We begin a new year of classic mysteries podcast reviews by going back to one of my favorite writers, the woman generally regarded as one of the best British crime writers, Agatha Christie. In a writing career that stretched across six decades, Christie created memorable characters, both in and out of series.
One of her fairly early entries, in 1929, was the book "Partners in Crime," a collection of short stories about Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, two young amateur sleuths who had appeared in an earlier novel. But there is more to it, for Tommy and Tuppence - admitting cheerfully that they had little practical experience in detecting - decide to imitate some of the great fictional detectives of the period in solving their own cases. In each story, they adopt the methods and mannerisms of a different detective. It's worth noting that some of those detectives have vanished so completely that modern readers may not get the references. Others - including Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown and, of course, Christie's own Hercule Poirot - remain popular today, and Christie's parodies of their detecting styles stand as loving tributes to other fine mystery writers. The book remains readily available in print more than 80 years after its first appearance and it is also available as an Amazon Kindle ebook.
The short stories in "Parners in Crime" are loosely connected by an overlying framework, in which Tommy and Tuppence seek to uncover and capture an international spy. As always with Christie, the plotting is superb, full of surprising twists. You can listen to my full review on the podcast here.
"Partners in Crime" is also my first entry in the ongoing Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge sponsored by the My Reader's Block blog. Many of my weekly reviews this year will be of books that qualify under that challenge as "vintage" as well as "traditional" mysteries. If you enjoy this kind of mystery - and I assume you do, as you're here! - I urge you to check out the challenge to see what others are reading. And by all means, if you like, take the challenge and join in!
A great start for the Vintage Challenge! I love Tommy and Tuppence. They are so much fun! Now I just have to go get my review of Sayers' Nine Tailors posted.
Posted by: Bev | January 03, 2011 at 07:30 PM
I love Agatha Christie's books as well, Les. There's no moody blue moment that a good Christie won't cure, far as I'm concerned. We saw her play, THE MOUSETRAP once, many years ago, on our trip to England. Yes, we are that devoted. Ha!
I chose Ellery Queen for my first Challenge Review. Next up CASTLE SKULL from John Dickson Carr. ;)
Posted by: Yvette | January 05, 2011 at 04:05 PM
Yvette, "The Mousetrap" opened in London in 1952 - and it is still running today, the longest continuously-running play (at least modern play) ever. Amazing. And good fun.
It's been a long time since I read "Castle Skull," and I hope you won't be disappointed. It's one of Carr's early books, featuring French detective Henri Bencolin; I remember it as being long on atmosphere and short on humor, with some horrifying touches. I do hope you'll go on to some of his works featuring Gideon Fell or Henry Merrivale!
Posted by: Les Blatt | January 05, 2011 at 05:13 PM
I loved Partners in Crime as much for its gentle "sendups" of other detectives/writers, as for the cases that Tommy and Tuppence faced.
Posted by: Birdie | January 09, 2011 at 12:18 PM