Agatha Christie's The Seven Dials Mystery (Starring Superintendent Battle #2 & Bundle)
⭐⭐⭐ Stars
Book Blurb
A practical joke goes chillingly, murderously wrong in Queen of Mystery Agatha Christie’s classic detective story, The Seven Dials Mystery.
Gerry Wade had proved himself to be a champion sleeper, so the other houseguests decided to play a practical joke on him. Eight alarm clocks were set to go off, one after the other, starting at 6:30 a.m. But when morning arrived, one clock was missing and the prank then backfired, with tragic consequences.
For Jimmy Thesiger in particular, the words "Seven Dials" were to take on a new and chilling significance...
First published January 24, 1929
In my short journey of reviewing books, I have yet to cover notable authors whose books I have read over the decades with the current ones always in focus.
My brother @pinakrath (IG) who is holding the flame of book-reading aloft in the family asked me to review a few Dame Christie books. Pinak this one is for you.
This book, my first #agathachristie book, is the first that I have chosen to review from her vast collection and is also one of the lesser followed/popular ones from her repertoire.
Agatha Christie's The Seven Dials Mystery
A practical joke goes chillingly, murderously wrong.
This is the statement which ensured that a 12 year old decided to pick this book the 1987 release from Bantam to be his first by the queen of mystery, knowing her by reputation and the Poirot that was being shown on TV.
It was probably not the age to read this remarkable story and my rating stands the testament of time and is from 1988 when I read it. I had still not graduated from the Enid Blyton mysteries and this would be among my first stab at adult fiction.
Decades later I believe this is one of Agatha Christie's unsung melodies. It is a spy thriller couched within a murder mystery.
This is a story with a practical sleuthing female, Bundle (the Lady Eileen Brent) at the center of the solution, a rave at the time the book was written. A young set have gathered at an estate house in the English countryside. The house is rented out to a steel tycoon Sir Oswald. the house is owned by Bundle's father the Lord Caterham. Gerry Wade the body at the center of this mystery has a propensity for sleeping late and soundly which leads to the dare and practical joke with the others putting 7 alarm clocks rigged to start one after the other in his room. All harmless fun but the alarms go off and Gerry seems to have beaten the clock with his sound sleep. A cursory investigation reveals the murder and a clock missing.
Lady Brent aka Bundle takes it upon herself as the hostess of the house to pry and peer in the corners and push and prod to solve the mystery. Again all as apart of harmless fun except for the fact that the gutsy girl starts finding clues, remnants of a letter addressed to Gerry's sister, runs into a stranger and she suddenly becomes the center piece and must absolutely see it till its end. She then goes at the mystery in right earnest first joining hands with one young man who works for the government and then with the sister to whom the letter was addressed.
Bundle is the heart and soul of this mystery and ably supported by Battle and what starts as an innocuous exercise gets jacked up into one involving secret societies, clubs in the East End and an espionage ring. The ending is pure Agatha Christie and will still stump most readers nearly a century after the book first released.
Bundle's interactions with her father are some of the wittiest and enjoyable in the book with some of Lord Caterham's utterings bordering on the preposterous.
This is a evenly rounded story with a lot of heart and has smatterings of everything including whiffs of romance and comedy.
A marvelous cast of characters with a lot of the British style dry humor and the conversations with the stiff upper lip make this an interesting reading. The dialogues and interactions are very old fashioned and shades of it are also seen in Enid Blyton books which involves the same English countryside.
I recommend this book.
⭐⭐⭐ Stars
Recommended
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