Even though I don’t always get on with mystery short stories, I’ve observed Midwinter Murder going around and thought it sounded like good winter reading. And so it proved to be.
For one thing, with Christie’s stories I didn’t feel that lack of characterization that I often feel with other mystery short stories, since Christie is so deft at depicting characters with just a few strokes. Not all of these stories involved murders, and some are quite benign. Poirot appears in several, Miss Marple in one, Tommy and Tuppence in one, and in two, a Mr. Satterthwaite and his mysterious friend, Mr. Quin.
“The Clergyman’s Daughter,” about a woman who inherits a house only to find odd things happening in it, was unfortunately already included in Partners in Crime, which I read last year. Similarly, the Miss Marple story, “A Christmas Tragedy,” was included in The Tuesday Club Murders.
Just for a change, I believe I preferred some of the more benign stories. For example, in “The Problem at Pollensa Bay,” Mr. Parker Pine receives a plea from an overprotective mother to find a way to get her poor son Basil away from a girl she deems unsuitable. But Mr. Pine doesn’t see anything wrong with the girl.
I also liked “The World’s End,” in which the mysterious Mr. Quin appears in a desolate location in Corsica to right a wrong.
And in “The Manhood of Edward Robinson,” Edward is a clerk who yearns for romance but his too-practical fianceé Maud thinks he’s a spendthrift and chides him when he tries to make a romantic gesture. Edward wins £500 in a contest and decides to spend it all on a sportscar then take it away for a day before Maud ruins his fun. And he has an unexpected adventure.
There are lots of stories with clever puzzles, for example, “Christmas Adventure,” in which Poirot figures out why there is a jewel in the plum pudding. But I thought I’d point out some of the more unusual stories.