Three Blind Mice and Other Stories
Author: Agatha Christie
Since 2020, I have been on a mission to read Agatha Christie's mystery writings in publication order (or as close to it as I can get).
The short story collections pose a challenge as they are often a mix of stories first published early in Christie's writing career mixed with later tales. And, often, these stories are repeated in more than one short story collection, or the same story appears under different titles. So, I always feel like I'm jumping around a bit when I hit one of these in the publication timeline.
This short story collection was first published in the US in 1950. The stories were published in several other later story collections in the UK, except for the title story Three Blind Mice. Because it is a variant of the play, The Mousetrap, this story has never been published in the UK as the long-running play is still being performed.
Three of these stories (The Third Floor Flat, The Adventure of Johnnie
Waverly, and The Love Detectives) were first published in magazines in
the 1920s. I previously reviewed The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly as it
was included in Poirot's Early Cases, which I reviewed in 2020. The
other stories were first published in magazine format from 1940-1948. I also read The Third Floor Flat previously (as it is included in Poirot's Early Cases), but I didn't review it at that time for some reason.
This collection includes:
Three Blind Mice
Strange Jest
Tape-Measure Murder
The Case of the Perfect Maid
The Case of the Caretaker
The Third Floor Flat
The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly
Four and Twenty Blackbirds
The Love Detectives
I love the fact that this collection has stories from Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and Mr. Quin! :)
I have an old paperback version of this story collection (Berkley, 1984, 212 pages). It has the 80's style silhouette cover art. And, it appears I bought my copy used at some point, as the former owner wrote her name on the back cover. Lauren P. Subold (or Seibold?) -- if you are out there -- I have your book! :) The pages are very yellowed and the back pages with bibliography or ads have been ripped out. As soon as I am done with this reading, the book is going into the recycle bin. This is its final huzzah!
Three Blind Mice:
This short story is based on a Radio Play, first broadcast on BBC radio in 1947. Christie later adapted this story into the long-running play, The Mousetrap. The short story was published in the US in Cosmopolitan Magazine in 1948.
The basics: A couple inherits a large house after the war and they are opening a guest house. A blizzard strikes as they welcome their first guests Add in a lunatic and a murder or two and this tale is quite the riveting Christie mystery!!
At Agatha Christie's request, this story has never been published in the UK as the play The Mousetrap is still running in the West End. My research turned up the fact that there are also no film versions of the The Mousetrap for the same reason. There is a 2024 horror movie called The Mousetrap but it has nothing to do with this story or the play.
I loved this story! The atmosphere is set very well. An isolated huge house 2 miles from the nearest village with a blizzard raging outside. People alone with an unknown killer. Perfect set up for a very suspenseful murder mystery! Christie at her best!!
I have never seen the stage play. This is my first time reading this short story. I enjoyed every minute!
Adaptations:
Radio play: The radio play Three Blind Mice was first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme on May 30th, 1947. Christie wrote the 20-minute script to honor Queen Mary on her 80th birthday, who had requested a Christie story specifically as part of the entertainment.
Unfortunately the original broadcast of the radio play is lost media (this makes me so sad!!!!!) and the script is not available commercially. The OTR show Suspense has an episode titled Three Blind Mice, but it has nothing to do with this story.
So, unfortunately I couldn't listen to the audio play or watch the stage version.
The short story is great though! And -- can you even imagine being such a popular writer that the freaking QUEEN requests you write a story for her birthday???? Epic!!!
Strange Jest:
This Miss Marple short story was first published in the US in 1941 and in the UK in 1944, under the title A Case of Buried Treasure. It's the 5th story in the Tuesday Night Club stories.
The basics: A rather ridiculous couple believes their late uncle buried their inheritance on the family property. After digging holes all around the estate, they finally call in Miss Marple to help find their money.
