A Hercule Poirot Story (Hercule Poirot Mysteries)

This is a "locked room" mystery, one of the earliest. The person was killed with the doors and windows of the room locked and he with the key in his pocket Of course, this makes the police believe it is a suicide and refuse to investigate. Agatha Christie makes Poirot such a pompous funny man that it is interesting to see how she maneuvers him into using his little gray cells to solve the unsolvable mystery. It was one I hadn't read before. Don't know where It came from. Thought I had read them all.

I chose this rating because its Agatha Christie. If you like mysteries then you have to include Agatha because she has such interesting main characters. Her books fit all ages and solving mysteries is such fun for the reader. I am never disappointed with her mysteries.

Ms. Christie's 17th Hercule Poirot book is up to her standards when it comes to complex, tightly written murder mysteries. The short stories vary in length. The first mystery 'Dead Man's Mirror' is 93-pages long; the second work 'The Incredible Theft' 55 pages; 'Murder in the Mews' 67 pages; and lastly, the fourth story 'Triangle at Rhodes' is 29-pages long. As usual, the author throws many red herrings into the mix in an effort to trick the reader. I was able to figure out one of the culprits in the four stories. Clearly, Sherlock Holmes I am not.

The reader should keep in mind that these works were written in the 1930s and, while they do hold up very well as whodunits, the social mores were quite different from today's attitudes. Sexists and prejudicial statements are peppered throughout the book. Also, Ms. Christie was excellent at creating fun murder puzzles, but the dialogue is clunky as hell. A few years back I began reading the Hercule Poirot series in chronological order. Ms. Christie's mysteries are always a great break from more serious reading material despite her making me feel like an idiot. I guess I'm a glutton for self-esteem punishment because my intention is to intermittently treat myself to her other mysteries whenever I need a surefire piece of entertainment. The arrogant Hercule Poirot is simply too good to pass up.

I have been reading Agatha Christie books since I was 18 years old. I am now the ripe old age of 71 and still enjoy her books. I owned a large collection of her paperback books,but with age and constantly reading them, they are no longer available to me. I am truly grateful for this new way of reading, that I thank you for bringing Agatha Christie back into my life. A faithful admirer thanks you from the bottom of my heart . Barbara gayzik

The plot is excellent but the characters and dialogue is very dated. I appreciate that it was written in the 1920s but it's clearly about a world that no longer exists and it is hard to imagine that people actually did live like that back then. I'd have given it at least another star if the dialogue was as timeless as the plot

The very premise of this book is absurd.

First of all any transaction of this size ($1,000,000) would be immediately flagged for review that very evening by an officer of the bank, most like in Auditing or bookkeeping. Secondly the employee who instigated the transaction would have their name attached to it automatically.

Simply put the story is completely unbelievable to anyone with the most rudimentary knowledge of banking.

This was presented as being four stories. It said it was 320 pages. And it was $7.99, the price of one of Christie's full-length novels. It was just ONE short story. Which would have been fine for a dollar or two.

Once again, Hercule Poirot manages to work his way through the seemingly unsolvable mystery. In "Murder in the Mews," also published as "Dead Man's Mirror," he's confronted with four short stories - the perfect length for bedtime reading.

In the titular story, Hercule is able to pinpoint whether a young lady's seeming suicide is or isn't; in "The Incredible Theft," Hercule must recover an important government document which has disappeared while a suspicious guest attended a house party. "Dead Man's Mirror" gives another Poirot another suicide to solve, while in "Triangle at Rhodes," murder follows Poirot on vacation.

I believe this was published originally in 1937; it's certainly Poirot at his best and Christie at hers. Delightful.

