Murder in the Mews

Murder in the Mews

Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition
Author	Agatha Christie
Cover artist	Robin Macartney
Language	English
Genre	Detective fiction Short stories
Publisher	Collins Crime Club
Publication date	March 15 1937
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	288 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	NA
Preceded by	Cards on the Table
Followed by	Dumb Witness

Murder in the Mews and Other Stories is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by Collins Crime Club on March 15, 1937. In the US, the was published by Dodd, Mead and Company under the title Dead Man's Mirror in June 1937. All of the tales feature Hercule Poirot. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.

Plot summaries

Murder in the Mews

Japp asks Poirot to join him at a house in Bardsley Garden Mews where a Mrs. Barbara Allen shot herself the previous evening – Guy Fawkes Night – the moment of death being disguised by the noise of fireworks. Once there they find that the doctor thinks there is something strange about the death of the woman, a young widow. Mrs. Allen was found by a housemate, Miss Jane Plenderleith, who had been away in the country the previous night. The victim was locked in her room and was shot through the head with an automatic, the weapon being found in her hand. The doctor however points out that the gun is in her right hand while the wound is above the left ear – an impossible position to shoot with the right hand. It looks as if this is a murder made to look like suicide. They interview Miss Plenderleith and find out that Mrs. Allen was engaged to be married to Charles Laverton-West, an up-and-coming young MP but, although the pistol was the dead lady's, she cannot think of a reason why she should use it to commit suicide.
Japp and Poirot find further clues: the gun has been wiped clean of fingerprints and large sums of money have been withdrawn from Mrs. Allen's bank account on several occasions but there is no trace of money in the house. They also find from a neighbour that Mrs. Allen had a gentleman caller the previous evening whose description doesn't tally with that of her fiancé. Feeling that Miss Plenderleith is keeping something back, the ask her about this male visitor and she suggest that it was Major Eustace – a man that Mrs. Allen knew when she was in India and who she has seen on several occasions in the past year. She got the feeling that Mrs. Allen was afraid of the man and Japp and Poirot suggest that Major Eustace was blackmailing her – an idea which meets with approval from Miss Plenderleith. Poirot points out though that it is unusual for blackmailers to kill their victims, normally it is the opposite way round. Japp, as part of his look round the house, searches a cupboard under the stairs which contains items such as umbrellas, walking sticks, tennis racquets, a set of golf clubs and a small attaché-case which Miss Plenderleith hurriedly claims is hers. The two men sense Miss Plenderleith's heightened tension.
Miss Plenderleith proves to have an impeccable alibi for the time of the death and Poirot and Japp interview Charles Laverton-West. He is stunned to find out that a murder investigation is taking place and admits that he himself has no sound alibi. They also try to see Major Eustace and hear that he has gone off to play golf. Mention of this suddenly makes Poirot see everything clearly. Managing to get hold of Eustace later on, they notice that he smokes a brand of Turkish cigarette whose stubs were found in the mews house, even though Mrs. Allen smoked a different kind. They also prove that he wore a set of cufflinks, a damaged part of which was found in the room where Mrs. Allen died and Japp arrests him for murder.
On a pretext, Poirot makes Japp call at the mews house and while they are there Poirot sneaks another look at the cupboard under the stairs and sees that the attaché-case has gone. As Miss Plenderleith has just come back from playing golf at Wentworth, they go there and find out that she was seen on the links with the case. Later investigations show that she was seen to throw the item into the lake there. The police retrieve it but find nothing in it. Poirot asks Japp and Miss Plenderleith to call at his flat and they tell her of Eustace's arrest. Poirot then tells her of his real conclusions. From clues concerning missing blotting paper, Poirot deduces that Mrs. Allen had written a letter just before she died, which if she killed herself, would indicate a suicide note. He postulates that Miss Plenderleith came home, found her friend dead, driven to kill herself by the actions of her blackmailer and was determined to avenge her – this wasn't a murder made to look like suicide but a suicide made to look like murder and thereby entrapping the blackmailer. Miss Plenderleith placed the gun in Mrs. Allens right hand, despite the fact that she was left-handed, and the purpose of her trip to Wentworth was to hide there the dead lady's golf clubs – left-handed clubs, the attaché-case being a red herring to put the police off the trail. Convinced that Major Eustace will be imprisoned for his other crimes, she agrees to tell the truth and save the man from the gallows.

