The Tuesday night club

The Tuesday Night Club (originally called The Thirteen Problems ) is a collection of short stories by Agatha Christie . It first appeared in the United Kingdom in June 1932 at the Collins Crime Club and in 1933 in the United States at Dodd, Mead and Company under the title The Tuesday Club Murders . The Scherz Verlag (Bern; Stuttgart; Vienna) published the German first edition in 1962 with the translation by Maria Meinert. There is a more recent German translation by Renate Orth-Guttmann , which was first published in 2015 as part of the volume The Great Miss Marple Book - All Criminal Stories and was published separately by Atlantik in 2017. Some editions of Scherz and Fischer used the slightly different spelling of the Tuesday evening club between 1994 and 2013 .

In the thirteen short stories, Miss Marple solves unsolved problems in her own way.

These short stories are the first short stories with Miss Marple.

introduction

As in other collections of short stories, Christie gives the book edition a cleverly constructed framework that turns the collection into almost an episode novel. The first six stories are told in the Tuesday Night Club , a casual gathering at Miss Marple's house where stories of mysterious murders and unbelievable incidents are told. One of the guests is Sir Henry Clithering, a retired Scotland Yard commissioner. Other guests include Miss Marple's nephew Raymond West, a well-known writer, Joyce Lemprière, an artist and later wife of Raymond West, Dr. Pender, the parish chaplain, and Mr. Petherick, a lawyer.

The next six stories are told a year later during a dinner at Gossington Hall, the Bantry house where Sir Henry Clithering was joined by Dr. Lloyd, a senior doctor, and actress Jane Helier attend. The sixth person invited, at the suggestion of Sir Henry, is Miss Marple.

The thirteenth story takes place some time after this dinner. Miss Marple asks Sir Henry Clithering to investigate the death of a girl from St. Mary Mead. Your suspicion of an unnatural cause of death turns out to be correct.

The stories

The Tuesday night club

English Original Title: The Tuesday Night Club

Miss Marple has five guests at her St. Mary Mead home, namely her nephew and writer Raymond West, the artist Joyce Lemprière, the former Scotland Yard commissioner Sir Henry Clithering, the clergy Dr. Pender and the attorney Mr. Petherick. The question arises from the discussion as to which of the persons is best able to solve unsolved criminal cases based on their activity. The group decides that they meet every Tuesday evening and that one of the group presents a problem that they know how to solve.

Sir Henry Clithering begins with a story that was filed as an unsolved case a year ago and only cleared a few weeks earlier. He tells of three people whom he introduces as a married couple to Mr. and Mrs. Jones and their companion Miss Clark and who had eaten canned lobster, salad, casserole and bread and cheese together and then all three fell ill. Two people recovered, but the third person died. Mr. Jones was a handsome 50-year-old man, his wife was about 45 years old, and Miss Clark was about 60 and somewhat corpulent. On the eve of the day of the accident, Mr. Jones was in a hotel on business and a housekeeper saw a piece of blotting paper that Mr. Jones had previously used. She then recognized in the mirror the words "completely dependent on my wife ... when she is dead I will ... hundreds and thousands". When the housekeeper found out later in the paper that Mrs. Jones had died, she shared her observation. The rumor spread that Mr. Jones was interested in a young doctor's daughter and to calm the angry population, Mrs. Jones's body was exhumed. It turned out perfectly that Mrs. Jones had been poisoned with arsenic.

