Pandora's box (book)

Pandora's Box (original title Partners in Crime ) is a collection of crime stories by Agatha Christie , first published in 1929 in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company and on September 16 of the same year in the United Kingdom by William Collins & Sons. For the German first edition in 1965 under the title Die Büchse der Pandora in Scherzverlag twelve crime stories were translated by Lotte Schwarz. In 2011, the missing four stories were translated into German by Heike Steffen and published by the French publisher Hachette Collections as the 72nd volume in: The Official Collection Agatha Christie .

All of the stories were first published in various magazines (see First Story Publications ).

It investigates Tommy and Tuppence Beresford , two detectives who first appeared in the novel A Dangerous Adversary from 1922. Tuppence is actually called Prudence and the child's pronunciation is reminiscent of English. twopence.

introduction

An old friend of the Beresfords, Mr. Carter (who works for an undisclosed intelligence agency) makes the adventurous couple an offer. You can take over The International Detective Agency Blunt, whose owner is currently on another mission. They can pretend they own the property until they get a secret message - a possibility the young couple really likes. They employ Albert, already known from A dangerous enemy, as an assistant. He acts well-meaning, but sometimes also unhappy.

Eager and willing, the two begin to investigate in different cases. In each of these cases, they mimick a famous detective of the time, including Sherlock Holmes and Christie's own Hercule Poirot .

At the end of the book, Tuppence says that she is pregnant and does not want to play a role in the espionage business in the future.

action

The visit of the fairy / A cup of tea

(Original title A Fairy in the Flat / A Pot of Tea )

Prudence ("Tuppence") Beresford, who has been married to Tommy for six years, is bored with her housewife life, but not with her husband. She carelessly discusses the exciting adventures with German spies or traveling to the Soviet Union. Your speech is interrupted by the arrival of Mr. Carter (see A Dangerous Adversary ), who offers you to take over the international detective agency, whose owner, Theodore Blunt, is now in jail for some indiscretions. The secret service bought the detective agency and wants to use it as a postal address. In the meantime, Tommy and Tuppence could work normally as detectives. Only when blue letters arrive to Mr. Blunt with Russian stamps that also have a 16 under the stamp, or when someone comes into the office and calls the sixteen, should they notify Mr. Carter immediately.

After a few days, the two of them settled down in the office - Tommy as Mr. Blunt and Tuppence as his secretary, Miss Robinson. Alfred (the lift boy from A dangerous enemy ) works as an office assistant. After a week of only dealing with divorce cases that Tuppence finds distasteful, Lawrence St. Vincent visits her office. He is the nephew and heir of the Earl of Cheriton. He fell in love with a young girl named Janet who works in a hat shop on Brooks Street, but she has now disappeared from the shop and from her apartment. St. Vincent had heard Janet talk about the Blunt Detective Agency several times, so he's here for the two of them to find Janet. The Beresfords take over the case and Tuppence can easily solve it because Janet is a friend from the war days. Both made up the story. She just disappeared so that St. Vincent can finally ask for her hand and the detective agency get good publicity.

The pink pearl

(Original title The Affair of the Pink Pearl )

Tommy puts out some books in the office, they are famous detective stories, and he thinks it might be a good idea to rely on her techniques and the different styles in the investigation. He also bought a good camera that he wants to take photos of the footprints and "all the other things" with. You get a client, a young woman named Miss Kingston Bruce. She lives at Wimbledon with her parents who run a guesthouse. Last night one of her guests lost a precious pink pearl. Since they don't want to call in the police at the moment, Lawrence St. Vincent, who also lives with them, recommended the Blunt detective agency to them. The Beresfords go to Wimbledon and meet Colonel Kingston Bruce. He proudly tells that Lady Laura Barton, daughter of the late Earl of Carroway, lives with them, along with an American couple, Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton Betts, who wanted to meet a lady with a title. During an after-dinner bridge game , the clasp on Mrs. Betts' chain, a chain with a pink pearl pendant, broke. She put the chain on a small table but forgot to take it upstairs to her room. The next morning the necklace was still there, but the pearl was missing. In addition to the Kingston Bruces, the Betts, Lady Laura and St. Vincent, a Mr. Rennie was the only other guest to court the daughter of the house. Your father doesn't like that connection because he's a socialist . No one was allowed to leave the house except for the daughter who was sent to the Blunts. The family also gives permission to search the house as part of the investigation.

Tommy tries to impress by using his new camera. Tuppence tactfully tries to question the staff. Overhearing a conversation between mother and daughter Kingston about someone taking a teaspoon in their muff home, she wonders what that means. Tuppence later learns from Elise, Lady Laura's French girl, that her mistress suffers from a kind of kleptomania ; five times in the past things have disappeared when visiting friends. They begin to search Lady Laura's bedroom and bathroom, but are held up because Elise cannot open the door. Tommy takes photos with Elise's help, suddenly he says quietly that he has an idea and has to go outside. In the meantime, she should keep Lady Laura in the house.

Some time later he returns with Inspector Marriot from Scotland Yard. You go straight to the bathroom and cut a bar of soap in half - and find the pearl in the soap. The reason Elise couldn't open the door was because she still had soap on her hands after hiding the pearl. When she helped Tommy take pictures, she left her fingerprints on the plates. In the yard they identified them as those of an escaped criminal and Elise was arrested. Working with a lady known as a kleptomaniac - a teaspoon in a muff - was the best cover she could get.

