Diamonds Are A Boy's Best Friend (The Secret of Chimneys - Agatha Christie)

Member Name: keeperofthematri

Product:	The Secret of Chimneys - Agatha Christie
Date:	09/09/09 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting characters, light read

Disadvantages: Some plot threads not tied up well

Just finished this so:-


The author:

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair At Styles, which introduced the now famous Hercule Poirot was published in 1920. Her other well known creation, Miss Marple, first appeared in a short story in 1927 but she also created a number of other detectives who appeared in her novels.

During her lifetime Christie wrote a number of novels, short stories, poetry & plays. Her play "The Mousetrap" holds the world record for the longest run in history as it has been performed since 1952.

Christie is estimated to have sold around 4 billion copies of her collected works, putting her second only to The Bible. She was married twice and was a Dame of the British Empire. She died on January 12th 1976.


Background to the novel:

The Secret of Chimneys was originally published in 1925. It followed the publication of "The Man In The Brown Suit", which introduced the public to Colonel Race, a character who would appear in three other Christie novels.. A sequel of sorts, The Seven Dials Mystery, was published in 1929 with Chimneys once again being featured and a number of characters from "The Secret Of Chimneys" making a further appearance. The Secret of Chimneys preceded "The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd" which was the third Hercule Poirot novel to be written and which is generally acknowledged to be Christie's masterpiece.


Plot:

Some years ago King Nicholas IV of Herzeslovakia fell for a dancer named Angele Mory. She had been recruited by the Comrades of the Red Hand to lure Nicholas into a trap but ended up marrying him instead. Unbeknownst to Nicholas she was also working with infamous jewel thief, King Victor, and participated in the theft of the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond from the Tower of London. She was a guest at Chimneys at the time and it's thought that she may have hidden the diamond there.

Shortly after their return to Herzeslovakia both Nicholas IV and his Queen were assassinated during the course of a revolution. The throne has been vacant for some time now and one possible claimant to the throne, Prince Michael Obolovitch has been invited to Chimneys under the guise of a shooting party. The real purpose of his visit is to sign a deal with a British company with regard to some oil concessions. In return the British will offer their support for his claim to the vacant throne.

However, there are a number of flies in the ointment. Firstly ex Prime Minister of Herzeslovakia Count Stylptitch has recently died and has made arrangements for his memoirs to be delivered to his British publishers. The British, of course, are anxious to prevent anything jeopardising the negotiation of the oil concessions and feel that the memoirs may contain things that the public are better off not knowing.
Secondly, the Comrades of the Red Hand are determined that there should be no restoration of the monarchy in Herzeslovakia and have agents active in Britain intent on preventing any possible restoration ~ even if it means assassinating any potential claimants to the throne.
Thirdly, King Victor has recently been released from prison in France. Could he, as a master of disguise, be masquerading as one of the party?

When Prince Michael is killed and there is a "break-in" at Chimneys it becomes obvious that someone is determined to get their hands on the diamond. Join adventurer Anthony Cade, socialite Virginia Revel, Superintendent Battle and Monsieur Lemoine of the French surete as they attempt to unravel The Secret of Chimneys.....


Opinion:


This is a somewhat lighter read than other Christie novels as, despite the fact that there are two murders the focus of the novel is mainly on the hunt for the diamond and the identity of the famous jewel thief King Victor. The reader assumes that they are able to trust the "society" characters, Lord Caterham, owner of Chimneys, his daughter Bundle, socialite Virginia Revel, her cousin George Lomax of the Foreign Office and his go-fer Bill Eversleigh. Lomax has also dealt with Superintendent Battle previously so the reader takes it for granted that there are able to trust all of these characters and that none of them can possibly be King Victor.

The origins of the other characters are less certain and none of them have met each other, or the British characters prior to the start of the story. So, we're not quite sure whether we can actually trust the book's central character, Anthony Cade, American Hiram P. Fish who claims to be a book collector, Boris Anchoukoff, Prince Michael's valet, Miss Brun, the governess at Chimneys who seems to keep to her room a lot or Monsieur Lemoine of the French Surete. Are they all that they seem?

One of the major plus points of the book is the way that the characters interact with each other. Lord Caterham is very likeable but seems unable to say "no" to George Lomax when the idea of a shooting party at Chimneys is first suggested. In fact, all he wants is a quiet life and he's thwarted in this, first by the fact that he's had this "shooting party" foisted upon him and then, secondly, when Battle refuses to let anyone leave Chimneys after Prince Michael has been murdered. You can't help but feel sorry for him. Later we discover that he's in love with Virginia Revel but that's not going to go anywhere, is it?

His daughter Bundle is used to better effect in Christie's later novel "The Seven Dials Mystery" and doesn't, in my opinion, appear as much as she should do in this one. She comes across as an engaging your woman and there's a nice conversation between her and her father about whether he's going to ask Virginia to marry him or not. There's also an unintentional funny part in the book when she drives Anthony to London at "high speed". Nothing odd in that, but when you discover that "high speed" is 50 miles per hour you can't help but raise a smile.

In fact, all of the characters in this book are likeable enough so any attempt by the reader to work out who King Victor might be based on grounds of character is going to fall flat on its face. To be honest though, any clues that might give away his identity are few and far between and it probably won't be until close to the end of the book that you'll be able to say with any degree of certainty who King Victor might be. The developing friendship between Anthony Cade and Virginia Revel is also nicely handled and it's interesting to see how their first loyalties are to each other, rather than anyone else, despite the fact that they've not known each other that long.

On the downside, there is perhaps a little too much plot for this book as the Herzeslovakian back-story takes up quite a bit of "room". There are a number of characters who aren't what they seem (ie: are hiding behind an identity) and this may or may not annoy the reader depending on their point of view. Personally I felt the author did take this aspect of the plotting a little too far, as aside from Anthony Cade who masquerades as his friend Jimmy McGrath at the start of the book there are four other characters who are being less than honest about who they are and what they do.

The novel is nicely paced, although some readers may find the style a little dated, but that's only to be expected given that it was written in the 1920s. As I said, the characters are likeable and engaging and the fact that the murders are somewhat downplayed compared to the identity of King Victor and the location of the diamond makes a nice change from the usual Agatha Christie book. My main gripe with the book, aside from the fact that there are too many characters who have more than one identity is the way in which Christie wraps up some of the plot threads at the end, particularly the one concerning Count Stylptitch's memoirs.

Overall, then, this makes for a light, fun novel with engaging characters that some readers might find a bit dated. There are better Christie novels that can be read, but then there are ones that are a whole lot worse as well.




* Paperback: 400 pages
* Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; Masterpiece ed edition (3 Dec 2001)
* Language English
* ISBN-10: 0007122586
* ISBN-13: 978-0007122585


Official Website: www.agathachristie.com


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Summary: The Secret of Chimneys