However, Mr. Jones did not inherit hundreds of thousands, but only about eight thousand pounds, and the suspicion of the relationship with the doctor's daughter could not be substantiated. However, the village doctor reported that he was called immediately and realized that Mrs. Jones was in dire straits, whereupon he ordered opium pills from home to relieve pain. He diagnosed fish poisoning, but the canned lobster had been completely eaten and the can had already been disposed of. The maid, Gladys Linch, said the lobster was in pristine condition. The suspicion that Mr. Jones had poisoned his wife with arsenic in the lobster seemed unlikely because the meal was already prepared when he got home from a business trip from Birmingham and everyone ate it together. Miss Clark was hardly suspected either, as she lost her job through the death of Mrs. Jones and did not inherit anything. Finally, Mr. Jones brought a plate of semolina to his wife's room, but she refused it and Miss Clark ate it in her place because she was craving a strict diet. The words on the note in the hotel room were explained by Mr. Jones straightforwardly with a letter in reply to his brother in Australia, in which he explained that he was completely dependent on his wife and that he could only get money for his brother after her death asked. He is in a situation like hundreds and thousands of people in the world.

Miss Marple's guests begin to express various theories. Miss Clark is suspected of hating Mrs. Jones and actually poisoning the semolina and not eating it herself. Another suspects the doctor's daughter, who sent her father arsenic instead of opium pills because she was in love with Mr. Jones and has now seen the opportunity to get rid of Mrs. Jones. Before Sir Henry resolves the case, he asks Miss Marple for her opinion out of courtesy. She says the case reminds her of a story of a former neighbor who, to the surprise of his wife, after his death bequeathed all of his money to a lover who was once his housemaid and with whom he had five children. Abruptly, Miss Marple asks Sir Henry if Gladys confessed and expressed the hope that Mr. Jones would hang for making Gladys a murderer. Miss Marple says she knew the words “hundreds and thousands” referred to sugar globules when she heard about casserole ( hundreds and thousands is another name for sugar pearls ; in the original English there was trifle instead of casserole) ).

Sir Henry confirms Miss Marple and resolves the case. Mr. Jones had made the maid Gladys pregnant and promised to marry her after his wife's death. He put the arsenic in the sugar globules and told Gladys to give them over the casserole later. He himself took it down from his portion and Miss Clark avoided the casserole because of her diet. Gladys confessed all of this to Sir Henry after Mr. Jones had left her, her child had died in childbirth, and she was now dying.

The temple of Astarte

Original title: The Idol House of Astarte

Dr. Pender tells the story of a man whose death had a seemingly unearthly cause. Sir Richard Haydon, a college friend of Dr. Penders, had bought a house on the outskirts of Dartmoor called the Grove of Silence . The surroundings of the house were dominated by the hilly heathland, which contained remains of the early Stone Age and a recently discovered barrow with bronze tools.

Sir Haydon invited Dr. Pender and seven other people, namely Richard Haydon's cousin Elliot Haydon, Lady Mannering and her daughter Violet, Captain Rogers and his wife, Dr. Symonds and Miss Diana Ashley. The latter was an attractive celebrity that Richard Haydon was drawn to. The day after their arrival, Richard Haydon showed his guests the landscape and led them to a grove , which Haydon was convinced was an authentic place for rites in honor of the moon goddess Astarte , which is why he bought a stone summer house in the middle of the grove as a substitute had built for a temple. Diana Ashley suggested having an orgy in the moonlight and indulging in the Astarte. The clergyman Dr. Pender felt himself surrounded by evil and refused. The other guests also felt uncomfortable and instead agreed on a costume party. Dr. Pender dressed in a monk's habit, Captain Rogers and his wife dressed up as cavemen, Richard Haydon as a seafarer, Elliot Haydon as a robber captain, Dr. Symonds as head chef, Lady Mannering as nurse and her daughter as Circassian slave. Diana Ashley last appeared, disappointing with a misshapen domino .

Diana Ashley disappeared during a walk and the others found her disguised as Astarte in the Astartenhain. She warned those who had arrived not to approach her, as she was holding death in her hand. Richard Haydon was enchanted by the apparition and approached Diana Ashley, who repeatedly threatened him with death. As he walked on, Richard Haydon fell to the ground and lay there. His cousin Elliot ran up to him, turned him around, and then called Dr. Symonds, because Richard Haydon had been stabbed. There was no gun to be found, and after the dead man was brought into the house, Elliot Haydon returned to the scene again. It wasn't until the next morning that he was looked for and found in the same place as his cousin, this time with a bronze dagger in his shoulder. He reported seeing an apparition of the Astarte on entering the summer house before he was knocked down. It turned out that the dagger came from the barrow and that Richard Haydon had acquired it. The police suspected Diana Ashley but could not prove anything to her or solve the case.

