A Deadly Affair
Unexpected Love Stories from the Queen of Mystery
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4.3 • 41 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“[We] can’t get enough of Christie’s plush and murderous thrills.” —Entertainment Weekly
From the Queen of Mystery—this all-new collection of stories about love gone horribly wrong will get your heart racing.
Love can propel us to our greatest heights . . . and darkest depths. In this new compendium of Agatha Christie short stories, witness the dark side of love—crimes of passion, games of the heart, and deadly deceits. This pulse-pounding compendium features beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, master of charades Parker Pyne, the enigmatic Harley Quin, and the adventurous Tommy and Tuppence, all at the ready to solve tantalizing mysteries.
In “The Face of Helen,” a night at the Royal Opera could reach a fatal crescendo for a woman caught in a dicey love triangle; “Finessing the King” delivers a curious ad in the personals that could mask sinister intentions; who’s in danger of getting stung in “Wasps’ Nest” depends on rounding up suspects and solving a murder—before it even happens. These are just a few of the tales in this collection featuring essential reading that Christie fans old and new will simply love to death.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The 14 entries in this fine collection amply display Christie's gifts as a short-form storyteller, though it's a bit of stretch to label them all love stories. Her best-known creations, Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, distinguish themselves, as do such now obscure recurring characters as Parker Pyne, who presents the deceptively benign facade of a dull civil servant. In "Death on the Nile," Pyne attracts clients via a laconic and enticing newspaper ad ("Are you happy? If not, consult Mr. Parker Pyne"). When a fellow British passenger on an Egyptian cruise, the wealthy Lady Grayle, expresses fear for her life, Pyne must act swiftly to avert tragedy and apprehend the would-be murderer. Poirot's focus on out-of-place details serves him well in "The King of Clubs," in which the cleanliness of a pair of shoes points the way to the truth about a murder. By linking mysteries that have affairs of the heart at their center, this volume allows the reader to appreciate better Christie's facility at crafting variations on a theme.
