The Seven Dials Mystery

The Seven Dials Mystery (1929) Agatha Christie (Superintendent Battle)

As threatened at the end of The Chimneys Lord Caterham has let Chimneys to those who would like to stay there. While Sir Oswald and Lady Coote were there, one of their visitors, Gerald Wade, died unexpectedly, at the same time the other young visitors were playing a prank.

Although ruled as an accidental death, several people don’t believe he took and overdose of a sleeping draught, so when another young man dies, Bundle, Bill Eversleigh and others look into the crime.

I must have read this previously, because random details seemed familiar, but I remembered very little about it.

It was random details that struck me as familiar.

Instead she smiled kindly, leaned her ample chest well forward over the table, and gazed firmly into Gerald Wade’s hand where he sat on her right.

This was another book I had difficulty placing in time.

“How old were you when the war was on?” he asked unexpectedly.

“Nine— no, eight.”

“And Gerry, I suppose, was about twenty. Most lads of twenty fought in the war. Gerry didn’t.”

“No,” said Loraine, after thinking a minute or two. “No, Gerry wasn’t a soldier. I don’t know why.”

“I can tell you why,” said Jimmy. “Or at least I can make a very shrewd guess. He was out of England from 1915 to 1918. I’ve taken the trouble to find that out. And nobody seems to know exactly where he was. I think he was in Germany.”

This was the final year of the Roaring 20s, but there wasn’t much sign of the desperate fun that seemed to signify the start of the era, following the end of the Great War.

Yet there are bits that feel rather Victorian.

An unfortunate love affair, in Lady Caterham’s opinion, was so often highly beneficial to young girls. It made them take life seriously.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this story. As I said, I have vague remembrances, so I’m not sure how that colored how I felt about it. Mostly I found the resolution a little annoying.

Publisher: William Morrow

Rating: 7/10

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