The Secret of Chimneys - Agatha Christie (1925)

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A little adventure and quick money is all good-natured drifter Anthony Cade is looking for when he takes a job as a messenger for an old friend. It sounds simple enough: deliver the provocative memoirs of a recently deceased European count to a London publisher. Little did Anthony know that a simple errand to deliver the manuscript on behalf of his friend would land him right in the middle of an international conspiracy, and he begins to realize that this has put him in grave danger. Why were Count Stylptich's memoirs so important? And what was "King Victor" really looking for? The package contains more than scandalous royal secrets, because it contains a bunch of letters suggesting blackmail. Someone would stop at nothing to prevent the monarchy from being reestablished in distant Herzoslovakia.
Wherever the lovely Virginia Revel went, death seemed sure to follow her. Her husband died first. The next to perish was a foreign prince whose ruthless power matched his scandalous passions. Then a clumsy blackmailer followed them to the grave. Murder, blackmail, stolen letters and a fabulous lost jewel: all under the not always cooperative gaze of Scotland Yard and the Sûreté. All threads lead to Chimneys, one of England's historic country houses, where a master assassin mingled with aristocratic guests. Virginia could only turn to one person to prove her innocence and put an end to her nightmare, and she could only pray that she had not put her life in the hands of the man who wanted to take it from her...
This novel was published in 1925 by Bodley Head in London and by Dodd, Mead & Co. in New York. The Times Literary Supplement described it as "a thick fog of mystery, cross purposes and romance, leading to a very unexpected and very satisfying ending." Chimneys was adapted by Christie as a play, but was not performed until 2003, in Canada. It was filmed with the addition of Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple for ITV in 2009.
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Subjects
Fiction, Mystery, Superintendent Battle (Fictional Character), English Detective and Mystery Stories, Murder, Investigation, Conspiracies, Mansions, Detective and Mystery Stories, Fiction, Mystery and Detectives, Traditional, Fiction, Thrillers, Suspense, London (England), Fiction, Poirot, Hercules (Fictional Character), Fiction, Fiction, Mystery and Detectives, General, Fiction, Mystery and Detectives, Police Procedure, Fiction, Mystery and detectives, International Crime and Mystery, Fiction, thrillers, general, Fiction, historical, general, English Literature, Fiction, generalPlaces
England Times
1920s. Showing 10 featured editions. See all 121 editions?