chapter 3 - The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest
Chapter 4 - The Second Gong
Postscript - The Christmas Stories
Editor’s note
Chapter 1 - Star Over Bethlehem
Chapter 2 - The Naughty Donkey
Chapter 3 - The Water Bus
Chapter 4 - In the Cool of the Evening
Chapter 5 - Promotion in the Highest
Chapter 6 - The Island
Appendix - Short Story Chronology
Keep Reading
Books by Agatha Christie
ALSO IN THIS SERIES
Agatha Christie - HERCULE POIROT: The Complete Short Stories
Agatha Christie - POIROT in the ORIENT
Agatha Christie - POIROT: The WAR Years
Agatha Christie - POIROT: The FRENCH Collection
Agatha Christie - POIROT: The Complete Battles of HASTINGS
ALSO AVAILABLE
Agatha Christie - The MARY WESTMACOTT - Collection
Agatha Christie - The MARY WESTMACOTT - Collection
Agatha Christie Mallowan - COME, TELL ME HOW YOU LIVE
About the Publisher
Part One
Tommy & Tuppence: Young Adventurers Ltd
Author’s Foreword
I published a book of short stories called Partners in Crime . Each story here was written in the manner of some particular detective of the time. Some of them by now I cannot even recognize. I remember Thornley Colton, the blind detective – Austin Freeman, of course; Freeman Wills Croft with his wonderful timetables; and inevitably Sherlock Holmes. It is interesting in a way to see who of the twelve detective story writers that I chose are still well known – some are household names, others have more or less perished in oblivion. They all seemed to me at the time to write well and entertainingly in their different fashions. Partners in Crime featured in it my two young sleuths, Tommy and Tuppence, who had been the principal characters in my second book, The Secret Adversary . It was fun to get back to them for a change.
AGATHA CHRISTIE
from An Autobiography , 1977
Chapter 1
A Fairy in the Flat
‘A Fairy in the Flat’ and ‘A Pot of Tea’, the two opening chapters of the 1929 book Partners in Crime, were first published together as ‘Publicity’ in The Sketch, 24 September 1924. It set the scene for a continuous run of twelve Tommy and Tuppence stories, in which Agatha Christie parodied well-known literary detectives.
Mrs Thomas Beresford shifted her position on the divan and looked gloomily out of the window of the flat. The prospect was not an extended one, consisting solely of a small block of flats on the other side of the road. Mrs Beresford sighed and then yawned.
‘I wish,’ she said, ‘something would happen.’
Her husband looked up reprovingly.
‘Be careful, Tuppence, this craving for vulgar sensation alarms me.’
Tuppence sighed and closed her eyes dreamily.
‘So Tommy and Tuppence were married,’ she chanted, ‘and lived happily ever afterwards. And six years later they were still living together happily ever afterwards. It is extraordinary,’ she said, ‘how different everything always is from what you think it is going to be.’
‘A very profound statement, Tuppence. But not original. Eminent poets and still more eminent divines have said it before – and if you will excuse me saying so, have said it better.’
‘Six years ago,’ continued Tuppence, ‘I would have sworn that with sufficient money to buy things with, and with you for a husband, all life would have been one grand sweet song, as one of the poets you seem to know so much about puts it.’
‘Is it me or the money that palls upon you?’ inquired Tommy coldly.
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