Agatha Christie, Collection Paperback – June 27, 2014

This is the true "The Secrets of Chimneys" story. The TV show with Miss Marple is completely an abomination of this story. This has intrigue and humor it is nearly qualified to be a mystery-comedy. Surprising ending with predictable outcome.

Agatha Christie writes sparkling prose and her plots are intricate and fun, so nothing to complain about there. The first three titles are short novels with chapters. The remaining titles are short stories. Nothing to complain about there either.However, in the Kindle edition, at the beginning of the novelette, The Murder on the Links, we find we are on page 291, and after that ALL the pages are page 291. Everything else in this book is on page 291. Even in the Table of Contents, it shows that every story after the first two are on page 291. Apart from just plain logic telling you that not every page can be page 291, if you open the menu to look at "About This Book" the menu states that the typical time to read it is 20 hours and 47 minutes. It surely is more than 291 pages, but I'm not sure that it's big enough to take 20 hours to read. I'm not sure, though, because I don't know how many pages are actually in this book!I decided to do a little sleuthing. I looked at the paperback version of this book. The paperback version purports to contain only two titles {the first two in this collection), and it states in the publisher's details that the book is 290 pages long, which is correct: that is the page on which the The Secret Adversary ends. So I think at some point the publisher decided to add the third novelette and the short stories, but forgot about the pagination. So who knows how long this book is or how long it would actually take to read? At the beginning of The Murder on the Links, my Kindle tells me that I am at 42%. So probably the book is about 700 pages long.I have not noticed any of the typos or formatting problems noted by another Kindle reader.

This is my first read on Agatha Christie books. Am I glad I purchased this set! Not only was it inexpensive but I have enjoyed every book so far (SIX). I had watched detective Poirot series which I really enjoyed. The books with this character and others has surprised me. The quality of the stories are far more than I expected for such a low price. Looking forward to finish the other books.

But some of it is missing. One book stops abruptly after just one chapter. One chapter is just a page. Many many paragraphs are broken or run together. Sometimes it's hard to tell who is saying what. Formatting was hastily done, with none of Poirot's pulchritude!As for the stories themselves, they are generally ingenious and fun. However, there are moments of casual but open racism that are very hurtful. And her political bent is always prowar and right wing. Ugh.

ALWAYS A GOOD READ...CLASSIC

If Hercule Poirot is a favorite, you will thoroughly enjoy this collection of short stories and novellas. Your little grey cells will enjoy the temperate mysteries work their way to a solution after solution.

The Agatha Christie book I received includes two stories. The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Secret Adversary. There were other reviews that claimed to have other short stories included. Maybe they received a different book. But this collection only has two stories.

Great read for Agatha fans. Very entertaining and is a good reflection of the time period (after WWI and through the 1930s). My favorite is Hercule Poirot.

L'ho letta moltissimo in italiano, da adolescente, e poi in inglese all'università , per esercitarmi nella lingua. Mi è sempre piaciuta tantissimo per la logica, la scorrevolezza della prosa, l'intelligenza e originalità della trama. Dopo tanti anni la rileggo e non mi delude affatto, anzi la apprezzo ancora di più. Grande Agatha!

It’s not the most professional item I’ve seen but is perfectly adequate for this price.

I treated myself to this collection and I can’t wait to get stuck into the stories.

このクリスティーの作品は読んだことなかった。今回原文で読めてとても良かった

Good read