“In moments of great stress, the mind focuses itself upon some quite unimportant matter which is remembered long afterwards with the utmost fidelity, driven in, as it were, by the mental stress of the moment. It may be some quite irrelevant detail, like the pattern of a wallpaper, but it will never be forgotten.”
― The Mysterious Mr. Quin
The Sum of It:
As indicated in this post's title, this book is a set of short stories that are all set in different locations and involve different characters, with the exception of two: Mr. Satterthwait, an older man with impeccable culinary appetites and an interest in nosing about in other people's drama, and Mr. Harley Quin, a mysterious stranger who turns up at opportune moments to help Mr. Satterthwait figure out who done it and strategically seats himself in such a way that a stained glass window makes his outfit look colorful and so that shadows fall across his face, making him look like he's wearing a mask. LIKE A HARLEQUIN, GET IT? His function is that something about him helps other people remember important but seemingly insignificant details that are essential to mystery solving. He does this by staring at people from dark corners and asking questions like "why?"
The YOA Treatment:
Ok. With every apology and all due respect to Dame Agatha, this book was REALLY tough for me to get through. A set of short stories, which is not my favorite medium to begin with so I could be impaired by my bias, these tales are each so sketchy plot-wise as to be at times truly confusing in the way they careen along to a marginal resolution. The two characters who link everything together, the eponymous Harley Quin and his friend Mr. Satterthwait, appear throughout, but Mr. Quin hardly ever says anything, and at the end turns out to be some kind of potentially spiritual being (Is he Death? Is he, like, a ghost? I honestly do not know). The additional characters in each story are totally forgettable, if they even take hold in the imagination long enough to care what resolution there is to the mystery. I suspect this is why Harley Quin hasn't taken hold as a character in literary history in the same way as Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple.
In her autobiography, Agatha mentions that at points in her career, writing was more of a job than a joy. The way these plots and even the theme and character of Harley Quin feel unfinished and unresolved, I can't help but wonder if this set of stories was written during one of those moods. We've read that allegedly Agatha really liked Harley Quin as a character, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt til I try another of his books, but so far I am noooot feelin' it. SORRY AGATHA!!
-E.
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