Professor in peril Book

Review updated on August 26, 2020 as I somehow managed to skip over one short story.

The anthology consists of the following short stories, not all of them featuring Poirot. In fact, most of them do not.

Problem at Pollensa Bay
A Parker Pyne story. He went for a vacation, but was recognized by a woman who had a problem which most probably originally appeared for Biblical Eve

when her oldest son was about to get married: she did not like his choice of a future wife. So on one hand the woman of the story did not want her son to marry a particular girl while her son wanted to very much. Parker Pyne solved the problem to everyone's satisfaction.

The Second Gong
A Poirot story which I do not recall reading before. A guy was shot in his house, but before that he invited Poirot to discuss some business. The detective arrived just in time to find a fresh (is it the right word?) body. He solved the problem using the missing second gong sound as a clue.


Yellow Iris
Another Poirot. I seems to recall reading this one before, but only once and I only remembered the general setup. At least unlike The Mystery of the Spanish Chest this one is not included in every anthology of Agatha Christie short stories. Poirot received a call from a frightened woman begging him to come to a particular restaurant. He arrived right in the middle of a murder being committed.


The Harlequin Tea Set
A Harley Quin story. I am not going to read these separately as I have a full collection of them and will start on it as soon as I am done with Poirot. Sufficient to say these are mysteries with some light supernatural elements. As such they work - most of the time.


The Regatta Mystery
Parker Pyne solved a real mystery for a change. An American millionaire lost his jewels in the middle of the day right when his fiends were looking at them. It turned out to be some clever work of thieves foiled by even more clever work by Parker Pyne.


The Love Detectives
Another Harley Quin story. Please see my notes about The Harlequin Tea Set. Now that I finished the full Harley Quin anthology it turns out that for some mysterious and illogical reason these two stories were not included and this book in one of the few places to find them - especially the second one. Still I will review them with the rest of the investigations of Harley Quin and Mr. Satterthwaite.

Next To A Dog
A down-on-her luck young woman struggled to find a job without having any qualifications or experience. Her only option was to become a companion (caretaker) of an old person, but she had an old dog which none of her prospective employers wanted. The heroine was determined to keep the dog, in other words showing it the same loyalty it was showing to her all its life.


This is supposed to be a romance, but I would not qualify the story as such as only some hints of its possible development were shown at the end. I am still not sure if it will take place.

Magnolia Blossom
This is a pure romance with no Agatha's regulars. A woman had to choose between a man she loved (and was loved by) and her husband who kept using her. Nothing original to write home about and too short for any big impact, it was well written nonetheless. Dame Agatha could write when she felt like it.

By the way I cannot help thinking about the following when I mentioned "Harlequin" and "romance" in one sentence:

I mean, the association comes naturally, right?

I would rate the whole collection with something lower than 4 stars, but I will round it up as the stories were short enough not to become boring. The same can be said about the whole book as well.