The mysterious stranger

(Original title: The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger )

Tuppence is bored, there is little to do in the agency when she receives a package. It contains a silver cigarette case: For Francis von Tuppence. Tuppence had given it to General Francis Haviland, whom she had driven in the war, for his wedding. Tommy's derogatory remarks about the general are interrupted by the arrival of the mail: the first Russian blue letter. Now, too, they are interrupted by the arrival of a tall man with a clubfoot, who turns out to be the doctor Dr. Charles Bower from Hampstead issues. He has been called twice in the past two weeks for an emergency, and both times the call turned out to be a joke. Every time he returned home he found evidence that his study was carefully searched, certainly in search of his research on alkaloids . However, he has hidden these papers in a secret compartment on his desk. Today he got another call to see a patient in Bournemouth , but he found out that this was just another attempt to get him out of the house. He expects another search of his study that night, and he wants the blunts to be in the house when the third attempt is made.

Bower leaves and his clubfoot reminds Tuppence of the Okewood brothers. Tommy decides to be Desmond while Tuppence is Francis. Their next visitor is Detective Inspector Dymchurch of Scotland Yard, a colleague from Marriot who knows the need to look at the blue letters and the Bower follows. The doctor's real concern, however, is to lure the blunts out of their office so that it can be searched for the blue letter. Tommy and Dymchurch make a new plan to return to the office that night and catch the agents. They do, but it's a trap and Tommy is tied up. Because Dymchurch is a foreign agent. Bower (in reality Bauer) is also a member of the gang. They use violence to try to find out where the letter is from Tommy. He says that Tuppence has it, he writes her to take it to the office, but signs with Francis, like on the cigarette case that he still has with him. He shows it to the agents to prove to them that this is his real name, and not Theodore Blunt. Tuppence comes into the office, but, alarmed by the false name, has brought Inspector Marriot and some armed policemen with him. "Dymchurch" and his accomplices are arrested.

The gentleman in newspaper

(Original title Finessing the King / The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper )

Tuppence is bored and while reading the Daily Leader , she decides that she wants to go dancing. Tommy, who doesn't feel like it, tries to distract her with the interesting fact that you can tell from the smudges of color in the imprint of the newspaper on which day it was printed. But his wife discovered an advertisement in the personal section:

“Would play three cards of hearts. Twelve stitches. Ace of Spades. You have to cut the king. "

Tuppence concludes that this ad has to do with tomorrow's Ball of the Three Arts (Coeur). 12 tricks means 12 o'clock and the ace of spades is the name of a decadent nightclub in Chelsea that is popular after a ball. Because she can't do anything with "cut the king", they decide to go to the ball as detectives Tommy McCarty (ex-cop) and Dennis Riordan (firefighter).

Shortly before twelve the two leave the ball and go to the "Ace of Spades". You sit in one of the private boxes and watch the other costumed guests come and go. A woman dressed as the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland and a man dressed entirely in newspaper arrive in the neighboring box . After a while they hear the woman scream, the man laughs, and then they see him leave. The two become suspicious and after a few minutes go into the box - they find the woman: with a stab in the heart. Before she dies, she whispers: "It was bingo ..."

The next day, Inspector Marriot brings Sir Arthur Merivale, the husband of the dead woman Lady Vere Merivale, to the Beresfords. “Bingo” turns out to be Captain Hale, the couple's best friend, who even lives in the house. Hale is arrested. Merivale doesn't know what the motive for the murder was. But he suspects that the two had a relationship. Vere may have threatened to tell a rich American woman whom Hale had an eye on. Tuppence shows Sir Arthur the ad from the Daily Leader and how the two were communicating. Another lead is a piece of newspaper that Vere ripped off his costume. Marriot comes back later with a photo of this piece from the newspaper, it is supposed to convict Hale for good. But Tuppence senses that he is not satisfied with the solution to the case.

When he left, Tuppence looks at the photograph again and discovers the striking blobs in the imprint - the tear-off comes from a costume in the newspaper on Tuesday, but Hale's costume was from the newspaper on Wednesday. You invite Sir Arthur again, Marriot hides in the apartment. They confront him with their results and he laughs out loud - the laughter they heard that night too. They confront him with the truth: after writing to Hale not to see his wife, he also got himself a newspaper costume, went into the box and stabbed his own wife. When Sir Arthur realizes that there is no way out, he rushes out the window. Marriot found the motive that he had large debts that he wanted to repay with his wife's fortune.

The missing lady

(Original title The Case of the Missing Lady )

The international detective agency receives a visit from Gabriel Stavansson, the famous polar explorer who has just returned from a two-year expedition from the North Pole . He found out about the Beresfords through an article in the Daily Mirror and is impressed with their achievements. He decides to hand the case over to them.

Before he went on his long expedition, he was engaged to the honorable Mrs. Hermione Leigh Gordon, whose first husband had died in World War I. He was returning to England earlier than advertised and his first thought was to storm to London to see his fiancee, who lives with her aunt, Lady Susan Clonray, on Pont Street. Lady Susan was surprised to see him and answered evasively when asked about her niece's whereabouts. She said something about visiting friends in the north of the country. Stavansson and Lady Susan had never got along well. This was partly due to his aversion to larger women (like Lady Susan was one) and partly because she had refused the engagement.

He insisted on getting the friends' names and traveled north. But none of the friends had had contact with his fiancée in the past few months. Lady Susan seemed genuinely upset when he called her back with the news. At that moment a telegram comes from Hermione, sent in Maldon, in which she writes that she has left for Monte Carlo . Stavansson drives to Maldon, but finds no trace of Hermione there either, so he has now decided to visit the Blunts.

