REVIEW: Sing a Song of Sixpence

 Sing a Song of Sixpence
Author: Agatha Christie

Sir Edward Pallister is unexpectedly called on to fulfill a half-hearted promise he made to a girl he met while travelling. The girl's aunt has been murdered and four family members are suspects. She asks Pallister to investigate and determine which family member bumped the old lady off. 

This story was first published in 1929 in Holly Leaves, the annual Christmas special of Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. It was later included in The Listerdale Mystery (1934, UK). First published in the US in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in 1947, it also appeared in The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories (1948). I didn't find any radio or television adaptations of this story. 

I listened to an audio version of this story (The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories, Harper Audio), narrated by Hugh Fraser. Very entertaining story with that classic Christie unexpected reveal. 

I never realized until now that Christie wrote so many short stories. I'm definitely enjoying reading my way through them. Hard to keep to publication order as many of the stories were originally printed in the 1920s or early 30s and later re-printed in story collections. Sometimes the stories appear with different titles, or were re-worked into novellas or novel length later on. 

As I find adaptations of stories for radio and television I'm taking the time to hunt up as many of those episodes/shows as I can, as well as any film versions. Many of these short stories -- including this one -- have never been adapted at all. Someone really should rectify that and flesh these remaining stories out for radio drama or tv!!

On to the next!