The harlequin tea set and other stories Book

The anthology consists of the following short stories, only two of which feature Poirot. None of the other regulars are present.

The House of Dreams. A story of tragic love with some light supernatural elements. On the personal note it seems to me during the time of writing insanity was a big problem. These days a huge part of humanity are 100% certifiably insane, but nobody cares. On the contrary, insanity seems to be a new normal.


The Actress. A blackmailed actress decided to hit back at her blackmailer. The story was OK, but I was not too impressed with her method. She had to read more Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason series as the guy was dealing with blackmailers as a professional. To her excuse at the time the story took place that series has not been published yet.


The Edge. A story of jealousy and infidelity (it is called cheating these days). The interesting part was, I could not find a single decent character with the possible exception of Vicar. The guy only had enough screen time to conduct a couple of Sunday services, so it is hard to judge his morals. At least he had not done anything bad.


Christmas Adventure. An expanded and better-known version of this story is called The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. This is the only reason I read this book as I have not read this version yet. Indeed it feels like it needs to be expanded, but I also found it to be more focused than the better-known version.

The Lonely God. A romance story about two lonely people meeting in a museum by a statue of an unknown god. In accordance to all canons of the genre they went out of their way to artificially create all kinds of imaginable obstacles between themselves.


Within a Wall. A genius is often a big jackass when it comes to his/her life outside of work. At least in Agatha Christie's writings. Out of the top of my head I can think of The Hollow and Five Little Pigs. The latter shows especially strong resemblance as both it and this short story feature a genius artist - painter in both cases. Being jackasses such geniuses are never happy - to nobody's surprise.


The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest. A slightly expanded version of this story is called The Mystery of the Spanish Chest. The latter is included in almost all of the anthologies of Agatha Christie's stories. Once again I found the shorter version to be more focused. This one has Captain Hastings as Poirot's companion. The later one has Miss Lemon instead. Considering their contributions (none) it does not matter at all.

While the Light Lasts. A tragic romance story. I believe I have seen something similar in P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves story. Told humorously it works. Told seriously - sufficient to say I finished it just yesterday and had to refresh my memory as I completely forgot what it was about. Recommended for fans of early twentieth century tragic romances.


Manx Gold. To attract tourists Agatha Christie was hired to create clues for a treasure hunt. She did it in form of a short story - this one. By the way, Poirot fans would instantly recall Dead Man's Folly where Mrs. Oliver had to do exactly the same. In any way, the story was very average as both mystery and treasure hunting adventure. In real life this hunt became a flop.


On the whole I would say the stories are fairly forgettable as none made a profound impact on me, but it was nice to read the last published Poirot stories. Had I never read them before and had they been the only ones in the anthology I would have given 4 stars. As it is now: 3 stars.