The Incredible Theft

A house party is taking place at the home of Lord Charles Mayfield, a self-made millionaire whose riches come from his engineering prowess. With him are Air Marshal Sir George Carrington, his wife and son, Lady Julia and Reggie, a Mrs. Vanderlyn, a beautiful blond American woman and Mrs. Macatta, a forthright MP. They are joined for dinner by Mr. Carlile, Lord Charles' secretary. The real reason for the house party becomes obvious when the women, Reggie and Carlile retire from the dinner table: Lord Mayfield and Sir George are there to discuss the plans for a new bomber plane that will give Britain supremacy in the air. The two men also discuss Mrs. Vanderlyn – she has been involved in some dubious spying and espionage in which she uses her charms to seduce her victims into telling her their secrets. Lord Charles has invited her to his house to tempt her with something big – the bomber – in order to trap her once and for all.
That evening, after their bridge game, all of the guests retire for bed except, again, Lord Charles and Sir George. Mr. Carlile is instructed to get the plans for the bomber from the safe for the two men to peruse over and he sets off for the study to do so, colliding with Mrs. Vanderlyn who says she has come down to retrieve her book. The two men take a turn on the terrace before getting down to work but Lord Charles is startled when he says he caught a glimpse of a figure leaving the study by the French window although Sir George saw nothing. Returning to the study, Mr. Carlile has got the papers out but Lord Charles quickly sees that the plans of the bomber itself have gone. Carlile is questioned but he is adamant that they were in the safe and he put them on the table. He was distracted for a moment when he heard a woman's scream in the hallway and running out found Leonie, Mrs. Vanderlyn's maid, who claimed that she had seen a ghost. Aside from that, he never left the study. As Lord Charles is at a loss as to what to do next, Sir George suggests calling in Hercule Poirot...
The little Belgian arrives in the middle of the night. He is given the sequence of events and hears of the suspicions regarding Mrs. Vanderlyn. Investigating the grass leading off the terrace, Poirot confirms that there are no footprints which means that the theft was committed by someone in the house. He then questions each of the people in turn, their actions and alibis and deduces that Leonie saw no ghost – she screamed because Reggie Carrington sneaked up on her and snatched a kiss.
Poirot suggests to Lord Charles that he comes up with a pretext to bring the party to an end in order that his guests leave the house. He does so and the next morning they all start to leave. Lady Julia, having ascertained the important issue is the return of the plans promises that they will be returned within twelve hours if no further action is taken. Poirot agrees to this and they all depart, leaving Poirot with Lord Charles. He tells him of Lady Julia's offer but that she is mistaken if she thinks she knows who has the plans. She thinks Reggie has them - hard up for money, tempted by the seductions of Mrs. Vanderlyn and missing from his room for a period the previous evening. What she doesn't know is that her son was busy with Leonie at the time in question and he therefore cannot be the thief. Mrs. Macatta was heard snoring in her room, Mrs. Vanderlyn was heard to call for Leonie from upstairs, Lady Julia thinks her son is responsible and Sir George was with Lord Charles on the terrace. Everyone is therefore accounted for except for Mr. Carlile and Lord Charles. As Mr. Carlile had access to the safe at all times and could have taken tracings at his leisure, only Lord Charles is left and Poirot has no doubts that they plans were put in his own pocket. His motive is linked back to a denial given some years earlier that he was not involved in negotiations with a belligerent foreign power. As he was indeed involved in such dubious activities he is now being blackmailed to hand over the plans with Mrs. Vanderlyn as the agent appointed for him to pass the plans onto. Poirot has no doubt that the plans she has are subtlety altered so as to make them unworkable. Lord Charles confesses to the deception but insists that his motive, refusing to be derailed from leading England from the coming world crisis that he sees England involved in, is pure.

