The Thirteen Problems
Review of the novel The Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie
Published by William Collins & Co, 1932
Cost: 30p 1974
ISBN: 0-00-613397-5 (Paperback Edition - 192 pages)
Book dedication reads: To Leonard and Katherine Woolley
This is a collection of thirteen short stories, where Agatha Christie introduces Miss Marple, who would become her second major detective. The length of each of the stories varies between twelve and twenty pages. As a reader, you are either someone that loves short stories or prefers the full-length novel but it’s worth pursuing with this collection of tales. Although these stories were published as a short story collection in June 1932 in the UK, the first six stories from the collection initially appeared in the fiction magazine The Royal Magazine between 1927-1928.
The first story - The Tuesday Night Club - sets the scene. Five guests are in the sitting-room of Miss Marple’s home and decide to entertain themselves by telling a story with a mystery ending that the others must try to solve. The guests have a wide range of worldly experience: there is her nephew the writer Raymond West, the artist Joyce Lemprière, Sir Henry Clithering (a former Scotland Yard commissioner), a clergyman called Dr Pender, and Mr Petherick, a solicitor. As the back cover of the paperback book explains:
The problems posed range widely from brutal murder by poisoning to the mysterious disappearance of gold bars from a galleon … From a hideously bloodstained pavement to a violent and supernatural death …
And from the crime that had not yet been committed to the thief who committed his crime twice …
Raymond West introduces the reader to Miss Marple:
The room was an old one with broad black beams across the ceiling and it was furnished with good old furniture that belonged to it.
His Aunt Jane’s house always pleased him as the right setting for her personality. He looked across the hearth to where she sat erect in the big grandfather chair. Miss Marple wore a black brocade dress, very much pinched in round the waist. Mechlin lace was arranged in a cascade down the front of the bodice. She had on black lace mittens, and a black lace cap surmounted the piled-up masses of her snowy hair. She was knitting – something white and soft and fleecy. Her faded blue eyes, benignant and kindly, surveyed her nephew and her nephew’s guests with gentle pleasure.
The description of Miss Marple is not developed any further; we learn about her skills as a detective through her approach to solving the mysteries presented to the group – much to the surprise of her companions that are eager to show their own prowess as crime solving.
Effectively the thirteen stories are separated into two parts; a regular Tuesday dinner party at the home of Miss Marple for stories 1-6 and a dinner party held by Mrs Bantry at Gossington Hall for stories 7-12, with an additional standalone story completing the collection.
Christie’s development of the Miss Marple character is presented through her solution of the mysteries. In each case Miss Marple relates her thoughts back to her knowledge and experience of life in the village and its inhabitants, having observed their behaviour over many years. After enjoying the reading of the first few stories it is obvious to the reader that it will only be Miss Marple that will be able to solve the mysteries correctly, but that does not spoil the pleasure of the tales and it is the method of arriving at the solution that is most enjoyable.
Christie would later take some of the ideas from these short stories and use part of them in a full-length novel or in the case of an included short story, The Companion, into a full-length novel in its own right - A Murder is Announced.
The thirteenth story in the collection, Death by Drowning, takes place sometime after the dinner party at Gossington Hall when Miss Marple finds out that Sir Henry Clithering is staying with Mrs Bantry and asks him to help in a local investigation surrounding the death of a girl in the village. Miss Marple bases her solution to the crime on the fact that Mrs Bartlett takes in washing as extra income, and on Fridays she takes it round in an old pram, returning it to the respective individuals.
The Stories in the collection:
1. The Tuesday Night Club – told by Sir Henry Clithering
2. The Idol House of Astarte – told by Dr Pender
3. Ingots of Gold – told by Raymond West
4. The Bloodstained Pavement – told by Joyce Lempriѐre
5. Motive v. Opportunity – told by Mr Petherick
6. The Thumb Mark of St. Peter – told by Miss Marple
7. The Blue Geranium – told by Arthur Bantry
8. The Companion – told by Dr Lloyd
9. The Four Suspects – told by Sir Henry Clithering
10. A Christmas Tragedy – told by Miss Marple
11. The Herb of Death – told by Dolly Bantry
12. The Affair at the Bungalow – told by Jane Helier
13. Death by Drowning – a Miss Marple story
I have decided not to review the individual stories as the tales are quite short and there is very little insight into the leading characters, however, some appear in further Christie stories and are developed further as they help Miss Marple in her investigation into the murders that take place in the village, and while she is on holiday. Miss Marple appears in twelve full-length novels and twenty short stories. Rating: 5 stars
Dr James Sheppard
18 November 2016
