The Complete Quin and Satterthwaite: Love Detectives by
Agatha Christie
pbk out January 04
(HarperCollins)
at £12.99
This is an ingenious piece of publishing. Just when you thought that you knew your way
around the Christie Collection, the publishers have produced this chunky volume of stories
featuring the enigmatic Harley Quin and his elderly chum Mr Satterthwaite. Quin, Christie
said, 'was a figure who just entered into a story - a catalyst, no more - his mere presence
affected human beings...Always he stood for the same thing: he was a friend of lovers, and
connected with death.' By contrast, Satterthwaite was 'the gossip, the looker-on at life, the
little man who...recognizes drama when he sees it, and is conscious that he has a part to
play.' One way of interpreting the stories is that Quin is an aspect of Sattethwaite's own
personality. The heart of this volume is the early set of short stories originally published as
'The Mysterious Mr Quin'. A number of the tales are memorable, including a pleasing
'impossible crime' story, 'At the "Bells and Motley"'. The volume also includes two Quin
stories that were published later in Christie's career. In addition, there is an excellent classic
detective novel, 'Three Act Tragedy', in which Satterthwaite alone appears; the supernatural
apparatus of the Quin stories is absent here. Finally, there is a novella in which Satterthwaite
has a cameo part, 'Dead Man's Mirror'. An interesting collection, with well-plotted stories
that are quite diverse in mood.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
The Complete Quin and Satterthwaite: Love Detectives by
Agatha Christie