Literary significance and reception

Simon Nowell-Smith of the Times Literary Supplement's issue of March 27, 1937 felt that, "It would seem nowadays – it was not true of Sherlock Holmes, when the rules were less rigid – the shorter the detective story the less good it will be. The least effective of the stories in this book occupies 32 pages; the most 96; and there are two of intermediate length and merit. All are of quite a high standard as long-short stories, but none is as good as any of Mrs. Christie's full-length detective novels. The fact is that the reader of today demands to participate in a detective story, and no living writer, unless occasionally Miss Sayers, can find room in a short story for this extra detective." The reviewer felt that the title story was the strongest and that Triangle at Rhodes the weakest because, "the psychology of the characters is insufficiently developed to make the solution either predictable or plausible".

Isaac Anderson of The New York Times Book Review of June 27, 1937 said, "The four stories in this book are all fully up to the Agatha Christie-Hercule Poirot standard, and are about as varied in plot and in the characters involved as it is possible for detective stories to be."

The Scotsman of April 1, 1937 said "To the ingenuity of Mrs Agatha Christie there is no end. She writes with spartan simplicity, presents her clues fairly, and nearly always succeeds in simultaneously mystifying and satisfying her reader. This is no mean achievement in an art which is popularly supposed to be rapidly exhausting a limited stock of deception devices.

In The Observer's issue of April 18, 1937, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) said, "It is rather for herself than for the four awkwardly shaped Poirot stories which make up Murder in the Mews that I give Agatha Christie first place [in his column] this week. There is sufficient in the latest exploits of the little Belgian to remind us that his creator is our queen of detective writers, but by no means enough to win her that title if she had not already won it. The last and shortest tale, Triangle at Rhodes, is just the one which should have been made the longest, since it is a problem depending entirely on the unfolding of the characters of four people. Mrs. Christie has not given herself room for such unfolding, and is therefore constrained to tear the buds brutally apart. This plot would, I think, have furnished forth a whole novel. In the other three stories, each of that long-short form which used to be sacred to the penny detective adventure story, Poirot is but palely himself, and in each case the plot, though clever, is not brilliant. In the name piece the motive of the second crime is legitimately baffling; in The Incredible Theft I kept pace with Poirot; in Dead Man's Mirror, feeling a little cheated, I myself cheated by backing the most exterior of outsiders."

E.R. Punshon of The Guardian reviewed the collection in the April 9, 1937 issue when he said that that it was, "perhaps enough to say that they are all good, but not outstanding, Christie, and that in all of them Monsieur Poirot…is given full opportunity to display his accustomed acumen." Mr. Punshon stated that the title story was, "the best, and Mrs. Christie is least successful when she enters into the international spy field. The last story is disappointing in that it presents an interesting psychological situation that seems to cry aloud for the fuller treatment. Mrs. Christie could well have given it."

Mary Dell in the Daily Mirror of April 1, 1937 said, "Agatha Christie is keeping her famous detective, Poirot, busy. Here he is the murderer-chaser in four short stories which show that this author can keep you as "on edge" in shorter thrillers as in full-length ones. And another good thing is that you can come to the last untying of all the knots in one sitting.

Robert Barnard: "Four very good long short stories. No duds, but perhaps the most interesting is Triangle at Rhodes, with its 'double-triangle' plot, very familiar from other Christies."

References to other works

• The plot device in Murder in the Mews is a rewrite of The Market Basing Mystery which first appeared in issue 1603 of The Sketch magazine on October 17, 1923 before appearing in book form in the US first in The Under Dog and Other Stories in 1951 and in the UK in Thirteen for Luck! in 1966 (later appearing in Poirot's Early Cases in 1974). The similarities between the two stories are in the eventual solution and motive but the setting, characters and the sex of the victim is different between the two versions.

