Jesse’s Reviews > Parker Pyne Investigates > Status Update

“The Regatta Mystery”

Apparently this was originally a Poirot story. It has the definite feel of one. A jewel goes missing at a dinner party and a young man with romantic aspirations gets the suspicion. Pyne hears an account from the man and then knows exactly who the culprits are; when the man checks back, Pyne has already had them run to ground. Great.

“Problem at Pollensa Bay”

Pyne is abroad still, but this time we are slightly back to his usual deal, even if he was trying desperately not to get involved in the lives of the travelers he came across. This time he is tasked to somehow make peace between a kind but overbearing mother and her son who is ready for dating and, well, marriage. I was wondering if our interloper was Madeline! It made for a fun cameo.

“The Oracle at Delphi”

This time it’s Greece and a very affectionate mother who can’t put up with her son’s boundless enthusiasm for antiquity. This story is a huge cheat. It basically makes sense at the end—why Pyne was acting so out of character—but I was taken in and just as confused as intended I assume when Mr. Thompson came in at the end.

“Death on the Nile”

Before the novel, there was…this completely unrelated short story! Well, it’s still on a boat, and it still involves wealthy people, and it still involves a death. Pyne is an interesting figure as an unwelcome companion on a boat that was booked exclusively, but somehow manages to get drawn into a rather curious love pentangle.

“The Pearl of Price”

More travelogue based on what I assume was Christie’s time in Mesopotamia. This time, there are some swaggering Americans and their big money and a missing pearl earring. This is a pretty basic drama that Pyne ferrets out—and if you look at what characters get the spotlight you can figure it out by economy alone—but the N-bomb from the American magnate caught me off-guard.

“The House at Shiraz”

This has more of the makings of a Mr. Quinn story. Pyne discourses with his German pilot while touring and pays a call on an English expatriate who is locally infamous for her behavior. In doing so, he reveals an unfortunate truth and reunites two long-separated lovers. It’s a cute story. I had a pretty good idea of what the twist was the moment the pilot talked about the death.

“The Gate of Baghdad”

More of Pyne abroad, now in Iraq. This time, there’s a murder!

Pyne isn’t very fun to read as a detective, or it’s probably easier to say that the murder mystery in this short of a span of time isn’t very satisfying, especially when the hero is the supremely tidy Parker Pyne. It’s amazing how rushed the end of this feels between discovery, detection, and disclosure.

“Have You Got Everything You Want?”

Swapping up the Pyne formula with him meeting a woman on a train who has some suspicion regarding a note she found on her husband’s blotter. Pyne deduces the mystery behind the note as well as an apparent theft and then goes on to offer some unflattering advice from man to man. “It is a fundamental axiom of married life that you must lie to a woman. She likes it!”

“The Case of the City Clerk”

A mild, unassuming gentleman goes to Geneva. The wrinkle is that Pyne’s customers are typically not in any actual danger. In this case, the clerk—Roberts—is actually a crucial part of a bit of espionage to which there is some danger attached, not that he knows at the time. He gets his own bit of romance, much like Mrs. Packington, on the trip home.

“The Case of the Discontented Husband”

If “Middle-Aged Wife” seemed cynical to you, then try Pyne’s speeches here. This is another twist of the Pyne formula, this time with Pyne exacting jealousy from a wife who is wanting to divorce her bland husband for an intellectual. Christie subverts the situation for some screwball comedy as things go horribly wrong for everyone.