#blog12daysxmas Day 2 Seven dials mystery

Agatha Christie is always a good Christmas topic. Her name almost says it (even if it was an assumed name) and she has been part of my Christmas for decades. How many Christmases can I remember when one of the books I eagerly unwrapped was a "Christie for Christmas"? She might have been writing them to combat her issues with British tax but I didn't care. Reading Agatha Christie was part of MY Christmas and my holiday reading.

Imagine my surprise last week when I was browsing the Hawthorn Library new books shelves as is my daily custom and I saw this cover! It is a reprint of the original 1929 cover so that made it stand out but when I picked it up I had no memory of the plot! Was this an Agatha Christie that had managed to escape my notice? I know I don't own all her books by any means but I thought I had read them all, even the Mary Westmacott ones. Needless to say I grabbed the book and borrowed it.

The Seven dials mystery was published in 1929 as one of a series of 7/6 novels by Collins. Others included detective and wild west stories by authors I have never heard of, or ones which have disappeared from popularity but that I can remember from my early days in public libraries mainly because they were being weeded. The book I borrowed is a facsimile edition that HarperCollins put out in 2010 and I enjoyed reading it for that reason alone. The cover artwork and the internal font and layout of the book were quite of their age.

The book is partly set in Chimneys, the scene of some of her other books, but it isn't a Miss Marple or a Poirot. Instead it features a couple of young people who come upon a mysterious death which is rendered curious by the seven clocks on the mantlepiece of the dead man's bedroom. The book is a definite cozy with a romantic interest, some of Christie's humorous characterization and a quirk to the plot at the end. I enjoyed reading it.

If I had read it before, I certainly didn't remember it though the investigator Lady Eileen "Bunty" Brent seemed to ring some bells with me. Maybe she appeared in another of Christie's books? Or maybe I need to do some Christie rereading? At any rate, I am very glad I found a "Christie for Christmas".