• Dead Man's Mirror uses a similar (almost identical) device to "The Second Gong", with a number of almost point-for-point matches; incidentally, a Mr Satterthwaite who is similar to (and may be the same as) the Mr Satterthwaite of the Harley Quin stories.

• In Murder in the Mews Poirot refers to Sherlock Holmes and "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time". This refers to a statement made by Holmes in the 1892 story Silver Blaze.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

All four stories featured as one-hour episodes in the ITV series Agatha Christie's Poirot with David Suchet in the title role. The characters of Hastings (as played by Hugh Fraser) and Felicity Lemon (as played by Pauline Moran) appear in all the televised stories except for Triangle at Rhodes, even though they make no appearance in the published versions. As well as appearing in Murder in the Mews, the televised versions of The Incredible Theft and Dead Man’s Mirror also feature Philip Jackson as Inspector Japp.

Murder in the Mews

This was broadcast on January 15, 1989 as the second episode of the season one.

Adaptor: Clive Exton
Director: Edward Bennett

Cast:
Gabrielle Blunt as Mrs Pierce
Christopher Brown as a golfer
Bob Bryan as a barman
Barrie Cookson as Dr Brett
John Cording as Inspector Jameson
Nicholas Delve as Freddie
James Faulkner as Major Eustace
Juliette Mole as Jane Plenderleith
Ruskin Moya as a singer
Beccy Wright as a maid
David Yelland as Laverton West

The Incredible Theft

This was broadcast on February 26, 1989 as the eighth episode of the season one.

Adaptors: David Reid, Clive Exton
Director: Edward Bennett

Cast:
Guy Scantlebury as Reggie Carrington
Albert Welling as Carlile
Phillip Manikum as a Sergeant
Carmen du Sautoy as Joanna Vanderlyn
John Stride as Tommy Mayfield
Ciaran Madden as Lady Mayfield
Phyllida Law as Lady Carrington
John Carson as Sir George Carrington
Dan Hildebrand as a Chauffeur
This version differs only from the story in that the altered airplane plans are for the "Mayfield" fighter plane {i.e Supermarine Spitfire} instead of a bomber; that Sir Charles was being blackmailed because he had sold howitzers to the Japanese-and gives a {faked} metal alloy formula of the fighter in return for the record of his sale; in comic relief Hastings and Poirot "borrow" a police car to chase Vanderlyn to the German ambassadors home; also Inspector Japp fails to find the missing plans; Carrington is a politician instead of a RAF officer; Sir Charles is a arms maker-not a possible Prime Minister; the involvement of Reggie Carrington and Leonie the maid does not take place.

Dead Man’s Mirror

This was broadcast on February 28, 1993 as the seventh episode of season five.

Adaptor: Anthony Horowitz
Director: Brian Farnham

Cast:
Tushka Bergen as Susan Cardwell
Jon Croft as Lawrence
Iain Cuthbertson as Gervase Chevenix
Emma Fielding as Ruth Chevenix
James Greene as Snell
Richard Lintern as John Lake
Jeremy Northam as Hugo Trent
John Rolfe as a Journalist
Fiona Walker as Miss Lingard
Zena Walker as Vanda Chevenix
Derek Smee as an Auctioneer

Triangle at Rhodes

This was broadcast on February 12, 1989 as the sixth episode of season one.

