A Quartet of Red Herrings: Murder in the Mews | 1937

(image from here)

"Leave it to Hercule Poirot. The lies I invent are always most delicate and most convincing." 

-Hercule Poirot, Murder in the Mews, p. 116

The Sum of It:
We have returned, dear readers, to the short stories this week. Murder in the Mews is actually the name of the first short stories in a collection of four, all of which feature the most darling of the Belgians, Hercule Poirot. I shall give a petite summary for each below:

1.) Murder in the Mews: a young woman returns home one evening to find that her roommate has shot herself. However, there is not a single suicide note to be found, and a mysterious man was perhaps the last one to see her alive...smacks something of murder rather than suicide, does it not? Hercule Poirot teams up again buddy cop style with Chief Inspector Japp and it's the most the delicious fun: Japp is always telling Poirot to "stop jabbering to yourself" and Poirot educates Japp on fine French cuisine (Omelette aux Champignons?! #YASPLEASE). Oh and did I mention this whole thing started because the two of them were out celebrating Guy Fawkes' Day together? #BFFs

2.) The Incredible Theft: it's your typical weekend house party of an eclectic mix of government big wigs, various Lords and Ladies, and (#wildcard) a super hottie woman who is definitely maybe a spy. But of course some very important documents will be stolen! Hercule Poirot is summoned quite literally in the middle of the night to sniff out the culprit. This story contains one of my favorite Poirot moments to date as he attempts to recreate the cry of a maid which startles a suspect:

"Here I scream," said Poirot helpfully. He opened his mouth and emitted a shrill bleat. Lord Mayfield turned his head away to hide a smile and Mr. Carlile looked extremely uncomfortable.
"Allez! Forward! March!" cried Poirot. "It is your cue that I give you there."

3.) Dead Man's Mirror: Poirot receives a rather vague letter from a Sir Gervase Chevenix-Gore (the names, Agatha, the names!) inviting him to his huge estate to talk about a "family matter." Poirot shows up, but only to find Sir Gervase already dead. Oh, it's suicide? Of course it's not! #MURDER Poirot works through a vast cast of very eccentric characters to find the truth of who killed Sir Gervase, and, more importantly, what exactly happened to his mirror.

4.) Triangle at Rhodes: Poirot is on vacay by the sea, mostly hanging out with the other single randos, when in stumbles a love triangle of a beautiful aging actress Valentine, her jealous husband, and a handsome young potential boy toy. Poirot watches from the sidelines as the jealousy escalates from not only from Valentine's brooding husband, but boy toy Douglas's mousy young wife as well until Poirot can take no more and attempts to prevent the inevitable #MURDER. Alas, the lovely Valentine is poisoned in full view of everyone, but of course, Hercule has already worked out who has slipped a little something into her glass.

The YOA Treatment:
One thing #DameAgatha does very well is the red herring. Or, as Poirot likes to call it, the "kippered herring." While Agatha (like many mystery novelists) employs this tactic in many of her novels, it's a particularly prevalent mechanism in this set of short stories. It also seems like Agatha was doing some trial runs of some of her ideas in this book - most obviously Triangle at Rhodes. The setting and characters are nearly identical to her later full length novel, Evil Under the Sun (although much of the murder plot line is different.)

I do enjoy many of Agatha's short story collections, but this was not one of my top favorites. In a review of this collection from 1937 in The Times Literary Supplement, Simon Nowell-Smith also felt this was not Agatha's best work and astutely observed: "The fact is that the reader of today demands to participate in a detective story, and no living writer, unless occasionally Miss (Dorothy) Sayers, can find room in a short story for this extra detective." I completely agree with Mr. Nowell-Smith. These four stories were fun, but I didn't feel the same excitement of following along the trail of clues with Poirot and Japp as I do in so many of her novels that I love.

-A.