This is such a cute story I was very surprised that it was never worked into an episode of Marple the television series, but it appears it never was used, even as a cute humorous side plot. I really wish Marple had done all of the Miss Marple stories and novels like the Poirot show did. Marple covered all of the novels, added Miss Marple into a few story lines she wasn't actually in, and did a few of the short stories. Some -- like this one -- were missed entirely. It's a pity as this would have been a bit of fun. :) It almost makes me wish they would recast and do the Marple show over again, and this time do every single story.
The audio book I'm listening to has Joan Hickson narrating. I love her voice and she was an amazing Miss Marple on screen, but at times I find it a bit difficult to understand her. I'm not sure if it's the accent, her pace, or maybe something physical like ill-fitting dentures? I can get through a short story, but usually turn to narrations by Emilia Fox or other narrators for the novels. I have partial hearing loss, and Hickson's narration (much as I love hearing her!) makes difficult listening for me.
Adaptations:
I could only find two adaptations for this story, and both are foreign television episodes. The Estonian series Miss Marple'i lood's 4th episode is based on this short story (Peidetud Varandus), and Japanese anime series Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple had an episode in 2004 (Strange Will). I was unable to find either episode online, unfortunately. I will keep looking and if I find either episode I will update this review.
Tape-Measure Murder:
This story first published in magazines in 1941 (US) and 1942 (UK). It's very short, but a great story!
The basics: Mr Spenlow is accused of killing his wife, mostly because he seems emotionally unaffected by her death and came into a large sum of money as a result of her demise. Miss Marple investigates the death, with help of friends Colonel Melchett and Inspector Slack.
The audio book I listened to also had Joan Hickson narrating this story. I love hearing her voice even if she's hard to understand. I always envision her in my mind as she looked in her television role as the elderly sleuth.
Adaptations:
Audio play - BBC Radio 4 did an audio play based on this story, first broadcast in 2015, featuring June Whitfield as Miss Marple. The Audio is a bit over 27 minutes long and easily found online. I found it on Youtube. I enjoy the BBC Radio 4 Agatha Christie audio dramas. I've listened to many of the Poirot episodes. This is the first Miss Marple one I have listened to. The play is full-cast with sound effects. Very well done! I'm a big fan of audio drama/OTR, so very much enjoyed the audio! There are some changes made to the story, but the plot is basically intact. The changes seem to have been made to flesh things out a bit and add more time for Miss Marple to sleuth out the killer. I love how the audio play builds up the village gossip aspect of the story. :) Tales really do zing around St. Mary Mead with surprising speed!
Television: Estonian television series, Miss Marple'i lood, has an episode based on this short story that first broadcast in 1990. And the Japanese Anime show Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple has an episode from 2004 of the same title, Tape-Measure Murder. I haven't yet been able to find episodes of either series online. If I find these episodes later, I will update my reviews.
This story is another one never featured on Marple, the long running BBC series.
The Case of the Perfect Maid:
This Miss Marple short story was first published in The Strand magazine in the UK in 1942 It was not published in the UK as part of a book until 1978 in Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories. In the US, it was first published in 1950 as part of this story collection.
The basics: A maid is fired on suspicion of theft, but is adamant that she didn't steal anything. A replacement is hired. The new maid appears to be the totally perfect in every way. Miss Marple intervenes and gets to the truth of the matter.
This is definitely a classic Miss Marple mystery. She does such a good job pretending to be a helpless, slightly absent minded, elderly spinster. But, she's a lot like Columbo in a cardigan. :)
Adaptations:
Audio play - BBC Radio 4 adapted this story into an audio play under two different titles, The Case of the
Perfect Carer (2003) and The Perfect Maid (2015).
The earlier dramatization is only loosely based on Christie's story and doesn't include Miss Marple. The audio play is included in the collection Agatha Christie: 12 Radio Mysteries and runs about 28 minutes. I got my copy of the audio book on Audible. The plot is modernized, changing many facets of the story. In this version, a real estate agent lets a property to two odd older women and chaos ensues. This version keeps the basic feel of the original while updating the bones of the story. I enjoyed it!