Tommy and Tuppence go to Maldon themselves, but also find nothing of the missing woman. But then Tuppence remembers that there are two Maldons - one in Surrey , where they did their research, and another little village of the same name in Sussex . They travel there and discover an isolated private clinic near the village. They suspect Hermione there, but neither in the role of a friend nor in that of a journalist they manage to gain entry. The doctor who runs the clinic comes under suspicion and they determine he has a bad reputation.

When they return that night and Tommy climbs up a ladder to look into the house, he sees a woman moaning loudly. Tommy recognizes Hermione from a photograph they received from Stavansson. She is tied to a bed and given injections. Later he wants to free her, but he comes back to Tuppence alone. He declares the case is resolved. Hermione volunteers at the clinic. She had put on a lot of weight in the two years she was alone, and knowing of Stavansson's dislike for it, she wanted to lose weight on a radical cure before he returned to the clinic. Feeling a bit teased, the two leave and Tommy says that this case shouldn't take up any place in their collection, because "there was really nothing special about him".

Blindman's Buff

(Original title Blindman's Buff )

Tommy receives a call from Mr. Carter warning him and Tuppence that certain circles involved in the blue Russian letter have heard that he has taken the place of Blunt and that something is bound to happen soon. Tommy suggests that Tuppence stay home for her own safety, but she refuses.

In order to bridge the pickle time at the agency, they want to deal with the methods of the blind detective Thornley Colton. Tommy puts on a pair of black eye patches and uses his other senses to explore his surroundings. They want to go to the Blitz Hotel for lunch so they can continue working on their new roles in the restaurant.

In the Blitz they are approached by two men who were previously in the agency, but had learned there that the Blunts were in the Blitz. They were recommended the Blunts, but they didn't know that Blunt was blind. You introduce yourself as the Earl of Blairgowrie and his friend Captain Harker. The Count's daughter has been kidnapped under such strange circumstances that he cannot call the police. He asks the Blunts to accompany him to his house immediately. Tommy agrees, but not before he has had a cup of coffee and given Albert instructions for tomorrow's meal with the French prefect of police. Tommy and the Count leave the hotel in one car and Captain Harker and Tuppence in another.

But that too is another trap. The "Count" is really after the Russian letter, he holds a pistol to Tommy's head and takes him to a hiding place, where he ties him to a chair and is sardonically pleased. He says the floor of the room is made of metal, which he will now electrify. He will get Tommy to walk around the room. If he hits a certain point, he will die. He gives him back his white cane and unties him, the game will soon begin. Tommy coolly takes a cigarette and wants to light it, but since he sensed the trap, he takes a lighter with a magnesium flame. The count is blinded, drops the pistol and is hit by Tommy's stick, which is actually a sword. He tells him that he is not blind at all. Full of anger, the Count jumps up to Tommy and hits the very spot in the ground that is electrified and dies.

Tommy manages to get out of the house and calls Tuppence from a phone booth. She's safe because Tommy's orders from the hotel were code words from Clinton Staggs' stories to get Albert to help. He had shadowed her and freed her from "Captain Harker".

The man in the fog

(Original title The Man in the Mist )

Tommy and Tuppence suffered a setback after being unable to solve their last case - the theft of a pearl necklace. Instead, the local police inspector solved the case. In order not to attract attention in the pursuit of the suspects, Tommy had put on a priestly robe. The two later retired to lick their wounds with cocktails in a hotel. There they meet an old friend, Mervyn Estcourt - called "Bulger" - who is in a relationship with the famous actress Gilda Glen, a woman famous for her beauty and lack of intelligence. Miss Glen doesn't see through Tommy's game with Father Brown's costume . The Beresfords want to go back to the station and ask for directions. It runs through Morgans Avenue, along the cemetery. When the name of the street is mentioned, Miss Glen yells: You can't go through this street, there is a haunted police officer. Miss Glenn hastily leaves the group and is met at the revolving door by Lord Leconbury, who is said to be engaged to her. Bulger also leaves the lobby and Tommy receives a note from Miss Glen asking for help: At 6:10 p.m. in the White House on Morgans Avenue.

While Tommy and Tuppence are still discussing what that means, an excited young man, Reilly, storms into the hall, cursing all women and especially Gilda Glen, whom he loves more than anything and whom he should kill with his own hands if she marries the Lord becomes. After this outburst of anger, he storms out again.

Tommy and Tuppence make their way to Morgans Avenue. The fog is thick and you hear others as well as your own steps. Suddenly a huge policeman appears in front of them. Tuppence is terribly shocked. As they get closer, however, they realize that the policeman is real. They are standing by the fence of the White House and the officer explains that Mrs. Honeycott lives there and that he saw Miss Glen walk in a few minutes ago. Reilly storms past them and pounds on the door.

After you let him in, he storms upstairs, screams and comes out again, with something like red paint on his hand, now on the door post. The two of them go into the house, meet Ellen, the maid, and are shown to Mrs. Honeycott. She thinks Tommy is a real priest and asks him for help with Gilda, who she explains is her sister. More than twenty years ago, at the age of seventeen, she had married against her family's will and was now seeking a divorce in order to marry Lord Leconbury. But her husband refuses to agree. Because the wedding was so long ago, Mrs. Honeycott can't even remember the man's name. But it wasn't Reilly. Tommy is getting nervous and really wants to go upstairs. There they find Gilda's body, his head smashed in with a blunt object. Tuppence picks up the cop from outside and they learn from Mrs. Honeycott that she heard her sister come home at 6:08 pm while she was setting the big clock. That also agrees with what the policeman said.