The members of the Tuesday night club puzzle over the solution. But Miss Marple is just unclear what led to Richard Haydon's fall. She suspects that he might have tripped over a root. It seems unquestionable to her that only his cousin Elliot could have stabbed him when he turned the fallen man over. He could hide the weapon as part of the robber costume. Dr. Pender confirms that Elliot wrote a letter to him five years after the incidents, confessed to the murder he committed because he was also in love with Diana Ashley and wanted to eliminate a rival with the death of his cousin and inherit his title and property. He later stabbed himself in the shoulder to dispel suspicion.

The missing gold bars

Original title: Ingots of Gold

Miss Marple's nephew Raymond West tells a story that happened two years ago. Raymond spent Whitsun in Cornwall with a new acquaintance named John Newman, who had acquired the rescue rights for a wrecked ship of the Spanish Armada . After years of unsuccessful attempts, Newman wanted to salvage the ship with his treasure. On the train ride to Cornwall, Raymond caught up with Inspector Badgworth and learned that they were both traveling to the same destination, but that the inspector was interested in a recent shipwreck, namely the Otranto, which sank six months ago and had gold bars on board. which divers could not find after the accident.

In Cornwall, Raymond went to the pub with Newman the following evening. There the innkeeper, Mr. Kelvin, told them that the police and other strangers had better stay away from local affairs. A storm broke the following Sunday, adding to Raymond's aroused discomfort. When the weather cleared in the evening, Newman went for a walk while Raymond went to bed early. After a restless night, Raymond thought he saw a gravedigger when he opened the window, until he recognized him as Newman's gardener who was planting a rose bed. But Raymond soon noticed that Newman had not returned from the walk and turned to Inspector Badgworth after an unsuccessful search. Newman was eventually found gagged and handcuffed in a remote ditch on his property. He reported seeing men walking along the cliffs who had brought something heavy into one of the caves by boat. They had spotted him and overpowered him, and drove a car to his own property. Inspector Badgworth was later able to prove that gold had recently been stacked in one of the caves and also found tire tracks with a triangular print on the seldom traveled route to Newman's property. This imprint matched the tires on the landlord's car, Mr. Kelvin, but a night nurse on site swore under oath that the car had not been driven that night.

While the other guests doubt the night nurse's statement, Miss Marple says Raymond should choose his friends more carefully. Sir Henry laughs and announces that he knows the case and that Miss Marple is right. He explains that Newman was jailed for looting the vault of a London bank and that the stolen Otranto gold was later found on his property in Cornwall. The rumors of a Spanish treasure helped Newman avoid attracting attention as a diver. Miss Marple explains that the tire print came from the fact that the wheel was removed from Mr. Kelvin's car and later screwed back on to leave the wrong track. Meanwhile, an accomplice tied Newman and laid him in the ditch, suspecting the alleged gardener behind it. He couldn't be a real gardener, says Miss Marple, because real gardeners don't work on Whit Mondays, and it was this detail that got them on the right track.

The red swimsuit

Original title: The Bloodstained Pavement

The outwitted spiritualist

Original title: Motive v. Opportunity

St. Peter's thumbprint

Original title: The Thumb Mark of St Peter

The blue geranium

Original title: The Blue Geranium

The partner

Original title: The Companion

The four suspects

Original title: The Four Suspects

The Christmas tragedy

Original title: A Christmas Tragedy

The death herb

Original title: The Herb of Death

The strange business with the bungalow

Original title: The Affair at the Bungalow

The Fall of St. Mary Mead

Original title: Death by Drowning

References to other works

Mrs. Bantry is the friend of Miss Marple, in whose library the deceased is found in the library and in whose country residence the murder in the mirror takes place.