Adaptor: Stephen Wakelam
Director: Renny Rye

Cast:
Yannis Hatziyannis as the Purser
Tilemanos Emanuel as a Customs Officer
Jon Cartwright as Commander Chantry
Dimitri Andreas as the Greek cashier
Anthony Benson as Stelton
Georgia Dervis as a Greek Girl
Angela Down as Marjorie Gold
Al Fiorentini as the police inspector
Stephen Gressieux as an Italian policeman
Timothy Kightley as Major Barnes
Annie Lambert as Valentine Chantry
George Little as Dicker
Frances Low as Pamela Lyle
Patrick Monckton as the hotel manager
Peter Settelen as Douglas Gold
Martyn Whitby as a postman

Publication history

• 1937, Collins Crime Club (London), March 15, 1937, Hardback, 288 pp
• 1937, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), June 1937, Hardback, 290 pp
• 1954, Pan Books, Paperback, (Pan number 303)
• 1958, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 190 pp
• 1958, Dell Books, Paperback, (Dell number D238), 190 pp
• 1961, Penguin Books, Paperback, (Penguin number 1637), 221 pp
• 1986, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, ISBN 0-70-891443-8
• 2006, Poirot Facsimile Edition (Facsimile of 1936 UK First Edition), HarperCollins, November 6, 2006, Hardback, ISBN 0-00-723448-1

The dustjacket design of the UK first edition was one of four commissioned by Collins from Robin Macartney, a friend of Christie and her husband Max Mallowan (the others being Murder in Mesopotamia, Death on the Nile and Appointment with Death). As well as being a talented artist, Macartney was an archaeologist and accompanied the Mallowans on many of their expeditions at this time and his shy personality was later recounted by Christie in her 1946 short volume of autobiography Come, Tell Me How You Live.

First publication of stories

All four of the stories in the collection were either previously published in magazines and were reprinted or were expanded versions of far shorter stories which had previously been published under different titles. Each of the stories are Novella length.

• Murder in the Mews appeared in Woman's Journal in December 1936 in a version with differing chapter divisions to those that eventually appeared in the book

• The Incredible Theft is an expanded version of the story The Submarine Plans which appeared in issue 1606 of The Sketch magazine on November 7 1923 with all the character names changed and one character - Mrs. Macatta - added to the text. The original shorter version was eventually reprinted in book form in Poirot's Early Cases. The expanded version in the book was serialised in six instalments in the Daily Express from Tuesday, April 6 to Monday, April 12, 1937 (no publication on Sunday, April 11) with illustrations for each instalment by Steven Spurrier.

• Dead Man's Mirror was an expanded version of the story The Second Gong which appeared in issue 499 of the Strand Magazine in July 1932. The original shorter version was eventually reprinted in book form in the 1991 collection Problem at Pollensa Bay. The story is a locked room mystery featuring a wealthy retired man who apparently commits suicide. The character of Mr Satterthwaite who had previously appeared in The Mysterious Mr. Quin in 1930 and Three Act Tragedy in 1935 makes a reappearance.

• Triangle at Rhodes appeared in issue 545 of the Strand Magazine in May 1936 under the slightly longer title of Poirot and the Triangle at Rhodes. This final story in the collection is the shortest of the four and takes Poirot on an island holiday during which a guest is murdered. The story has some similarities to the full-length 1941 Christie novel, Evil Under the Sun, which includes a complicated love-triangle relationship.

In the US the stories were first published as follows:

• Triangle at Rhodes appeared in the February 2, 1936 issue of the weekly newspaper supplement This Week magazine with illustrations by Stanley Parkhouse.

• Murder in the Mews appeared in Redbook magazine in two instalments from September (Volume 67, Number 5) to October 1936 (Volume 67, Number 6) with illustrations by John Fulton.

No US magazine publications of The Incredible Theft or Dead Man's Mirror prior to 1937 have been traced, but the original shorter versions of these stories as described above were first published as follows:

• The Submarine Plans appeared in the July 1925 (Volume 41, Number 3) issue of the Blue Book Magazine with an uncredited illustration.

• The Second Gong appeared in the June 1932 (Volume LIIX, Number 6) issue of Ladies Home Journal with an illustration by R.J. Prohaska.

External links

• Murder in the Mews at the official Agatha Christie website
• Murder in the Mews (1989) at IMDb
• The Incredible Theft (1989) at IMDb
• Dead Man's Mirror (1993) at IMDb
• Triangle at Rhodes (1989) at IMDb