The next day, Reilly is arrested and Tommy and Tuppence meet with his lawyer, Mr. Marvell. Reilly claims the woman was already dead when he got into her room. There was nobody else in the house, so you'd think either Ellen or Mrs. Honeycott killed them. Suddenly Tommy notices that nobody really saw Gilda come into the house, because the two women had been in the kitchen until then, where they couldn't hear or see anything. The footsteps that Mrs. Honeycott heard were those of her killer - as he left the house - as was the policeman Tommy and Tuppence met with his truncheon outside the house in the fog and was Gilda's husband whom she married twenty years ago would have.

The Raschler

(Original title The Crackler )

Blunt's detective agency is doing well. Tommy wants a bigger office so he can have more shelves to display the classics by Edgar Wallace, the method of which he now wants to study. Inspector Marriot asks the two of them to help them look for the source of a plethora of counterfeit one-pound notes. It appears that most of these notes first appear in London's West End. But they are also brought to the mainland via the canal. The police are particularly interested in a Major Laidlaw who runs on the racecourses. He and his French wife always seem to have a lot of money. It may, but does not have to be, a coincidence that most of the banknotes turned up in a casino where the two were guests. Gambling and horse racing are great ways to launder the money. A friend of the Laidlaws is Lawrence St. Vincent, and so there might be a chance to get acquainted with them. Marriot leaves and Tommy and Tuppence make their plans to catch the head of the counterfeiters - the "rustle", as Tommy called it after the sound that banknotes make.

The two can quickly sneak into the circle of friends of the Laidlaws. And like the couple themselves, Mrs. Laidlaw's French father, Monsieur Heroulade, comes under suspicion. They watch the laidlaws place their bets and can prove that there are again forgeries among the banknotes. Marguerite Laidlaw is a very beautiful woman with a number of admirers; Among them is the rich American Hank Ryder, who tells Tommy that she is afraid of her husband. He, too, fell victim to the forgeries, because when he tried to deposit his winnings in the bank, they were rejected there.

The next night, Tommy goes to the casino and Mrs. Laidlaw hands him several banknotes, which he is to exchange for larger ones, including a few false ones. His first suspicion is Monsieur Heroulade, but he is distracted when he finds Hank Ryder drunk on the street as he leaves the casino. From his stammering, Tommy can tell that Mrs. Laidlaw took him on a treasure hunt that also led to Whitechapel , where she found five hundred pounds. Tommy heads to Whitechapel with Ryder to find the job again. Ryder leads him to a row of row houses. Ryder points to one and claims it was there. They all have the same door, but Tommy makes a chalk cross on one of them. They enter but Ryder thinks he heard something and goes back to see. Tommy goes further into the house and finds the whole gang of forgers and, when the door opens again, also their boss: the Raschler - Hank Ryder. He said he mistrusted Tommy from the start, and when Tommy marked the door he went out into the street again and marked all the other doors as well. But his triumph did not last long, because the doors were thrown open and the police rushed in to arrest the gang, because Tommy had not only marked the door, but also dumped a bottle of valerian, so that all the cats in the area could come to this place came. Albert, who had followed them on the motorcycle, had called the police.

The Sunningdale Enigma

(Original title The Sunningdale Mystery )

Tommy takes Tuppence to lunch at an ABC shop, where he tells her that they now want to take on the roles from The Old Man in the Corner , and Tuppence plays the role of journalist Polly Burton. They want to test their skills on a case that is currently on everyone's lips and about which Tommy brought a newspaper clipping - the Sunningdale secret.

The facts are as follows: Two men, Captain Anthony Sessle and Mr. Hollaby, business associates and both members of Sunningdale Golf Club, had played a full round of golf on Wednesday and wanted to play a few more holes before it got dark. On the way to teeing off the seventh hole, Hollaby sees Sessle talking to a mysterious woman in a brown coat. While the two are talking, they walk down a side path. After a few moments, Sessle returns. Something has bothered him so much that his game falls apart completely, and two holes later he breaks up and allegedly returns to his bungalow alone. The existence of the woman in brown, the brief return of the chair and his bad game are testified by two other members of the club who lay one hole back and had to wait to tee off.

The next morning, Sessle is found on the seventh tee, stabbed with a hatpin in his heart. The police investigation leads to a young girl, Doris Evans. She is arrested and told that she met Sessle in the cinema. He invited her to his bungalow on a day when neither his wife nor the servants were in the house. That day he met her on his return from the golf course. He acted strangely and then, supposedly for a walk, they went to the golf course. At the tee of the seventh hole he suddenly took out a revolver to kill her and himself. She was able to wrest herself from his hands and flee. It also emerges that Sessle and Hollabys' company is bankrupt and that large amounts have been embezzled.

Across the table, Tuppence immediately realizes that Doris did not commit the murder, because nowadays women no longer wear hatpins , and someone who has no idea about today's fashion wants to make the murder look like it was committed by a woman would have been. Tommy remembers that there is a small hut near the seventh hole, and the two discuss that the woman in the brown coat may have been a man in disguise. Further discussion leads to Tuppence's theory that the criminal in the company wasn't Sessle, but Hollaby and his son, speculating that the woman was Hollaby Junior. They reconstruct the crime as follows: Hollaby's son lures Sessle away so that the other players could see it. He stabs him, puts him in the hut and then takes on his role in the game of golf, which is why "Sessle" plays so badly. Then he goes to the bungalow, where the meeting with Doris Evans was arranged, which then led to the actions that led to the arrest of Doris Evans.

