yah well it is

the fact about who zarida was is a bit unbelievable though

AC really wrote this story well. It's among my favourite short stories and one of the best in this book. I disagree with asmikhushi; the solution was entirely believable, and the rational explanation proved to be more disturbing than the supernatural one. A very well written story indeed!

We can finally agree, go leafs! :o) I respect asmikhushi's opinion, too, but I loved this short story and also consider it one of the best in the book. It's a story that really stood out for me and one I never forgot. It is, indeed, a very well written story!

Well as you may know The Thirteen Problems IS my favorite AC book. And I totally agree with go leafs and Bundle. The Blue Geranium is one of the best stories of The Thirteen Problems. My other favorites include The Tuesday Night Club, The Idol House of Astarte, The Bloodstained Pavement, The Companion, The Four Suspects, A Christmas Tragedy and The Herb of Death.

As for "Christie's fascination with things other worldly", I love those AC stories that have this element in them. The other story which has this other worldly element is The Idol House of Astarte. That story still gives me the creeps when I think about it! It is one of the most chilling short stories I've ever read! It's a good thing I read it while going to a school field trip and the bus was full of my chattering classmates!

My favorite first favorite in The Tuesday Club Murders is Death by Drowning, though, and then The Bloodstained Pavement followed The Blue Geranium and The Idol House of Astarte.

Now, I usually don't care for short stories by any author,because I feel as a reader you can't really "seek your teeth into it", as the saying goes, with a story that's only say 50 pages. But for some reason I've just never felt that way about the Miss. Marple short stories.

Death by Drowning was just about alright for me.

As for short stories I just love them! It is amazing that the writers are able to fit in an entire story in just a few pages. For me the content of the story matters more than the length of the story.

Yes, I think you are right, content is the most important thing and not the length of the story. I've always been a bit of a fan of short stories as I think its a difficult thing to write. When an author writes a novel they normally have around 300 pages to flesh out a plot and the characters taking part but when writing a short story, a novelist must condense everything down AND still leave the reader with a convincing storyline filled with characters that are believable. I don't think they should be thought of as the poor relations nof the novels but recognised as well written and enjoyable works in their own right. Look at the amount of short stories Sherlock Holmes features in conpared to only four novels. Its a great format.

I reread The thirteen Problems yesterday on a long train journey and SO enjoyed it again. I love The Tuesday Night Club and, well, all of them actually!!! As for the supernatural element, it provides a contrast to the comfortable everyday lives of the characters which takes them out of their confort zones in the same way it does for us. 

I have the complete Sherlock Holmes collection and have re-read it several times and obviously love the short stories better than the novels.

I too applaud an author that can condense what could be a novel and make it into a short story. I don't consider them "poor relations" just a different theme of writing. On the old site we used to write short stories all the time (but only because it was quicker than writing a whole novel and more practical) but it was fun! And I usually enjoy the content of short stories like Three Blind Mice, The Tape Measure Murders, The Third Floor Flat to name a few. However, personally, I enjoy much longer stories for the reason I stated before, and because it's nice to just put the story away and think about who the culprit is and then come back to it. Whereas in a lot of the short stories they are so short that you (or at least I do) find yourself pretty much near the end of the story when you've really only just begun to read it!

Oh, yes, so do I. But short stories can fit in well at other times.

I'm never sure of how AC felt about her short story writing. A few times she wrote a short story (such as The Plymouth Express or Yellow Iris) and then seemed to wish she hadn't 'wasted' the plot on this genre as she later developed them into full novels.

Not that I mind!! I love it all!!

And I'm glad that we have AC new short stories to read like The Capture of Cerberus. That in itself is exciting and I can't wait to read it! It is truly a wonderful and remarkable find! But just to compare short stories to novels: how much more exciting would it be if the story found had been a full length novel?

How exciting??? I may have burst from sheer joy!!! I have still to read the newly found stories as I was unwilling to buy The Daily Mail when they published one. I'm not fond of that newspaper (can you spot the understatement?) so had to forgo the pleasure of reading The Capture of Cerberus. I'm trying to hold out until christmas as I'm sure someone will buy me The Secret Notebook, but it will be agony!!

Do you think that they will make The Capture of Cerberus into an adaptation, Puffinjill? It would be a shame if they didn't because then the Poirot's wouldn't feel complete.

And we all need additional nicknames on the fourm! On the old AC fourm we had nick names within a name. I think yours, Puffinjill, should be Jill... if you don't mind that is :0)

That was difficult to guess, wasn't it!!!! I must put more thought into my name..... But I guess you aren't normally known as Bun!?!

I would love an adaptation, but I'm still waiting for The Labours of Hercules to get a look in with the TV people.

Puffinjill

That was difficult to guess, wasn't it!!!! I must put more thought into my name..... But I guess you aren't normally known as Bun!?!

LOL! And no, on both accounts. And I guess my nickname can be Bundles (w/ an s) :0)

OK then, I won't call you Bun. Or Bunny. Etc.

Are you a fan of The Labours of Hercules?

I haven't read The Labours of Hercule yet. I've kind of avoided the short story collections. Thus far the short story books that I've read are: Three Blind Mice, Murder in the Mews, Partners in Crime and The Tuesday Club Murders....If you could call Partners in Crime and The Tuesday Club Murders short story collections, that is.

Is Three Blind Mice published in Britain? I don't have a copy of this! WHY!!!!

I would urge you to read The Labours of Hercules - I was put off by the premise as I though it sounded a little dull, but it's a really good read. Give it a go....they are interesting stories in their own right.

I shall keep nagging until you do, so come on now, you know you want to....

I forgot to mention about Three Blind Mice - it is an alternate story to The MouseTrap play. Three Blind Mice and other stories was only published in the US. The stories in it are The Tape Measure Murder, The Third Floor Flat, Four and Twenty Blackbirds and The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly, Strange Jest, The Love Detectives,  The Case of the Caretaker, The Case of the Perfect Maid. All of which were published in different short story collections all together! Like Four and Twenty Blackbirds was published in The Adventure of The Christmas Pudding, and Strange Jest was published in: Miss Marple's Final Cases.

And I would read The Labours of Hercule but I've already got a ton of chapters to read in my text books for school. Not to mention every once in a while I'll read a Lord Peter Wimsey book called Strong Poision which is probably the most boring Dortothy L Sayers book, at least in my opinion. And once I get through all that I'm going to read Poirot's Black Coffee that I bought yesterday.

Oh and then I want to read The ABC Muders and Murder on the Links next because I own both of the dvds but I've never seen them because (obviously) I haven't read the books yet.

I see! Yes, I've read them all, then, apart from Three Blind Mice. I haven't been lucky enough to see The Mousetrap, but it's high on my 'things I need to do to make me happy' list!

Sorry! Didn't realise you were so busy! At school, too.... Aahh..I remember those days..

Seeing as we were talking about short stories (somewhere back at the beginning of this tread), have you read Dorothy L Sayers short story collections? And Strong Poison boring? MMmmmm, can't say I agree on that one.

Keep reading when you have time. I adore The ABC Murders and think you will too.