agatha christie book the secret of chimneys

Certainly grand country mansions like Abney Hall feature throughout Christie’s career, from Styles, through Chimneys to The Mousetrap’s Monkswell Manor. But most commentators don’t believe that Compton Castle is the basis for Chimneys – that honour goes to Abney Hall in Cheadle, owned by Christie’s brother in law, James, the father of the aforementioned nephew. My guess is that the zoo was Paignton Zoo, which had only opened in 1923. The nephew in question was James Watts, who would become Conservative MP for Manchester Moss Side in the 1959 election – only to die two years later at the age of 57. A shame, perhaps, because Cade is a much more entertaining character in comparison with stolid old Battle.Ĭhristie dedicated the book to “my nephew, in memory of an inscription at Compton Castle and a day at the zoo”. Battle would reappear in four more books over the next twenty years Mr Cade, for reasons that are self-evident when you reach the end of this book, doesn’t. Instead, Cade himself dons the mantle of amateur sleuth and works alongside Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard.

Christie continues to tease us by denying us (again) the return of Hercule Poirot. But unlike that earlier book, which starts in England and ends in Africa, this one works the other way round, and it’s not long before Cade, impersonating McGrath, is staying at the Blitz (yes, not the Ritz) Hotel and snooping around the great and the good of British Governmental society. Picking up from where The Man in the Brown Suit left off, and using her recently acquired familiarity with southern Africa, we first meet Mr Cade and his pal Jimmy McGrath on the streets of Bulawayo, which in itself constitutes Coincidence Number One of several. Once again Christie travelled further afield for her next adventure.

Naturally you can safely read this article and I won’t give anything away regarding whodunit.

It’s a thoroughly jolly jaunt, and Anthony Cade certainly experiences almost everything one can experience within the space of 218 pages. In which we meet chancer and adventurer Anthony Cade, who helps Scotland Yard solve the mysteries of identifying both jewel thief “King Victor” and a royal assassin.

Agatha christie book the secret of chimneys