The Seven Dials Mystery was a piece of detective fiction written by Agatha Christie, and published in 1929. The book is set in the mansion of Chimneys, which featured in an earlier book by Agatha Christie, and as well as the characters from the earlier book, Lady Eileen (Bundle) Brent, Lord Caterham, Bill Eversleigh, George Lomax, Tredwell and Superintendent Battle. The book is a pure detective novel, and was converted for television in 1981 (displayed in March, 1981). However, the book did not earn the usual amount of critical acclaim, with some initial reviews criticizing the book for somewhat deserting the pure detective yarn, and presenting more information to the readers than required. The book starts with a murder in The Chimneys (but with nobody identified as the murderer), and moves onto a seedy nightclub in London called The Seven Dials where there appears to be a meeting of conspirators in a secret room.

As usual, like the other works by Agatha Christie, there are many surprises, with no one being whom they claim to be; who can you trust ? The first murder in the book is at The Chimneys where Gerald “Gerry” Wade, one of the guests, normally sleeps late; his friends want to have fun with him, and they set 8 clocks with 8 alarms (at a time gap of 30 minutes), starting from 6:30 PM. However, Wade apparently sleeps through all the alarms, to the surprise of all, and why not, since he is dead in his bed, through poison, and one of the clocks is missing. However, the inquiry cannot find out who was responsible. After Chimneys returns to its original owner, Lord Caterham, his daughter, Bundle, wants to investigate further. This intensifies when another man drops dead in front of her car, having been shot. This investigation takes her further into mystery, with a secret science plan that is very important, a secret society, and so on.

‘The Secret of Chimneys’ is one of the early works of Agatha Christie, with the word Chimneys referring to a mansion, used in more works by Agatha Christie. Like some of the other books written by Christie, it incorporates political intrigue of that time, with assassinations, spying, monarchies, double identities, and so on. If you read the plot in one go, it can seem somewhat outlandish and out of this world, but if you get into some pleasure book reading and watch the plot twist and turn, then the book can be very interesting. In this case, the book deals with a monarchy of the fictional country of Herzoslovakia located in the Balkans, which had overthrown the king some time back and setup a Republic, but now wanted to restore the monarchy and had identified a relative of the murdered king, and had extended him an invitation to come back and take the throne (although in modern times it is difficult to find a country which would do something like this, unless it is setting a king for ceremonial purposes).

The cause of the uprising in the country was primarily due to the queen, who was a dancer, was of common stock, and was propped by a revolutionary organization to trap the king, but she double-crossed the organization and instead married the king. She was the primary cause of the uprising in which both the king and queen were killed by a mob. But, in a turnabout, the people want a distant cousin, Prince Michael Obolovitch, to take over, and the British are broking this deal (and since no one does something for free, they are looking for oil concessions in the country). However, this entire situation is mixed with some memoirs that could prove embarrassing, and which are being sent for publication. Mix this with some lady’s letter up for blackmail, and political discussion in the mansion of Chimneys, and you have a very interesting tale.

By this time of publication of this novel, Agatha Christie had developed a huge reputation, and a large number of fans. However, when this novel was published, Agatha Christie had gone through a major upheaval in her life, with her husband declaring that he wanted to divorce her (in late 1926) after stating that he was in love with somebody else, and in December, Agatha Christie had vanished for a period of 11 days after a fight with her husband, with a massive manhunt (and till now, there is no credible story of what happened in those 11 days).
‘The Big Four’ stars the famous detective Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings, and Inspector Japp, the familiar figures from the Hercule Poirot series. This book is not one single long book involving a crime, but instead a series of short crimes, all of them involving the Big Four villains (and these are in turn linked to a series of short stories that appeared in a magazine called ‘Sketch’). The novel however depicts characters that are very cliched, such as the Chinese villain characterised as a Fu-Manchu type of villain, a French charming and dangerous girl, and an American multi-millionaire.

The novel starts with Hastings going to meet Hercule Poirot, who is going to America after an invitation from millionaire Abe Ryland, who is a soap king. At this time, Poirot asks whether Hastings has ever heard of a group called ‘The Big Four’, but Hastings has no idea. Then a man comes in and starts describing the various members of the The Big Four:
- Number 1 – A Chinese mastermind called Li Chang Yen, the person behind The Big Four
- Number 2 – No Names, but represented by the sign $, so most likely an American
- Number 3 – A charming French lady
- Number 4 – Just the destroyer
Poirot and Hastings faked their departure, but when they come back to the house, they find the man to be dead; the man was identified by Inspector Japp as a member of the Secret Service. And then they get into more adventures, fighting with The Big Four, including more murders.

Agatha Cristie had started with her first book published in 1920 (The mysterious affair at Styles), and wrote a number of books during her career. 2 of her main characters were the detectives – Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, but she also had novels that did not have these 2 characters. One of these was an early book of hers, called ‘The Secret Adversary’, published in 1922. The book introduces the character of Tommy and Tuppence who also features in other novels of hers. The book met with praise from critics on its release, and was later turned into a movie released in 1929, and also into a TV drama. One small problem was the book that there were a lot of cliched characters in the book, with many characters being obvious villains. The book was set in 1919 in London and other locations in Britain. It depicts a young couple Tommy Beresford and Prudence “Tuppence” Cowley, who offer themselves out as adventurers, since they have no money and no work. And there starts the adventure.

They soon find themselves stuck in a political and spying game, when they use the name of ‘Jane Finn’ for Tuppence; using this name Tuppence is rejected for a job (and they had over-heard this name in a conversation earlier); a person named Whittington hears scraps of their conversation and believes that they are blackmailing, and pays them some money for them to stop using their information (information that they do not possess). However, when they realize that they can get more information from Whittington, they find that he has vanished. Knowing that the name of ‘Jane Finn’ seems to be causing this search, they put an ad in the paper with the same name, and get a response from a Mr. Carter, who tells them the background to what Jane Finn actually was, and the significance of the name to intelligence agencies. They are contacted by more people, including police officials (and they realize that they had also been contacted by a villain earlier). The rest of the story is about contact with these secret agencies, with bolshevik agents out to topple the British government, and so on.