The 2015 audio play follows the original story closely, and was one of 3 audio plays broadcast to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Agatha Christie's birth. June Whitfield plays Miss Marple. It runs just over 27 minutes. This dramatization adds in a few extra characters to flesh out the plot a bit, but sticks to the basic story. I really enjoy these full cast audio dramas. The episodes are well produced including music and background sounds. June Whitfield does a great job playing Miss Marple. The audio really brings this story to life! It's nice to hear a full-cast version of some of the shorter Marple stories because the long-running Marple television series gravitated more to the novels rather than the short stories. I found this episode on Youtube.
Television: Estonian television series Miss Marple'i lood has an episode titled Eeskujulik Teenijanna based on this story, first televised in 1990. And, Japanese anime show Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple has an episode from 2004. I wish I could find these shows!! I will keep looking!!!
I do have one question as I read through these stories. Why did the Marple television series add Miss Marple into stories that didn't include her -- but didn't do episodes on all tales Christie wrote that actually did involve the elderly sleuth??? I don't understand their choices for the television show! I did thoroughly enjoy all 3 actresses that played Jane Marple.....but I don't understand why all of the stories weren't covered. Poirot did this perfectly, even if some of the short stories were blended together or just subplots.
The Case of the Caretaker:
This Miss Marple short story first appeared in The Strand Magazine in 1942. It later appeared in this US collection in 1950, and in Miss Marple's Final Cases in the UK in 1978.
The Basics: Miss Marple comes down with the flu and spends time in bed recovering. Her doctor brings her a case file to ponder over as she seems depressed after her illness. He challenges her to find the truth in the case.
An earlier unpublished version of this story (The Caretaker's Wife) was published in 2011 as part of Agatha Christie's Murder in the Making: Stories and Secrets from her Archive by John Curran. [An aside: -- I don't have this book. I must have this book!]
This is a short, but very interesting story. Reminds me of a few True Crime cases that I've seen in the news over the years. Unfortunately lots of this type of "bad sort" seem to really exist.
I didn't find any adaptations of this story. [Another aside -- Why no adaptations??? All of Poirot was done -- why not Jane Marple???? Harumph!]
The Third Floor Flat:
This Poirot short story was first published in magazines in the UK and US in 1929. It didn't appear in book form until this story collection came out in 1950.
The basics: Poirot gets pulled into a murder case when a downstairs neighbor in his building is found dead.
Adaptations:
Television: The long-running BBC show Poirot had an episode based on this story [Season 1, episode 5 - 1989]. Like with most of these short mysteries, the television show padded the plot a bit to stretch it to episode length and to add in Hastings. It kept some of the humorous aspects of the short story (even a snoring maid!) I just love the Poirot theme song from the show! Makes me happy each time I hear it! :)
I didn't find any other adaptations of this story.
I enjoyed the build-up of this story and Poirot's coming to the rescue to help the group of young people that discovered the body. The detective not only used his little grey cells to investigate, but his kindness was also a vital tool to help him get the information he needed to solve the case.
Great story!
The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly: (taken from my prior review in 2020 with a few edits)
This early Agatha Christie short story featuring Hercule Poirot was
first published in the UK in October 1923 in The Sketch magazine. It was
published in the United States in The Blue Book magazine in June 1925.
The Basics: Wealthy parents hire Hercule Poirot to investigate the kidnapping of
their son Johnnie. The boy was kidnapped out of a house filled
with people and even the police. How was this done? And by who?
And....where is Johnnie?? Hercule is on the case!
Adaptations:
Television: Agatha Christie's Poirot
(Season 1, episode 3) adapted this story (of course, as they did them all!) They had to pad the story a
bit to lengthen it, but it stays basically true to the original. And, the French television show, Le Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie adapted this tale in 2016 [Season 2, episode 12, L'etreage enlevement du petit Bruno]. On Kanopy, this episode is listed under Agatha Christie's Criminal Games - Season 2, episode 5. The French show keeps a bit of the plot, but moves the setting to France and removes Poirot as the detective. The episodes are still very fun to watch - and subtitled in English! If your local library has Kanopy, give the series a try!!