The Beresfords are wondering how they can make their story plausible to the police, but have overlooked the fact that Inspector Marriot is sitting at the next table and overhearing everything. He can now take all necessary measures.

The house of death

(Original title The House of Lurking Death )

At the detective agency, the Beresfords receive a visit from a well-dressed young woman who introduces herself as Lois Hargreaves from Thurnly Grange, a house in the country. A week ago, her household received an anonymous box of chocolates in the mail. Since she doesn't like chocolate, she was the only one who didn't eat the unexpected gift. Everyone else got sick and it was found that the members of the household were suffering from arsenic poisoning. It is the third incident of its kind in this area. What perturbs Miss Hargreaves most of all is that the paper the box of chocolates was wrapped in was paper that came from her household. So the perpetrator has to be someone from your own house.

Miss Hargreaves is a wealthy heiress. She inherited her fortune from her aunt, a Lady Radclyffe, who in turn inherited from her late husband, who made his fortune himself. Lois lived with her widowed aunt and she always made it clear to her that she would bequeath most of her fortune to her nephew, Dennis Radclyffe. After a violent dispute with the young man, however, she changed her will in favor of Lois, who in turn bequeathed the money to Dennis in her will. He also lives on Grange with Miss Logan, an elderly lady and distant cousin of Dennis and former associate of Lady Radclyffe. Mary Chilcott, an old school friend of Lois' lives next to the employees. The servants are a cook and a kitchen maid, a housemaid named Esther, and an older girl, Hannah.

It is agreed that Tommy and Tuppence will travel to Grange the next day. But shortly before they leave, they receive news that Lois is dead, killed by an unknown poison, and that Dennis and Miss Logan are also seriously ill. Fig paste is found to be the cause on some of the sandwiches the three of them ate. Only Mary Chilcott is unscathed. You meet with Dr. Burton, who looks after the patients and informs them that Dennis has also passed away. The poison has not yet been identified, but it is clear that it is not arsenic. Upon investigating the matter, they discover that Dennis was not in the house when the sandwiches were served. It is believed that he ate one when he got home. However, Tommy finds out that he drank a cocktail that one of the girls handed him. It prevents the glass from being washed off.

Wanting to talk to everyone in the house, they also run into Hannah, who seems to have succumbed to a religious delusion in which she brings spells and fire and brimstone to everyone. She has an old book by Edward Logan, Miss Logan's father, on medicine and poisons. Edward Logan was a pioneer in serum therapy. They also learn from Hannah that the old lady had many punctures in her arms.

You are on the phone with Dr. Burton and Burton learn that the poison has been identified as ricin , and from the foreword to Edward Logan's old book, they conclude that Miss Logan is the murderer. The punctures on her arms are from injections of small doses of the poison that she gave herself to build immunity to the poison. As Dennis 'next of kin, she inherits his fortune that he received after Lois' death. Hannah had suspected Miss Logan before when she saw her reading the book and laughing to herself. Upon hearing Tommy confront Miss Logan with the allegations, she rushes into the room and attacks Miss Logan, causing a fire to break out. As a result of this attack, she suffers a heart attack and dies. Dr. Burton discovers ricin in the cocktail glass.

An unwavering alibi

(Original title The Unbreakable Alibi )

Tommy's and Tuppence's newest client is a personable, rich, but a little simple-minded young man named Mr. Montgomery Jones. He met an Australian girl, Una Drake, and immediately fell madly in love with her. In her love of detective stories, she made a bet with him that he could not prove her own alibi was forged. He wants to give her everything she wants as a bet, and if she loses, he can ask for something from her. In this case he wants to ask for her hand. Because he knows how things are about his intelligence, he now asks the Beresfords for help. The alibi is that last Tuesday, Miss Drake went to dinner in a restaurant in Soho , then went to the West End to see a show, then went to the Savoy Hotel for dinner with Mr. le Marchant . At the same time she stayed one night at the Castle Hotel in Torquay and returned to London the next morning. Armed with a photograph of Miss Drake and the knowledge of Inspector French's methods, Tommy and Tuppence go to an interview with Mr. le Marchant, who confirms that he had spent part of the evening with the young lady. But he also heard from a friend that he saw the lady at the Castle Hotel in Devonshire that same evening. Tommy and Tuppence then go to the Soho restaurant where Miss Drake is recognized and then travel to Torquay, where they find ample evidence that Miss Drake was at the hotel all night and left for London at the appropriate time. Back in London they also find some people they saw at the Savoy, and their landlady and roommate also confirm that they spent the night in their own bed.

They try to solve the problem all evening and have to realize that they are at a loss. You go to bed, the next morning Tuppence wakes up with an inspiration. She sends a telegram to support her idea. Later that day she goes back to the office with the solution: Una has a twin sister, as confirmed by the telegram from Australia, who arrived in England the evening before the events. The happy sisters just wanted to play a prank on Montgomery Jones.

