Book Club

Non-Series Novels & Stories

For those of you wanting to discuss Agatha Christie's standalone books, such as And Then There Were None. 

Beware spoilers and remember we'll be able to add the most insightful comments to the stories section. 

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Warning: These discussions may contain spoilers!

The Secret of Chimneys

Jemma 05 Sep 09 at 10:56 a.m. GMT

The final book Christie wrote for her publishers The Bodley Head includes more comic scenes and characters than her other work. Perhaps as she felt they had mistreated her and she was finally free to move on. What are your thoughts on this more light-hearted approach? Does it add or detract from her superb plotting skills?

Chimneys introduces Superindendent Battle to the world. He would later feature in The Seven Dials Mystery, Murder is Easy, Towards Zero and Cards on the Table. An unemotional man with wit and intelligence - but do you think he rivals Poirot as a truly great detective?

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13 replies

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pothgulla 27 Sep 11 at 4:21 a.m. GMT

This is my favourite book of Agatha Christie. I read it after reading about 25 of her truely detective stories and read about another 25 later. Still I find this the best. I am so distressed that when they made the film they adopted a totally different story that Christy never even imagined. I hope somebody will make a film on the right story, a real good one like Marple- Moving Finger (Not Miss Marple Moving Finger).

springsparkles 21 May 11 at 2:31 p.m. GMT

This was my first christie book and after that I am a big Christie fan.

NightRayDuck 19 Aug 10 at 3 a.m. GMT

Yes, moustaches. The memoirs and the letters signed "Virginia Revel" really were simply given to Anthony Cade by Jimmy McGrath, in the first two chapters of the book (in case you wish to look it up).

Personally, I think it's more than a suspension of disbelief. It's a sort of irony. SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER although I think everybody who has posted on this thread so far knows about it already: the man re-named himself Anthony Cade just so he can evade a possible destiny and live a fun and adventurous and risky life; this man in the course of such life meets and befriends another adventurer Jimmy McGrath; one day Jimmy McGrath hands him a lucrative job of delivering a memoir to a publisher, and a romantic errand of delivering the letters to a damsel in distress - and this man ends up dropping himself back into the destiny he has avoided for so many years.

Such story is not the typical rigorous setup of a whodunit mystery, but it's pretty effective in adventure sagas involving thrones and crowns. ;)

Yunakitty 07 Aug 10 at 1:57 a.m. GMT

Yes, they did, mustaches.  Believe it or not!

And to MissQuin... don't feel too bad for Bill... he gets the girl in the sequel to this "Seven Dials Mystery." :)

moustaches 01 Jun 10 at 3:38 a.m. GMT

A question...

i thoroughly enjoyed this book (I usually stick with Poirot novels, but think Battle holds his own!), but I think i missed one key plot point that I now can't put together. Did the memoirs AND the letters from Virginia Revel really just "fall" into Anthony's hands courtesy of Jimmy? This seems far too convenient and a bold ask of "suspension of disbelief" from Dame Christie...

Curious!!

rashmisnigdha 16 Apr 10 at 4:04 p.m. GMT

Also, monsieur poirot cannot be compared. No body can match his grey cells

rashmisnigdha 16 Apr 10 at 4:02 p.m. GMT

The humour is fantastic. Have read this novel at least thrice,it's a great read.loved Virginia's candour and spunk....afterall everybody likes the story of a dashing hero with a sense of humour.

MissQuin 09 Apr 10 at 1:15 p.m. GMT

Thank you Puffinjill. I read the books a few years ago, I didn't like all of it. I don't have anymore so I couldn't check. Bill was sweet, I always feel sorry for the guy that doesn't get the girl. At times I'm so sentimental! 

Puffinjill 09 Apr 10 at 6:05 a.m. GMT

Do you mean Bill Eversleigh, MissQuin? The poor chap certainly followed Virginia around like a doting puppy! Didn't get him anywhere though.

MissQuin 08 Apr 10 at 4:39 p.m. GMT

I was wondering, whose the character whose in love with Virginia, but she doesn't share his feelings? It's been bugging me.

MissQuin 23 Feb 10 at 5:11 p.m. GMT

I didn't like this til half way through, but I still didn't think much of it. Battle is quite good, though we never find much about him, His has a wife and children and that's all we ever know!

I either like the murder mystery Poirot/Marple or the supernatural ones like Mr Quin and Pale Horse. I can never get into the international spies and political ones for some reason.

Puffinjill 16 Nov 09 at 7:48 a.m. GMT

Not that I am aware of. Just an invention of AC's, I suppose.

What do you think of the book? I think it's great. Not only do we get to meet Battle, Bundle, etc for the first time but we also get Anthony Cade and Virginia Revel, two characters who are great fun. There is more humour than in a lot of AC's books but I don't feel this detracts from the mystery at all. Just makes it a joy to read!

cguice 15 Nov 09 at 11:28 p.m. GMT

hey there,

currently reading The Secret of Chimneys and agree it shows quite a bit of humor not seen in other AC books.  Curious - does the estate of Chimneys really exist?