After many years, I have been re-reading various mystery tales I first found in my youth. As a contrast to the Ross MacDonald series I am reading through, I have pulled several Christie classics from the pile. Specifically, the cases of Hercule Poirot, the eccentric little Belgian detective whose "little grey cells" have sent more than one murderer to prison. This collection has three classic Christie tales written during her heydey in the 30s. The first two (Dead Man's Mirror and Murder in the Mews) are locked room mysteries, both involving a mysterious suicide. The last is quite unusual in that it has Poirot trying to stop a murder before it takes place. All show off Christie's finest attribute, plotting, but I was surprised after having read these so long ago that there is virtually no characterization or dialogue that is not part of the story itself. Outside of the mystery itself, there is not a bit of fat on these mystery stories, they are focused and fast reads. They fully follow the traditional British detective formula of virtually no action, lots of questions being asked by Poirot, and a final denouement in a room full of the suspects.

"Dead Man's Mirror" is a variation on the locked room mystery, as an eccentric nobleman is found shot to death in his study after Poirot arrives at his estate due to a summoning by the now dead man. Very much in the British mystery tradition, Poirot questions all the family and hangers-on that inhabit the estate (many who, of course, have motives for murder and secrets they would rather not divulge)and comes up with a solution that in retrospect seems obvious.

"Murder in the Mews" begins with another apparent murder, which has every appearance of having been set up to look like a suicide, but has been clumsily enough rendered as to make everyone involved suspicious. Poirot's friend Inspector Japp (a recurring foil) calls in Poirot, and there are several good twists here, some misdirection, and a nice wrap-up at the end that makes sense.

"Triangle at Rhodes" is a short but very well written mystery that has Poirot on vacation, but still he manages to get mixed up in murder. Poirot observes a love triangle developing and predicts tragedy will result, and even tries to warn one of the people involved, to no avail. It is a good story about human nature, about how appearances often are mistaken, and about how nothing can be taken for granted when it comes to the human heart, or to murder.

This was presented as being four stories. It said it was 320 pages. And it was $7.99, the price of one of Christie's full-length novels. It was just ONE short story. Which would have been fine for a dollar or two.

Once again, Hercule Poirot manages to work his way through the seemingly unsolvable mystery. In "Murder in the Mews," also published as "Dead Man's Mirror," he's confronted with four short stories - the perfect length for bedtime reading.

In the titular story, Hercule is able to pinpoint whether a young lady's seeming suicide is or isn't; in "The Incredible Theft," Hercule must recover an important government document which has disappeared while a suspicious guest attended a house party. "Dead Man's Mirror" gives another Poirot another suicide to solve, while in "Triangle at Rhodes," murder follows Poirot on vacation.

I believe this was published originally in 1937; it's certainly Poirot at his best and Christie at hers. Delightful.

After many years, I have been re-reading various mystery tales I first found in my youth. As a contrast to the Ross MacDonald series I am reading through, I have pulled several Christie classics from the pile. Specifically, the cases of Hercule Poirot, the eccentric little Belgian detective whose "little grey cells" have sent more than one murderer to prison. This collection has three classic Christie tales written during her heydey in the 30s. The first two (Dead Man's Mirror and Murder in the Mews) are locked room mysteries, both involving a mysterious suicide. The last is quite unusual in that it has Poirot trying to stop a murder before it takes place. All show off Christie's finest attribute, plotting, but I was surprised after having read these so long ago that there is virtually no characterization or dialogue that is not part of the story itself. Outside of the mystery itself, there is not a bit of fat on these mystery stories, they are focused and fast reads. They fully follow the traditional British detective formula of virtually no action, lots of questions being asked by Poirot, and a final denouement in a room full of the suspects.

"Dead Man's Mirror" is a variation on the locked room mystery, as an eccentric nobleman is found shot to death in his study after Poirot arrives at his estate due to a summoning by the now dead man. Very much in the British mystery tradition, Poirot questions all the family and hangers-on that inhabit the estate (many who, of course, have motives for murder and secrets they would rather not divulge)and comes up with a solution that in retrospect seems obvious.

"Murder in the Mews" begins with another apparent murder, which has every appearance of having been set up to look like a suicide, but has been clumsily enough rendered as to make everyone involved suspicious. Poirot's friend Inspector Japp (a recurring foil) calls in Poirot, and there are several good twists here, some misdirection, and a nice wrap-up at the end that makes sense.