The pastor's daughter

(Original title The Clergyman's Daughter / The Red House )

It is just before Christmas when a young woman, Monica Deane, calls the Blunt detective agency. She and her impoverished, disabled and widowed mother inherited a house from a wealthy sister of her father some time ago. They also expected to inherit some money, but to their surprise it did not. But they didn't want to sell the house because it was so much nicer than their little apartment and so they planned to open the house to paying guests in order to earn a small income. All went well for a while, until strange things began to happen - pictures fell from the walls - dishes broke when nobody was in the room - a poltergeist who frightened their guests and ruined their income. A Dr. O'Neill of a physical research company visited them and offered to buy the house to continue his research. But Monica thinks she recognizes a young man in him who has already made them an offer for the house. The only occupant of the house is currently Crockett, a former housemaid of Monica's aunt, who has a young nephew of whom she is very proud.

Tommy and Tuppence travel to the house and begin their investigations. They suspect that the old lady has hidden her money in the house. Tommy visits the local bank and learns that she withdrew all of her money some time before she died. Under the guise of potential buyers, Monica gives them a number of papers from their aunt. Before they can examine them further, they hear a loud noise and discover a fallen sink in the room above them. When they go to question Crockett, she is out of breath. It seems to get around that the two want to buy the house, because Monica receives an offer from “Dr. O'Neill ”, which increases its offer. It quickly becomes clear that Crockett is behind the extraordinary events and that her nephew is the doctor who tries to get possession of the house in order to be able to search for the treasure himself.

Looking through the papers, Tommy and Tuppence discover one that contains an anagram . You brood over the solution, but then find it - potatoes. Another paper contains a recipe for how to keep potatoes fresh for the winter. They should be put in cans and buried. They ask the former gardener whether the old lady preserved her potatoes like this. He says yes, and they dig in the spot and find some tins of potatoes, but also one with two hundred pounds in gold, twenty thousand pounds in banknotes and an expensive pearl necklace. Monica Deane and her mother have found happiness, and she and the Beresfords are enjoying a merry Christmas.

The ambassador's boots

(Original title The Ambassador's Boots )

The Blunt Detective Agency is visited by the Ambassador of the United States, Randolph Wilmott, who returned from a visit to his home country a week ago. Soon after his arrival he is informed by his valet that his duffel bag, although marked with his initials, has been exchanged on board the ship for that of another passenger with the same initials, that of Senator Ralph Westerham. His servant quickly brought him back and the mix-up could be reversed. Now the puzzling thing is that Mr. Wilmott met Mr. Westerham yesterday. However, the Senator did not know about such a mistake by the shipping company, in particular he did not have a duffel bag under his luggage on the trip across the Atlantic. Mr. Wilmott knows this is a trivial matter, but his curiosity has been piqued and he asks the agency to investigate.

At the invitation of Mr. Wilmott, the Beresfords visit the US embassy and speak to Richards, the ambassador's servant, who confirms the story. Shortly before the senator's servant appeared, he had started unpacking the duffel bag and was able to see the contents. The duffel bag contained a pair of boots and toiletries, including a can of bath salts. While Tommy is still wondering how the luggage was tampered with on the trip, Richards remembers an incident on the trip. A young lady, Eileen O'Hara, went nauseous right outside the ambassador's cabin and Richards took her into the cabin. While he fetched the doctor, she was there alone. When he came back with the doctor, she was feeling better. Tommy decides to contact Miss O'Hara through a complaint, even at the risk of being warned if she is involved in the case. Two days later, Miss Cicely March appears in Tommy's office after reading the ad. But before she can tell her story, a dark-haired, Spanish-looking man storms in at gunpoint. He had followed Miss March, in whom he recognized a fellow passenger from the ship and who he suspected might thwart his plans. But before he can use the weapon, Albert overpowers him and disarms him. Tommy escorts him out without calling the police.

Alone with Tommy, Miss March now tells her story. She had seen the incident with Miss O'Hara, but she also witnessed how the lonely in the cabin and feeling unobserved, did something in the lining of the ambassador's boot through a slit she had previously cut. Angered by what she had seen, Miss March later went back into the empty cabin and took the object. It is a sheet of paper with verses from the Bible. Yesterday this sheet accidentally got wet and suddenly something appeared on it that looks like a map of a port. The paper is in her workplace, a beauty salon on Bond Street , where she plans to sell it to a US agent. Tommy leaves a message for Tuppence and heads to Bond Street with Miss March. They are waving at a taxi when Tommy notices that this taxi driver a little ahead has rejected a passenger. He says that they are being watched and suggests walking. Once there, you enter the salon through the front entrance. Tommy sees a customer and two men waiting. You go into the back room and Tommy is instantly overwhelmed. But rescue comes immediately, because the customer was Tuppence and the two men are from the police, alerted by Tommy's message. He had seen a little look of disappointment on Miss March's face when he and Albert got over the attacker in the office. So she was from the enemy camp. It had also become clear to him that it was not about the ambassador's boot, but only about a short exchange of luggage to avoid customs. He delayed his arrival at the salon until Tuppence could organize help. When they search the salon, they find more cans of bath salts, and all of them contain cocaine.

The man who number 16 was

(Original title The Man Who Was No. 16 )

Mr. Carter congratulates the Beresfords on their successes at the agency. At the same time, he warns them that Moscow may have noticed the absence of its agent, Mr. Blunt, and will send an agent to investigate. This agent is known to Mr. Carter from the past, speaks several languages ​​and is a master of disguise. He also invented the code "number 16", but he never met Blunt personally. Tommy learns more about the codes used and is supposed to play the role of Blunt for as long as possible to enable Carter to catch the agent. The two go back to the agency and discover that someone has torn the pages off the calendar, which is now showing the sixteenth, six days away. Albert says it could only have been a client who had been waiting for some time - a nurse.

