Product Description

The Tuesday Night Club is a venue where locals challenge Miss Marple to solve recent crimes...One Tuesday evening a group gathers at Miss Marple's house and the conversation turns to unsolved crimes! The case of the disappearing bloodstains; the thief who committed his crime twice over; the message on the death-bed of a poisoned man which read 'heap of fish'; the strange case of the invisible will; a spiritualist who warned that 'Blue Geranium' meant death! Now pit your wits against the powers of deduction of the 'Tuesday Night Club'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27342 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
"The plots are so good that one marvels! most of them would have made a full-length thriller." Daily Mirror

About the Author
Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.

Customer Reviews

The Thirteen Problems
In many ways “The Thirteen Problems” could be described as the archetypal Agatha Christie novel, featuring as it does 13 separate mysteries which are jam packed full off typical Christie characters.

In fact it’s sort of like a Christie novel within a Christie novel as the settings for the stories are in classic Christie style. For the first 6 mysteries we are a guest at the legendary Miss Marple’s house as she hosts 5 distinguished guests. There’s her nephew, the writer Raymond West and his fiancée the artist Joyce Lempriere. Then we have the staples of any Christie situation, Dr Pender the elderly clergyman and Mr Petherick, a solicitor. The party is rounded off by the ex-police commissioner Sir Henry Clithering.

For after dinner entertainment the guests decide to each tell a tale from personal experience where the outcome is either unknown or a puzzle to be solved. And so begins the first meeting of the Tuesday Night club as each guest retells his or her mysterious story. At first all the guests suppose that little Miss Marple, knitting quietly in the background, will either not play along or will be quite bemused by the goings-on. Little by little they must adjust their opinions of the white haired spinster as she correctly surmises what has happened each time.

The second set of 6 problems are again retold in an after dinner setting, but this time at a neighbour of Miss Marple’s, Col and Mrs Bantry. Whilst organising the dinner party Mrs Bantry asks Sir Henry who he’d like to invite and sensing another round of mystery fun Sit Henry asks for Miss Marple to be invited along. The other two members of the gathering are the famous and beautiful young actress Miss Jane Hillier and elderly Dr Lloyd. Again each member of the party regales their companions with a tale of suspense, murder and mystery.

The final problem is set in real time as once again Miss Marple tells Sir Henry that in the case of a recent murder the wrong man is about to be arrested and she implores him to step in and prevent a miscarriage of justice.

The problems themselves are interesting and intriguing and presented in a easy reading short story format, just right for reading one and then putting the book down for a while. The mysteries are by and large distinctive Christie-esque ranging from the fascinating to the border-ridiculous. The language is also typical Christie with many an insulting class reference but the talk of this bygone age is a delight to read. Fans of Christie will of course spot some plot constructions of some of the problems were expanded on into full novels, although certain elements were changed.

A highly recommended read for all.

Miss Marple makes her debut as renowned arm chair sleuth
Every Tuesday evening a group of intellectual elites meet to discusss unsolved crimes. Charitably they allow an old, frail and very innocent looking Miss Marple to join them as an after thought. I mean really what could she possibly know about crime from livingthe small 'uneventfull' village of St. Mary Mead. Crime after crime Miss Marple manages to outwit her superiors by use of her insightfull in-depth knowledge of human nature, which she claims, is universal. The plots of these thirteen crimes are so intricate that it is shame that they each make up just a short story. Nevertheless first class Christie led by a first class Miss Marple.

Which audiobook? It's confusing
I'm not buying this one because I already own "The Tuesday Club Murders", which is the same audiobook for the US market (read by Joan Hickson and all) but if you already own "The Bloodstained Pavement" and "The Blue Geranium", then you shouldn't buy it either, as they are all one and the same audiobook (albeit issued in two parts in the UK -read my reviews for both). The thing is that it was cheaper to buy it in the US (even including s&h), specially if you do not live in the UK, and it still is if you pay in euros. As all of them are available at the same time in Amazon.com and three of them in Amazon.co,uk, with no explanation whatsoever for us customers, it does get a bit confusing. Additional information about contents (number of discs, actual length, short stories -if any- included...) would be really helpful for us audiobook lovers.
As for Joan Hickson herself, she always deserves five stars as the razor-sharp Miss Marple. Try her rendition of "The Murder at the Vicarage", which also features one delicious Dora Bunner, whom you will enjoy meeting.