"Triangle at Rhodes" is a short but very well written mystery that has Poirot on vacation, but still he manages to get mixed up in murder. Poirot observes a love triangle developing and predicts tragedy will result, and even tries to warn one of the people involved, to no avail. It is a good story about human nature, about how appearances often are mistaken, and about how nothing can be taken for granted when it comes to the human heart, or to murder.

Also known as _Murder in the Mews_, this unabridged audiobook with Hugh Fraser is light entertainment in classic Agatha Christie style. Originally written in 1931, the book depicts the declining country house society and its ways of life, post World War I, within a clever mystery. Sir Gervase Chevenix-Gore, owner of a sizeable estate, has written to famed Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, demanding that he come to England to meet with him.

Before Poirot arrives, Sir Gervaise is discovered dead, shot in the head, a gun by his hand, and a letter saying "Sorry" on his desk, an apparent suicide. The study and windows are locked from the inside. Numerous relatives, guests, and employees of Sir Gervase are in attendance throughout the weekend, including his ditsy wife, one of his friends (who has always been openly in love with his wife), his adopted daughter, his nephew (the person who will inherit his title) and his girlfriend, a woman hired to write a biography of the family, the estate manager, a private secretary, etc.

As they relate their whereabouts at the time that the shot or champagne cork or car backfire was heard, the immense size and configuration of the estate become clear, and as Poirot investigates the suicide that he is convinced is murder, the listener is struck by the arrogance of Sir Gervase and the expectations of the guests. None have much conception of the outside world, and several have motives for murder. As always, Christie drops small clues, leading the reader to form conclusions about who did what to whom, then springs a surprise ending.

Hugh Fraser does yeoman's service playing all the voices on this recording without overacting, reflecting subtle class differences and personalities in the process. His French accent for Poirot is controlled, and his diction is superb. The audio moves quickly, making this a fine, light entertainment. n Mary Whipple

Dead Man's Mirror is among the shortest (if not the shortest) of Agatha Christie's murder novels. At only 2 CDs it is more of a short story, really, than a novel. As a result the story moves very fast and lacks the development of her longer stories. Other than that this is fairly typical Christie -- a nice, tight "closed room" murder mystery which Poirot solves with his amazing powers of reason and deduction (he could have given ol' Sherlock a run for his money).

I did think Christie left one significant hole in her plot and that is, why did no one hear the mirror being smashed? Surely the smashing of a mirror would be loud -- as loud at least as the sounding of a gong which everyone in the house seemed to hear -- and yet no one mentioned it. And Poirot never asked about it. Though Agatha Christie buttoned up every other detail in Poirot's summing up she left this one detail undone.

The jacket blurb advertises this book as "Three on a Match." That's a good way to characterize these three stories featuring detective Poirot. Some say it's likely that the phrase "three on a match" came to signify bad luck as a result of men's wartime experience. Using one match to light three cigarettes kept the flame burning long enough for an enemy to get a precise reading on your location. That's what happens in this triad of tales written in the 1930's, the heyday of dead bodies in the library. The stories get progressively more dangerous from first to last, as they home in on the heart of malice.

The first story, "Dead Man's Mirror," does indeed present the classic puzzle of an eccentric, blunderbuss of a Lord found dead in his den, an apparent suicide. Poirot immediately thinks he sees beyond that easy assumption though. This story is fairly good. It has appeared in several collections of Christie's short stories, sometimes I think in slightly abbreviated form. But in the course of arriving at the truth, Poirot has to pick his way through quite a mesh of confounding circumstance. This is more a story of logistics than emotion, and some of the logistics become a little implausible.

The second story, "Murder in the Mews" also involves an apparent suicide. A young woman finds her flat-mate dead in her bedroom. This story involves a clever twist, but the twist is telegraphed, perhaps a bit too broadly. For once, I tumbled to a part of the truth early on. Perhaps you will too.

The third story, "Triangle at Rhodes" is the most dangerous one of the three though. It involves some subtle psychological interplay which can be more chilling than lots of legerdemain in the course of effecting either suicide or murder. This last story about a mismatched group of people on vacation in sunny Rhodes is quite short - something you can read almost in the flick of a match.

