You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Mr. Parker Pyne's offer is a simply one - if you are not happy, he will arrange for you to become so. For a nominal fee, of course.
This is a charming, sometimes contrived collection of short stories centering around the friendly, bland Parker Pyne, who after a long career in a government census bureau has collated a decent understanding of human nature, rather a la Miss Marple. There's plenty of sly humor and unexpectedly touching moments to be found, which is only heightened by Hugh Fraser's tongue-in-cheek narration.
Later stories in the book, where Mr. Pyne goes on vacation and ends up solving actual mysteries, are less compelling though. One does still laugh still at how irritated he is to be followed by crime on holiday.
This is a charming, sometimes contrived collection of short stories centering around the friendly, bland Parker Pyne, who after a long career in a government census bureau has collated a decent understanding of human nature, rather a la Miss Marple. There's plenty of sly humor and unexpectedly touching moments to be found, which is only heightened by Hugh Fraser's tongue-in-cheek narration.
Later stories in the book, where Mr. Pyne goes on vacation and ends up solving actual mysteries, are less compelling though. One does still laugh still at how irritated he is to be followed by crime on holiday.
Parker Pyn Investigates is a set of stories written by Agatha Christie; we have Mr Parker Pyn who helps deal with people’s unhappiness from solving murder mysteries to mending broken marriages, he does it all with careful analysis of human nature.
While the stories itself were trademark Christie specials, the blatant racism and sexism had me cringing in places; it’s only and huge drawback according to me. Honestly, only really recommend it for the fans.
While the stories itself were trademark Christie specials, the blatant racism and sexism had me cringing in places; it’s only and huge drawback according to me. Honestly, only really recommend it for the fans.
Very old fashioned sexist, etc. ideas throughout, but I kind of loved the low stakes champagne problems this guy dealt with.
This was fun but not quite as satisfying as some of her other protagonists.
Adrian reads all the Christies #6. This was my least favourite of them so far, I just didn't find Parker Pyne as interesting as the other detectives. Plus the stakes are so much lower, with people reaching out when they are unhappy. It turns out I prefer murders over bored people. Plus some of the attitudes are extremely old fashioned here, it hasn't dated that well, especially compared to the others I have read.
Although as the stakes are lower, Christie plays around with the format of mystery stories a bit more, in particular a couple where Pyne messes up quite badly. And the final one in the collection "Oracle of Delphi" has a really nice twist at the end.
Although as the stakes are lower, Christie plays around with the format of mystery stories a bit more, in particular a couple where Pyne messes up quite badly. And the final one in the collection "Oracle of Delphi" has a really nice twist at the end.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
*2.5
i didn't enjoy this much. the riddles were more or less clever, but i hadn't realised this was a collection of short stories beforehand. i never like christie's short stories much, i think her strength, or at least what makes her writing interesting to me, are her characters, which are obviously much more shallow in shorter stories.
there was an absolutely gruesome abundance of sexist tropes and ideas going on, absolutely horrible.
i didn't enjoy this much. the riddles were more or less clever, but i hadn't realised this was a collection of short stories beforehand. i never like christie's short stories much, i think her strength, or at least what makes her writing interesting to me, are her characters, which are obviously much more shallow in shorter stories.
there was an absolutely gruesome abundance of sexist tropes and ideas going on, absolutely horrible.
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Honestly, a better name for this 1934 collection might be "Parker Pyne Instigates." In less than half of these stories does that fellow do any real investigative work; the majority of the time he instead constructs elaborate confidence schemes to make his patrons feel happy again, like staging a fake robbery to be foiled by someone doubting their courage, or a romance to rekindle the attentions of a jealous spouse. Only in the last section of the book, presenting a loose series of incidents this strange hero encounters while traveling abroad, does author Agatha Christie reenter her usual wheelhouse to justify the actual title (or that of the American edition: Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective).
The change of pace is interesting, but a lot of the resolutions here are outlandishly baroque, and as ever with this writer, it's not as fun when we're not given the tools necessary to attempt to solve a mystery for ourselves. So although I'm glad her fame by this point was enabling more experimentation in structure, I can't say I'm entirely satisfied by the latest result.
[Content warning for gaslighting, sexism, and racism including blackface and slurs.]
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter
The change of pace is interesting, but a lot of the resolutions here are outlandishly baroque, and as ever with this writer, it's not as fun when we're not given the tools necessary to attempt to solve a mystery for ourselves. So although I'm glad her fame by this point was enabling more experimentation in structure, I can't say I'm entirely satisfied by the latest result.
[Content warning for gaslighting, sexism, and racism including blackface and slurs.]
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter