Agatha Christie: Detectives and Young Adventurers: The Complete Short Stories

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

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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

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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.