Title: The Mysterious Mr. Quin
Author: Agatha Christie
Type: Fiction
Page Count: 256
Rating: 3.5/5
It’s kind of fitting that I saved this book as my last Agatha Christie book because it works pretty well as a standalone, following a character called Harley Quin instead of any of her mainstays like Hercule Poirot or Jane Marple.
It’s also an interesting read because it functions like a bunch of standalone short stories, although they’re all linked together and so you can also read them as little snapshots of an overall world. Other than that though, there’s unfortunately not too much for me to say about it other than that it’s just fine and worth reading as and when you get to it.
Unfortunately, other than the unusual structure and the rarity of it being a Harley Quin book, there isn’t too much to say about this one. Far from obsessing over the book and trying to figure out who the bad guy was, I spent half my time wondering whether Colin Dexter pinched the name from Christie for his Inspector Morse novel, The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn.
I’d say that the Dexter novel is better, and that’s saying something. I always say that Christie at her worst is better than most others at their best, and that might be true, but it’s a shame that this one is so immediately forgettable. I didn’t exactly end on a high, so maybe some of the Mary Westmacott books will do it.