These
stories were used to gain readers for Christie's writing in the months
after the publication of her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at
Styles. The first 25 short stories were first published in magazines
that featured writings by various authors and started building the
reader base for Christie's writing and the character of Poirot. Later
the short stories were gathered into collections such as Poirot
Investigates.
The Poirot short stories give just a taste of the detective's immense sleuthing
skills (and Christie's writing talent, of course) Those little grey
cells!! The length of only a few pages doesn't allow for the famous twist
endings and reveals like Christie uses in her novels, but still
showcase her most famous character.
I first reviewed this short story back in 2020 as I read my way through Poirot's Early Cases (1974). This is back at the start of my journey to try and read Christie's mystery writings in publication order. I discovered that many of Poirot's short stories were first published in magazines in the 1920's. I had to backtrack and hunt up stories here and there and piecemeal together a timeline of publication.
And -- I made a few mistakes. LOL I reviewed this one -- but not The Third Floor Flat. Maybe I got turned around backwards because Third Floor didn't come out in a story collection until this one in 1950? Who knows.....but making sure I catch ones I missed as I go along! Another error in my early endeavors was I missed including the French television show Le Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie in my lists of adaptations. I didn't find episodes of this show until later in the game when I searched Kanopy purely by chance and found many of the episodes available. :) Subtitled in English as well! Woot!
That's what makes this journey through Agatha Christie's writing so much fun for me. I'm learning as I go along! I research names, places and incidents she mentions in her stories as I meander through....references that were current for her but not so easy to catch and understand now. And it's led me to old radio shows, television shows I never knew existed, and all sorts of interesting side jaunts! It makes this nerdy literature major very very happy in her soul!
Someday I hope I get to see and read a copy of one of these old magazines that first featured these tales!! I want to know which other writers had stories in them.....I'd love to see the advertisements, the art work, and see the layout!!
Ok.....I am monologuing ...... on to the next story!! [Did anyone read this far? Not sure my ramblings are interesting to anyone other than myself...lol. Please leave me a comment if you read this entire review :) ]
Four and Twenty Blackbirds:
Hercule Poirot is the detective in this short story that first appeared in magazine format in 1940 (US) and 1941 (UK). It did not appear in book form until this collection was published in 1950.
The basics: Poirot investigates the death of a man who strayed from his usual cuisine and daily routine at a restaurant.
I found this study in behavior very interesting. At times I do enjoy to change my diet or habits up a bit....maybe a bit more spice, a special dish I've never had before, a different restaurant, etc. But if a person who has been a regular daily customer at a restaurant for 10 years suddenly completely goes off their "usual" choices and schedule, I can see how it would seem very odd, especially if they were ordering things they normally didn't like and not showing up for an extended period. Agatha Christie did a marvelous job of turning a situation like that into a interesting little mystery!
Adaptations:
Television: The long-running television Poirot adapted this story in 1989. [Season 1, episode 4] The episode makes some changes to extend the story into episode length and flesh out the plot a bit, but it sticks relatively close to the original story. The Japanese anime program, Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple also had an episode in 2005 [episode 34].
I found no other adaptations of this story.
The Love Detectives
A lesser known character of Christie's -- Mr. Harley Quin -- gets to shine in this early short story. This tale first published in magazine format in the US and UK in 1926. It did not appear in book format until this collection was published in 1950.
The basics: A man is found dead. He's been bashed over the head. Mr. Quin is on the case....but he seems intent on protecting the dead man's wife and her lover than solving the case.....or is he?
I found no adaptations of this story.
I'm not really a big fan of side characters like Mr. Quin, so this story was just ok for me. Seemed a bit contrived. Or, I might just feel that way because I'm not a fan of this particular character.
All in all, this is an excellent gathering of short stories by Agatha Christie. I enjoyed reading them all! On to the next!!