Major expenses

• 1932 Collins Crime Club (London), June 1932
• 1933 Dodd Mead and Company (New York)
• 1962 German first edition Scherz Verlag in the translation by Maria Meinert
• 2017 New translation by Renate Orth-Guttmann, Atlantik Verlag, Hamburg

First publications of the short stories

All stories (except The Four Suspects ) appeared in monthly magazines in the UK. The first six in The Royal Magazine , illustrated by Gilbert Wilkinson:

• The Tuesday Night Club Issue 350 December 1927
• The Temple of Astarte Issue 351 January 1928
• The missing gold bars issue 352 February 1928
• The red bathing suit issue 353 March 1928
• The Outwitted Spiritist Issue 354 April 1928
• The Thumbprint of Saint Peter Issue 355 May 1928

After an eighteen month hiatus, the others appeared in The Story-Teller Magazine as follows:

• The blue geranium issue 272 December 1929
• A Christmas Tragedy (under the different title The Hat and the Alibi ) Issue 273 January 1930
• The Shareholder (under the different title The Resurrection of Amy Durrant ) Issue 274 February 1930.
• The death herb issue 275 in March 1930
• The four suspects issue 276 April 1930
• The Strange Affair with the Bungalow Issue 277 May 1930

The final story ( The Fall of St. Mary Mead ) appeared in Nash's Pall Mall Magazine, issue 462 in November 1931, with illustrations by JA May.

In the United States, the first six stories appeared in Detective Story Magazine in 1928, some with different titles.

The cover story ( The Tuesday Night Club ) had its first publication in a book back in 1928 in the anthology The Best Detective Stories of the Year 1928, edited by Ronald Knox and H. Harrington .

dedication

The book bears the dedication:
"To Leonard and Katharine Woolley"

Leonard Woolley (1880-1960), was a famous British archaeologist who led the excavations in Ur together with his wife Katharine (1888-1945) . Christie had met the two of them in 1928 on their first trip to the Middle East. Christie had taken this trip alone after her divorce from her first husband. Unusually for the Wooleys, she was welcomed with joy because Katherine had just read Christie's novel Alibi (novel) . Katherine was a very difficult woman, and Christie processed her character in the person of Louise Leidner in Murder in Mesopotamia . In 1930 Christie met her second husband Max Mallowan at this archaeological site .

Audio books

• 2003/2004 Miss Marples Cases (sound carrier): audio book; unabridged reading. Speaker: Ursula Illert. Director: Hans Eckardt: Publishing house and studio for audio book productions (Marburg / Lahn)

• 2005 The blue geranium (sound carrier): complete reading. Read by Achim Höppner . Director: Toni Nirschl: Der Hörverlag (Munich)

Web links

• The Thirteens Problems on the official Agatha Christie website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. Collins Crime Club - A checklist of First Editions . Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (Page 14)
2. ↑ John Cooper and BA Pyke. Detective Fiction - the collector's guide : Second Edition (Pages 82 and 87) Scholar Press. 1994. ISBN 0-85967-991-8
3. ↑ American Tribute to Agatha Christie
4. ↑ ^{a b} German first edition in the catalog of the German National Library
5. ↑ http://d-nb.info/1070794635 Entry in the German National Library.
6. ↑ http://d-nb.info/1120722837 Entry in the German National Library.
7. ^ The Tuesday evening club in the catalog of the German National Library
8. ^ Whit Monday was a bank holiday in the UK until 1967.
9. ↑ Morgan, Janet. Agatha Christie, A Biography . (Pages 171-172) Collins, 1984 ISBN 0-00-216330-6
10. ↑ Audiobook (complete) in the catalog of the German National Library
11. ^ The blue geranium (audio book, complete) in the catalog of the German National Library