crloken 's review for:

Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective by Agatha Christie

3.0

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Parker Pyne is not a detective. He occasionally detects, and even solves a couple murders, but most of these stories are not detective stories. He is a former government employee who had a somewhat vague unclear job. In this way he is somewhat reminiscent of Mycroft Holmes; a genius who has a vague job in the British Government who appears to have had a lot of power due to general respect for his own intelligence. Now he is retired and has dedicated himself to making people happy. He runs an advertisement in the newspaper that simple says; "Are you happy? If not, call Parker Pyne." Few people answer, but some do and he attempts to make them happy and often succeeds. The interesting aspect comes in what is considered to make people happy, and this is where the book really starts to reveal a lot about Agatha Christie's worldview. But that's not necessarily bad in this case. Parker Pyne is an interesting person, and the stories are light hearted and amusing. Halfway through the book Parker Pyne goes on vacation and the stories become actual mysteries, but they keep that light hearted amusing self aware tone that made the first half good.