After a short while, another client appears - a decent, bearded man who introduced himself as Prince Vladiroffsky. He starts a conversation using the codes. Everything works so well that he recognizes Tuppence as the agent “Marise” and invites her to lunch at the Blitz Hotel. He wants to meet Tommy later at headquarters. Tommy and Mr. Carten follow the two into Blitz, who are having lunch there, served by police officers disguised as waiters. After dinner they want to go upstairs to the prince's suite, but they don't get there. The elevator boy says he took them to another floor. Since there is a policeman on this floor too, they learn that they are in Mrs. Van Snyder's room from Detroit. When they open the door, they find the resident tied up and gagged . The prince and Tuppence have left the room through a connecting door that leads into the room of a disabled French man and his nurse (agent of No. 16). And in this disguise they also walked past the policeman in the hallway.

Tommy is upset about what might have happened to Tuppence. Albert tries to cheer him up by reminding him of Tuppence's ingenuity and finally putting his gray matter to work in the manner of Hercule Poirot. Suddenly he jumps up and races back to the Blitz, where he and one of Carter's men go into Mrs. Van Snyder's room again. You still find the lady in her bedroom, meanwhile relaxed. You can find Tuppence under the bedspread. In the meantime, Tommy had noticed that the time between leaving the restaurant and arriving in Mrs. Van Snyder's room was far too short to tie up Mrs. Snyder, stun Tuppence and disguise the stunned Tuppence as the French. So she had to be in the room. And when he remembered the bedspread as a hiding place from childhood, it was clear that there could only be one place for Tuppence. Tommy also unmasked number 16, who has dressed up as Mrs. Van Snyder.

Tuppence recovers quickly and the two decide to give up the agency because Tuppence is expecting a child.

Reviews

The review of the book in The Times Literary Supplement of October 17, 1929 recalls the ironic side of the work in which she states: “Mrs. Christie gives the individual episodes amusing twists by letting the two partners of "Blunts Brilliant Detectives" adopt the method, the way of speaking and the appearance of well-known detectives. Holmes, Thorndyke, Father Brown and Poirot are lovingly parodied and once or twice both the dialogues and the solution are deliberately funny. ”The criticism ends pedantically by noting that the“ author is wrong in explaining the print marks on the newspaper, only the date can be used to distinguish between individual issues. "

Criticism in The New York Times Book Review of September 22, 1929 began as follows: “It is no easy task to adequately describe such a book. A group of short stories in a detective novel, the framework is rather sketchy but holds the short stories together. The whole book and the individual stories are parodies of current, fictional detectives and the author's art in imitating the manner of the individual master so perfectly must be appreciated. "The review concludes:" The result is one of the funniest collections of crime stories, which we fortunately met. "

Relationships with other works and reality

The stories and the detectives that are parodied

• A Fairy in the Flat / A Pot of Tea - introduces Tommy & Tuppence to The International Detective Agency . A throwback to Malcolm Sage, detective (1921) by Herbert George Jenkins.
• The Affair of the Pink Pearl - This first case is in the style of detective Dr. Thorndyke by R. Austin Freeman .
• The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger (German: not translated at first) - A spy story that follows in the footsteps of Valentine Williams and his detective brothers Francis and Desmond Okewood. There is particular mention of one of Williams' books by Tuppence - The Man with the Clubfoot (1918).
• Finessing the King / The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper (German: summarized as Der Herr in Zeitungspapier ) - This second case is a parody of the now almost forgotten Isabel Ostrander, with parallels to her story The Clue in the Air (Die Spur in der Luft) (1917) and detectives Tommy McCarty (an ex-cop) and Dennis Riordan (a firefighter).
• The Case of the Missing Lady - The story refers to Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax (1911).
• Blindman's Buff (German: not translated at first) - Fits Clinton H. Stagg's stories about the blind detective Thornley Colton.
• The Man in the Mist - In the style of GK Chesterton's Pater Brown stories.
• The Crackler (Eng .: The Raschler) - A parody in the style of Edgar Wallace .
• The Sunningdale Mystery - The plot is in the style of Baroness Orczy's The Old Man in the Corner (1909), in which Tuppence plays the role of journalist Polly Burton.
• The House of Lurking Death (German: not translated at first) - Created in the style of AEW Mason and his French detective M. Hanaud.
• The Unbreakable Alibi - Modeled after Freeman Wills Crofts , known for his stories that always revolved around alibis and for his detective inspector Joseph French.
• The Clergyman's Daughter / The Red House (German: summarized to: The Pastor 's Daughter ) - A two-part story and parody of detective Roger Sherringham by Anthony Berkeley .
• The Ambassador's Boots - Follows the stereotype of HC Bailey with Dr. Reginald Fortune and Superintendent Bell as the parodied detectives.
• The Man Who Was No. 16 (Eng: The man who was number 16) - This story parodies Christie's own novel The Big Four , with Hercule Poirot .

Relationships with other works

• It is often thought that The Man in Newspaper is related to a character by Lewis Carroll from Alice in Wonderland . But that's not the case, because the man who looks through the window in chapter three is not clad in newspaper, but only in white paper.

• In Creeping Poison , Hannah quotes a number of verses from the Bible .

• In The Ambassador's Boots , Tommy recalls a case that Watson did not record and that Sherlock Holmes solved by analyzing how the parsley sank in the butter during the day. This refers to the story The Six Napoleons by Arthur Conan Doyle , first published in 1904. At the time The Ambassador's Boots were being written and published, Doyle was still writing, and Tommy's wish, "Watson dig him out of his notebook," was a real possibility at the time.

