Friday, February 9, 2024

The Pearl of Price: A Short Story #AgathaChristieSS24




💜 I didn't remember of ever reading a Parker Pyne mystery before. Or if I had, it slipped my memory. In this story Pyne is having a holiday trip to Petra, in the Middle East - a journey which, no doubt, was inspired by Christie's own journey with husband Max Mallowan.

💜 Among Pyne's fellow tourists were a wealthy American with his daughter and also secretary, an archeological doctor, a British politician, and a few others. The American girl is wearing pearl earrings, which her father boasts of costing him very expensively. The earrings' screws are rather lose, and the day before the incident, she had almost lost them, witnessed by the others, coincidentally, after a talk about honesty. 

💜 On their journey to the next day, the girl is, again, losing one of her pearl earring. But this time, they are nowhere to be found. Which means, that one of the men present had stolen them. Which one, though? They searched each other without avail. Parker Pyne must use his deduction ability to solve the mystery.

💜 It is a very straight forward case. I'm pretty sure everyone can easily guess the whodunnit, but perhaps not the howdunnit. Or maybe, if you pay close attention throughout the story, you'll guess it right. It's clever, easy, and pretty straightforward.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/5

1 comment:

  1. I get Parker Pyne and Harley Quin mixed up but I think Quin has more supernatural abilities - I will have to check. I am not much of a short story fan but they can be fun when one is in the mood. There was a popular children's series called Encyclopedia Brown about a brilliant 10 year old who solves all the neighborhood crimes when his father, a police chief, and other adults cannot. My third grade teacher used to read these aloud and the class would try to solve the case before she checked the back for the answer. I wonder how many of these kids grew up to enjoy mysteries?

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