The theme for the 2024 Read Christie challenge is Agatha Christie: Through the Decades and for the first quarter of the year we are reading books from the 1920s. In January I read The Secret of Chimneys (1925), so this month it made sense to read The Seven Dials Mystery, which was published four years later in 1929 and is loosely a sequel. I say ‘loosely’ because although this book features some of the same characters and is set at the same country house – Chimneys – it’s a completely separate mystery.
The Seven Dials Mystery begins with a house party being held at Chimneys while the house is being rented out to Sir Oswald and Lady Coote. The guests include a group of young people, one of whom, Gerry Wade, has a habit of sleeping very late in the mornings. As a joke, his friends hide eight alarm clocks in his room during the night, timed to go off one after another in the morning. However, things don’t go according to plan and the clocks fail to wake Wade…because he is already dead. The cause of death is thought to be an accidental overdose of a sedative, but how does that explain why there are now only seven alarm clocks in the bedroom instead of eight?
When Lord Caterham, the owner of Chimneys, returns home and hears the news, he is not at all pleased. “I don’t like anyone who comes and dies in my house on purpose to annoy me,” he says. His daughter, Lady Eileen, on the other hand, is more sympathetic, particularly when she discovers that she knows some of the people involved – and it’s not long before she has become involved herself. Lady Eileen – known as ‘Bundle’ to her friends and family – is on her way to London the next day when a man jumps into the road in front of her car. He has time to utter the words Seven Dials before dying of a gunshot wound. What or where is Seven Dials and is there some connection with the seven clocks found in Gerry Wade’s bedroom? Bundle is determined to find out!
This book has a very similar feel to The Secret of Chimneys and although it had seemed like a good idea to read them in consecutive months for the challenge, in hindsight I think I should have left a bigger gap and chosen something different for this month. Still, it was nice to meet Bundle again, who only played a small part in Chimneys but was much more prominent in this book. Superintendent Battle is also back again, but it’s really Bundle who is the ‘detective’ in this novel and she’s a very likeable one!
I didn’t manage to solve the mystery – if there were any clues pointing towards the culprit I must have missed them – but this is really more of a thriller than a conventional mystery novel anyway and I was content just to follow the twists and turns of the plot. There’s a secret society element that reminded me very much of GK Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday, which I’m sure Christie must have read and been inspired by. It’s an entertaining novel but I think my next Read Christie book will be a mystery rather than another thriller.
She Reads Novels 
I enjoy your Agatha Christie analyses. I do have her whole works collection which I read back in the 1970/80s. I could never, ever remember any book memory wise. I have Aphantasia, which is no internal mind’s eye to create imagery. I see nothing but a dark canvas on closing my eyes. So find only a few authors really do work for me whilst reading. Agatha Christie was one of those authors I read avidly back when. Having just read your latest of the Christie blogs you write this time? I am curiously inspired and shall read them again. So thank you. All the best.
I’m impressed that you’ve read her whole works; I still have a lot of her books waiting to be read. Sorry to hear about the aphantasia – I can imagine that must make it difficult to remember settings and characters, so I’m pleased you found that Christie worked for you.
Thank you Helen. Agatha Christie, Conan Doyle, Tolkien, CS Lewis, Murakami and David Mitchell are constantly good. Despite no character or scenic ability in myself producing internal imagery from their stories. That’s why I read them all. Other authors’ books can be real struggles and then an odd one leaps out and simply works. Why some books work? I don’t know. It’s very weird! Again, cheers for your reply. Much appreciated and all the best.
Don’t think I’ve read this one – doesn’t ‘ring any bells’ anyway… [grin]
I’m due to start my next Miss Marple this week though – as soon as I’ve finished my Holmes read-along…. In other news I have 3 crime classics in my review pile – 2 of which are BLCC. LOTS of classics coming up!
I’ll look forward to hearing what you think of the next Miss Marple!
iI haven’t read these two and didn’t realise they shared a setting, I like that and I like the sound of Bundle very much!
Yes, Bundle is a great character! I did like the shared setting, but found the two books a bit too similar.
Hmm, I’ve read The Seven Dials Mystery but I didn’t know there was a book with some of the same characters, The Secret of Chimneys.
Yes, they share some of the same characters but they stand alone so it wouldn’t matter that you read this one first.
OK.
I’ve read this one but remember almost nothing about it! On the whole I’ve never been as keen on her thrillers as her mysteries – I don’t think it was a genre she ever quite mastered. But her protagonists are usually fun.
I’ve really enjoyed some of her thrillers, such as They Came to Baghdad and The Man in the Brown Suit, but others have left me a bit disappointed. The characters are always great, though!
I’ve got this on my CCSpin list… might just pull it off and read it on my own!
I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it!
Well done on surviving another Christie murder! I have to space out my AC reads (indeed, it applies to most thrillers and mysteries) to avoid becoming jaded – my little grey cells can barely cope with the sleuthing… 😁
I’m not sure if I’ll be reading another Christie in March – I think I might need to take a break and rejoin the challenge in April!
I loved Bundle in this one. Just her name alone makes me smile. 😀
Yes, Bundle is a great character! 🙂