Love it. I haven’t even finished it, only read the first two of the book’s 12 stories, but I know the rest will be just as delightful. Not surprising, really. The back blurb states that there are two billion copies of Christie’s books in print, and that was written in 1984. Obviously, I’m not the only one who likes her writing. What is interesting though is that I had been trying to read several different books before this one. I tried a classical novel, a mainstream novel, a mystery novel, all by solid, respectable writers, and I couldn’t finish any of the books I started. Everything seemed boring, irrelevant, plainly wrong. Can I even enjoy a book anymore, I wondered? Maybe I’ve become too jaded. Then I picked up this little book in a thrift store (for 0.99), and I don’s feel jaded anymore. I feel rejuvenated, my interest freshly picked. My deep bow to Dame Agatha.Her hero, Parker Pyne, isn’t even a detective. At least in the first two stories, he doesn’t investigate crimes. Just the opposite: he creates the illusions of crimes and adventures to make people happy, their lives exciting. His personal ad reads: “Are you happy? If not, consult Mr. Parker Pyne.” So I consulted him, and you know what: I’m happy. Last night, when I closed the book after the first two stories, I smiled. I fell asleep still smiling. Can’t wait to get back to the book and read all the stories. UpdateSome of the latter stories are not as funny as the first two, but in all of them, Mr. Parker Pyne solves problems that make people unhappy. His powers of observation and deduction are formidable, his inventiveness is endless, and his heart is generous. Of course, he charges a hefty amount for his services... but only from those who can afford it. The others, he helps for free. It’s an easy and fast read for our busy times.I have only two problems with this book. First is cosmetic: I couldn’t find the edition that I own among the 50 editions of this book on GoodReads. Second is intrinsic to the writing style: the stories are written exclusively from the author’s POV. There is no character development, no inner monologues, and no thoughts of any of the characters are available to the reader. Only dialogue and action. As a result, the writing seems a bit dry, distant. But the plots of all the stories are engaging enough to overcome this little glitch.Overall, I enjoyed it.
…or does not, as in much of this book. Agatha Christie’s Parker Pyne Investigates is a collection of fourteen short stories featuring, as detective (a term applied somewhat loosely in several of these stories) C Parker Pyne. A retired government employee who has spent his life working with statistics, Parker Pyne has come to the conclusion that all human happiness (and unhappiness) can be categorized, sifted, dealt with in a logical way. He therefore advertises in the newspaper: Are you happy? If not, consult Mr Parker Pyne, 17, Richmond Street. And from that follows a series of cases. The first six stories, all titled The Case of… (The Distressed Lady, The Discontented Soldier etc), show Parker Pyne mostly as a problem solver (a sort of Jeeves, actually) who takes on commissions that involve creativity to solve problems such as a soldier’s sense of ennui on returning to England after a long career in Africa; a wife’s unhappiness over her husband’s infatuation with his secretary; and so on. The other eight stories, as Parker Pyne goes on a tour abroad – in places ranging from Damascus to Delphi, Petra to the Nile – are rather more the standard mystery, with Pyne being the detective, solving murders, thefts – and, once again, helping sort out the tangled love life of a studious young man whose mother does not approve of his engagement to a Bohemian. These are all generally interesting stories, but that’s about all that can be said for them. About half of the stories have no detection involved, and as for the rest, the detection is somewhat lukewarm. (One problem is that some major ‘clues’ are revealed at the end of the stories, leaving the reader thinking, “Now how could I have guessed that?!”) Equally unimpressive is the fact that, unlike some of Christie’s other creations – Miss Marple, or Hercule Poirot, for example – Parker Pyne is singularly uninteresting. This is a character described (I quote Christie, several times in the stories) as ‘bland’, and I couldn’t agree more. Pyne is terribly bland, and other than the fact that his hands are beautifully manicured, and that he believes everything can be tackled with statistics, I came away with no real impression of who Parker Pyne is.If you’re looking for a really good Agatha Christie book, this isn’t it.
What do You think about Parker Pyne Investigates (2003)?
This is not, by far, the best Agatha Christie book. It is a collection of short contrived stories that are interesting as historical literature, or examples of writing exercise, but are poorly written otherwise. Parker Pyne puts an advert in the paper announcing that anyone who is unhappy should consult him and using statistics and his knowledge of human behaviour he would sort them out. Fanciful. My first impression was that these stories are written in a totally un-Christie fashion. They are repetitive, naive and an ersatz Conan Doyle. Reminiscent of many police procedurals on TV today where there is always one photographic memory/autistic/maths genius/know-it-all on the team who just "happens to have" experience of that particular culture/lock/fragrance/exceedingly rare antiquity/shoe polish/family history, over and above just always being in the right place at the right time. Parker Pyne was maybe a precursor to Poirot although without the roundness of character. Of more interest were the latter stories where PP travels to some rather exotic places. Implausible and rather silly, these stories are almost notes or story boards for longer complete stories, and as such contain some wonderful ideas. For die-hard Christie fans this is an unusual example of her work, for fans of tightly written mystery and suspense, I'd say this is a book to be avoided.
—Helen
What could be better than an Agatha Christie short story? Like M & Ms, one is never enough. Unlike M & Ms, the devourer is never satiated. Only 14 Parker Pyne stories were written and they are all here. I read some of these years and years ago, but when I found there was a complete collection, I bought it at once. Parker Pyne is one of Christie's lesser known detectives. Each story stands on its own and each has a nice little twist. Parker Pyne guarantees a cure for unhappiness and only "fails" to provide that in one case. Highly recommended!
—Jill
If you're expecting this charming collection of short stories to feature a crime in every one you will be disappointed. Some of them DO involve a crime or a mystery but most do not. J Parker Pyne specialises in helping the unhappy, those with problems or those who are just plain bored with the humdrum affairs of everyday life.He endeavours to reunite husbands and wives who have drifted apart - with mixed results it has to be said. He creates adventures for those who are bored with everyday life and he returns stolen jewels to their rightful owners. Even on holiday he is still approached by the unhappy and the worried and finds himself involved against his better judgement in their affairs.These are stories about human nature and how contrary our idea of what we really want can be. I found them enjoyable and entertaining reading and was not at all disappointed that they weren't all crime and mystery stories. They show how good a writer Agatha Christie was. If you enjoy the series of stories featuring Mr Quin then you may enjoy the Parker Pyne stories.
—Damaskcat