All-in-all, this small book, like so many of Christie's books, is ideal for the bedside or for plane trips. A study once showed that a large percentage of travelers have taken a Christie mystery with them on at least one of their trips. An interviewer once asked Christie herself - "What do you take along for light reading when you travel?" What could she say? When you ARE Agatha Christie - there's nothing left.

Aren't we lucky that we aren't Agatha Christie, so we can enjoy books like this on our travels?

Hercule Poirot is summoned to the estate of aristocrat Sir Gervase Chevenix-Gore. Sir Gervase thinks that someone is trying to defraud him. Despite the fact that Poirot takes orders from no man, he still decides to go and see what the case is all about.

He arrives just before dinner, but he arrives only to find his host dead. Sir Gervase is found in a locked room with a bullet hole in his head. The local police are quick to draw the conclusion that it was suicide, but Poirot is not convinced. After all, Sir Gervase has just wired for Poirot to come. Surely, he wouldn't do that and then kill himself. Is Poirot right? And how can a shattered mirror provide a clue?

This is an audio version of a short story originally published in MURDER IN THE MEWS. It's around two and a half hours long, but very enjoyable. The first two thirds or so are pretty much interviewing the suspects, and each one seemed guilty to me. Yet Poirot manages to bring everything to a logical solution by the end. And, while I did guess a couple of things, the complete solution was a surprise. The biggest problem with the story is the cast of characters. I had a hard time keeping a few of them straight, even by the end.

Hugh Fraser, who played Captain Hastings for A&E's Poirot TV shows, narrates the story. He is fabulous, bringing each character and their emotions to life.

Whether you are a fan of Agatha Christie's works or not, this is a pleasant way to pass some time.

It is a lucky coincidence that Audio Partners is issuing complete readings of the Hercule Poirot short stories and novels just after Acorn Media and A&E have finished releasing all of the David Suchet video versions. It is very instructive, especially to film majors, to compare the originals with the scripts.
For example, the most recent Poirot collection appears on four CDs in Audio Partners set 45284, which includes Nigel Hawthorne reading "Murder in the Mews" and Hugh Fraser (the Hastings of the television series) reading "Triangle at Rhodes" and "The Incredible Theft." All of these are available on Acorn Media sets, should you wish to follow my" hear-watch-compare" suggestion.
The plot of "Triangle at Rhodes" is very similar to that of "Evil Under the Sun," which has been twice filmed, once as part of the Suchet series and once as a film with Peter Ustinov as the sleuth. So here you have a fabulous chance for a triple comparison.
Both actors take on all the roles, as a reader must do, neither one quite catching the Poirot voice as well as Suchet has on the screen and in those tapes in which he does the readings. In fact, Hawthorne tends to make Chief Inspector Japp sound a little hostile; but both readers are quite good and carry the stories along with their enthusiasm.
The CDs, by the way, are divided into tracks, so you can find your way back should you lose the setting from your last listening. Tapes, of course, stay where they left off.

"Murder in the Mews" was the last book Agatha Christie published in 1937 and consists of four Poirot short stories - although all are quite long by her usual standard, and one really novella length. All feature Poirot, one features his old friend Inspector Japp and another has a guest appearance by Mr Satterthwaite, of the Harley Quin stories and "Three Act Tragedy".

The first title story, "Murder in the Mews" and the third story, "Dead Man's Mirror", both feature a suicide, later suspected of being murder. One story is set in a small house, in a street peopled with those who service the aristocracy (there are, for example, a large amount of chauffeurs living nearby). "Dead Man's Mirror" sees Poirot summoned to a country house by a wealthy man obsessed by his family name, but both cleverly weave the plot around ties of family and the past.