• The references to bee and pumpkin farming are humorous allusions to Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot's retirement plans.

Relationships with real places

• In The Fairy's Visit , Tommy and Tuppence look at a flaw in a photograph that has the outline of a fairy, and Tuppence wants to write to Arthur Conan Doyle. This refers to the Cottingley Fairies . These are photos of two cousins, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, from Cottingley, who were supposed to show fairies in their garden. Believing the photographs to be real, Conan Doyle wrote a famous article in the November 1920 issue of Strand Magazine . It was not until much later that it turned out that it was counterfeit.

• In The Missing Lady , Tommy talks about a concert at Queen's Hall that he and Tuppence should attend. This hall, built in 1893, was destroyed in an air raid in World War II. It is famous for hosting the first Henry Wood Promenade Concerts .

• In Blindman's Buff (Blind Cow), and the man was number 16 (The Man Who Was No. 16), the flash hotel is a pun on the London Ritz Hotel. Christie used the same place (and name for it) in her 1925 novel, The Count's Memoirs .

Film adaptations

The Case of the Missing Lady (1950)

This single story aired as the twelfth episode in the twenty-six part anthology Nash Airflyte Theater on Thursday, December 7, 1950 and entitled The Disappearance Of Mrs. Gordan . The thirty-minute live broadcast on CBS aired at 10:30 p.m. from New York City . There are various sources about the cast: Peter Haining names Barbara Bel Geddes as Tuppence and Lee Bowman as Tommy. Other sources mention Cloris Leachman and Ronald Reagan . The adaptation comes from Marc Daniels .

TV series Detective Agency Blunt (1983)

Detective Agency Blunt (original title Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime ) is a television series by London Weekend Television based on the short stories in this collection.

Major expenses

• 1929, first edition USA Dodd Mead and Company (New York), 1929
• 1929, first edition UK William Collins and Sons (London), 16 September 1929
• 1965, German first edition: Pandora's box. Translation by Lotte Schwarz. Scherzverlag, Bern / Munich / Vienna.

First publication of the stories

All of the stories from Partners in Crime first appeared in magazines between 1923 and 1928, primarily The Sketch Magazine . For publication in book form, Christie changed the order of the stories and also designed a framework around each chapter to make the book easier to read. The original order and details of publication are as follows:

• The First Wish : The Grand Magazine Issue 226, December 1923. The story is the foundation of The Pastor's Daughter .
• Publicity : First published in the 1652 edition of The Sketch, September 24, 1924. Based on The Fairy's Visit / A Cup of Tea . This was the first in a series of twelve consecutive stories Christie wrote for the sketch, which was published under the subtitle Tommy and Tuppence .
• The Affair of the Pink Pearl : First published in the 1653 edition of The Sketch, October 1, 1924. Based on The Pink Pearl .
• Finessing the King : First published in the 1654 edition of The Sketch, October 8, 1924. Based on The Lord in Newsprint .
• The Case of the Missing Lady : First published in the 1655 edition of The Sketch, October 15, 1924. Based on The Missing Lady .
• The Case of the Sinister Stranger : First published in the 1656 edition of The Sketch, October 22, 1924.
• The Sunninghall Mystery : First published in the 1657 edition of The Sketch, October 29, 1924. Based on The Sunningdale Mystery .
• The House of Lurking Death : First published in the 1658 edition of The Sketch, November 5, 1924.
• The Matter of the Ambassador's Boots : First published in the 1659 edition of The Sketch, November 12, 1924. Based on The Ambassador's Boots .
• The Affair of the Forged Notes : First published in the 1660 edition of The Sketch of November 19, 1924. Based on Der Raschler .
• Blindman's Buff : First published in the 1661 edition of The Sketch, November 26, 1924.
• The Man in the Mist : First published in the 1662 edition of The Sketch, December 3, 1924. Based on The Man in the Mist .
• The Man Who Was Number Sixteen : First published in the 1663 edition of The Sketch of December 10, 1924. Based on The Man Who Was Number 16 . This was the last story Christie ever wrote for the sketch.

After a hiatus of four years, An Unshakable Alibi was published in the Christmas 1928 issue of Holly Leaves .

dedication

Like most collections of short stories, this book has no dedication.

Web links

• http://us.agathachristie.com/site/find_a_story/stories/Partners_in_Crime.php
• http://www.mysteryfile.com/Christie/Tuppence.html

• Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ John Cooper, BA Pyke: Detective Fiction - the collector's guide. 2nd Edition. Scholar Press, 1994, ISBN 0-85967-991-8 , pp. 82 and 87.
2. ↑ American Tribute to Agatha Christie
3. ^ The Observer. September 15, 1929, p. 8.
4. ↑ Volume 72 The official Agatha Christie collection on pressekatalog.de ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ^ The Times Literary Supplement. October 17, 1929, p. 824.
6. ^ The New York Times Book Review. September 22, 1929, p. 38.
7. ^ Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Ed. Hugh Haughton. Penguin Books , 1998, p. 336.
8. ^ Peter Haining: Agatha Christie - Murder in Four Acts. Virgin Publications, ISBN 1-85227-273-2 , pp. 151-152.
9. ^ "Nash Airflyte Theater" The Case of the Missing Lady (1950)
10. ^ Nash Airflyte Theater: The Disappearance Of Mrs. Gordan - TV.com
11. ↑ DNB 450783596