The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie

 

Title:  The Seven Dials Mystery

Author:  Agatha Christie

Narrated by:  Emilia Fox

Publisher: Blackstone Audio

Length: Approximately 7 hours and 46 minutes

Source: Checked out with Hoopla through the Kewaunee Public Library.  Thank-you!

What book are you excited about seeing as a movie or TV series this year?  The Seven Dials Mystery is going to be a new Netflix movie this year which should be interesting.

I am participating in the #ReadChristie2025 Challenge.  The challenge this year is exploring Agatha Christie’s works through her characters and their careers.  The theme for April was butlers and I read The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie for the first time.  Tredwell the butler at The Chimneys keeps our main characters updated on the investigation. This book was published in 1929 and is the second book to feature Superintendent Battle, although he is more of a side character.

A practical joke goes wrong at a house a party at the Chimneys estate, which is being rented by Sir Oswald and Lady Coote.  Gerry Wade has a hard time getting up in the morning.  His friends set up eight alarm clocks to wake him up on morning . . . only he doesn’t wake up.  He has been poisoned! Why is one clock missing?  Will the killer be found before the next victim is murdered? 

My thoughts on this novel:

·       Eilleen “Bundle” Brent is the main investigator and a very independent and spirited young women.  She is an amateur sleuth.

·       This novel was different than typical Christie mysteries and was more of an espionage thriller focusing on secret societies.  I do like how Christie was always trying out something new with her writing.

·       I usually love when Emilia Fox narrates novels, but this narration was just okay to me.   I think it was more the storyline which didn’t capture my attention as much as other Christie novels.

·       This novel can be read as a standalone or together with The Chimneys.

·       I loved Lord Caterham and his daughter Bundles’ conversations.  They were very funny.

·       I felt claustrophobic when Bundle hid in a cabinet in the Seven Dials club to observe the secret society.  It was especially creepy that the Secret Society members wore hoods with clocks faces on them.

·       The ending was very surprising.

Overall, The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie was an interesting read, but not my favorite Christie read.