The second story, "The Incredible Theft" involves espionage and important documents stolen from a study during a weekend party. Lastly, there is the enjoyable "Triangle at Rhodes", with Poirot on holiday. Christie always wrote excellent stories in exotic locations and this is no exception. For me, it is the best story in the collection, with an actress (often a baddie in Christie novels!) causing jealousy and marital discord on the beach. These are a nice collection of stories, with Poirot cleverly solving each case in his own special way. Out of interest, for a man who distained the methods of Sherlock Holmes, you will find that he is actually inspecting footprints in "Dead Man's Mirror", the first time I can remember him doing so. Overall, a fun collection with the author, and her detective, at their best.

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.

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.

I just completed reading Agatha Christie's four story collection 'Dead Man's Mirror; aka Murder in the Mews'. First published in 1937, this collection contains the short stories :
~Dead Man's Mirror
~The Incredible Theft
~Murder in the Mews
~Triangle at Rhodes

Each title was successively made into a TV episode of the Poirot mystery series staring David Suchet .

This is great read and is a classic example of the closed room era of mystery fiction writing.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5 on the following scale:
+ poor read
++ so-so read
+++ good read
++++ excellent read
+++++ life changing read

These four short stories make for a great travelling companion - I read them on the flight to and from Australia and they were just enough to keep me occupied without requiring *too* much concentration. Though hardly Christie's best, they are clever and amusing little mysteries, told with her usual wit and keen eye to human psychology. All of them feature Hercule Poirot, the fastidious little Belgian with the egg-shaped head, as the detective.

"Murder in the Mews" involves the death of a woman in a case that surely looks like suicide - except for a few little details that Poirot cannot ignore. Murder or suicide? Or perhaps something else entirely? This is perhaps one of Christie's best short-stories, pitting Poirot against a genuinely intelligent adversary and posing a moral conundrum that leaves plenty of room for thought.

Next up is "The Incredible Theft" which has a more espionage flavour to it. No murder occurs, but some valuable papers disappear from lord Mayfair's study during a dinner party. Though the culprit is obvious, no one quite knows how to prove it. Most interesting about this story is that though Poirot solves the mystery, the end results are outside his control; instead he exists mainly to explain the plot to the reader.

"Dead Man's Mirror" involves the apparent suicide of the egotistic and eccentric Gervase Chevenix-Gore, a man whose disposition immediately makes him an unlikely candidate for self-destruction. Having been summoned to the house by telegram, Poirot is astonished to find that none of the residents expected his coming, a feeling that's returned by the household when their patriarch is found dead.

This is a story that could have very easily been expanded into a full-length novel, but Christie keeps things short and sweet, ending things on a poignant note.

Finally "Triangle at Rhodes" is a fascinating little character study based around the Eternal Triangle: one man, two women. You can see where this is going - or can you? In a format that was expanded and explored deeper in her novel Evil Under The Sun, Christie plays around with the stereotypes of the femme fatale and the manly man. If anything, it's a little *too* short, with a very abrupt ending, but is one of her more memorable efforts.

There's not much more to say. If you're a long-time fan of Agatha Christie or newcomer to her work, then "Murder in the Mews" is a great taster.

"Triangle at Rhodes" was the very first Agatha Christie story I ever read, as an American boy growing up in France. I wish one of her biographers could place it for me precisely when it was written, for it seems at one point Christie was literally moving Poirot all around the world, on the Orient Express of course, then in Mesopotamia to meet Nurse Amy Leatheran, and out to the ruins in APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH and on that fatal cruise on the Karnak on DEATH ON THE NILE. I feel sure that "Triangle at Rhodes" must fit right in there but alas, I have no idea where Rhodes is or where it is in relation to Petra (APPOINTMENT) and indeed, maybe there were two world voyages for Poirot, and his little trek to Rhodes might have been just a holiday jaunt in the final days right before the war. You know how the second half of PARKER PYNE sends Pyne to a different Mid East capital? Same big boom of travel writing on Christie's part? She must have known the war was coming and that her travels would be curtailed, and during WWII her novels stayed strictly at home, with the exception of two highly exceptional books, the Mary Westmacott ABSENT IN THE SPRING, and the historical epic DEATH COMES AS THE END.

If you've read "Triangle at Rhodes," then the mystery of EVIL UNDER THE SUN won't be a surprise to you, and I must say that it's so much better worked out in the novel than in the short story that following the differences is a lesson in stagecraft.

Of the four stories in this book, only MURDER IN THE MEWS itself is really a first class achievement, for whenever Christie writes about the Sapphic she really lets her romantic nature go haywire. The relationship between the two roommates, Jane Penderleith and Barbara Allen, is never really made explicit, but certainly Mrs. Allen's decision to remarry precipitated the great crisis that leads to her death. Jane is one of Christie's great tragic characters, and her love for Barbara is a stark, real thing, the product I expect of Christie's early immersion in the Greek classic drama. Over and over again she has these Iphigenia slash Cassandra heroines who alone know the whole truth and who either say it out loud, shocking their communities, or keep it silent out of a greater, more pagan love for another. It strikes me also that MURDER IN THE MEWS might be the only Christie book whose *title* actually proves a lie, so to speak, or might there be others? Help me out here.

This is a collection of four short stories (Murder in the Mews, The Incredible Theft, Dead Man's Mirror and Triangle at Rhodes) all featuring Hercule Poirot. Murder in the Mews is the suicide of a young lady that Poirot investigates with Inspector Japp and they come to suspect is a murder. The Incredible Theft is a house party at which some sensitive government documents go missing. Dead Man's Mirror, briefly features Mr. Satterthwaite and references his interaction with Poirot in the Three Act Tragedy, then moves on to the suspicious suicide of a country gentlemen in whose death many people seemed to have an interest. My favorite was Triangle at Rhodes (the shortest story of the collection), because it was so unlike the other three, and features a love triangle that develops between two married couples who are on vacation and the tragic consequences of the association, with Poirot and a few others watching from afar as the developments turn dangerous. Great collection of stories!

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.

As with many of Agatha Christie's works, "Murder in the Mews" goes by another title ("Dead Man's Mirror") which is one of four stories included in this Poirot collection. No matter what it is called, it is a fine example of the queen of mystery at her prime as her erudite sleuth unravels a few very tangled mysteries.

The collection begins with the title piece, in which a young widow has apparently committed suicide. Yet several things stick in Poirot's craw making him think that the facts presented do not match up to the verdict given. "Dead Man's Mirror" is a closed set mystery, so the suspects are few. When summoned rather curtly by Sir Gervase Chevenix-Gore on a matter of some delicacy, Poirot is insulted and perplexed, but strangely curious. Upon his arrival, Sir Gervase is found dead in his study of apparent suicide, but Poirot knows it was murder, and since several people within the house had a motive, it is a tricky case of solving which one committed the deed. "The Incredible Theft" features spying and the disappearance of important and sensitive documents at a time of great danger and is frankly a little too easy to solve. The collection wraps up with "Triangle at Rhodes" where Poirot hopes for a quiet vacation but encounters a crime of passion - just his luck. This time Poirot witnesses the killer in action, making the drama leading up to the event more exciting than the solving, which is also a tad easy.

Featuring her usual twists and turns, the four stories collected in Christie's "Murder in the Mews" are delightful puzzles for any mystery fan. It is a fast-paced, delightful escape into a time that was with motives that exist still today.

I was not expecting this to be a collection of short stories when I picked it up. Usually, the volumes in this series are labelled "...and other stories". But, the edition that I read is not so labelled. Not that it matters much. I was just looking forward to settling into a full-length Poirot mystery rather than something shorter.

But, what else is there to say! Poirot! Agatha Christie!

4 STARS

Murder in the Mews is made up of three mystery short stories. The first is "ok"; the second is really lame. The third I didn't finish, due to the fact that the disc was badly scratched (I got this from the library). Usually when that happens, I will repair the disc so as to continue; however, based upon the lackluster quality of these stories, and the lackluster quality of another collection of Agatha Christie's short stories that I listened to, I figured that the third story would not be worth the effort of repairing the disc.

I suppose that mystery short stories are a difficult form to write; at any rate, even the masterful Agatha Christie could not master them.

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!"