Harley Quin — The Agatha Christie Community Forum Archive

How do you see The Mysterious Mr Quin's ending story?

youngmrquin — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 19:31:29 +0000

That's it, as the title of the topic says. The whole book itself is very different to AC usual standards, but this story in particular, Harlequin's Lane, is completely surrealistic.

Is Mr Quin Mysterious

Nathan Robert Michael Rees — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 16:11:00 +0000

Mr Quin is often said to be mysterious, the book title "The Mysterious Mr Quin" may be a reason why. But having read the brilliant short stories it occurred to me that he is not really mysterious. Allow me to explain:

The definition of "Mysterious" is this: "1.Beyond human power to explain or understand." So Mr Quin is mysterious because we do not know anything about him, his life, his job, if he is married etc. However the reason we do not know anything about him is because Mr Satterthwaite does not ask him any questions. It occurred to me throughout the 12 stories we never read Mr Satterthwaite ask Mr Quin any questions about his life at all. And as I said above the definition of mysterious is BEYOND human power to explain. So it is not the case here as Mr Satterthwaite DID have the power to ask Mr Quin questions about his life, but decided not to.

I enjoyed the stories very much, but is Mr Quin mysterious? Do you agree with me? Please tell me.

The Harlequin Tea Set - A hole in the plot.

taliavishay-arbel — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 18:18:56 +0000

I've just reread this story for the umpteenth time, and only now have realized a major problem with the plot (SPOILER!!!!). The story has two young stepbrothers - Ronald, the grandson and heir of Tom, and Timothy, his stepmother's son - both almost the same age, brought up together and good friends. According to the end, Beryl, Timothy's mother and Ronnie's stepmother, has tried to kill "Timothy" because he is really her stepson Ronnie, Tom's grandson and natural heir, and she wants her real son, "Ronnie", to inherit. However, she has already switched Timothy and Ronnie when they were babies, presenting Ronnie as Timothy and vice versa. That means that at the present point in the story, The young man who is known as Ronnie, and is going to inherit, is really her son Timothy. So why does she need to kill "Timothy" (who is really Ronnie)?

The only reason I can think of is because "Timothy" (like his real grandfather Tom) is colour blind, besides resembling his real mother, Tom's daughter. There is always the danger, as soon as people realize he is colour-blind, that they will connect the dots and suspect a substitution. However, AC doesn't even hint at that as a reason - she just presents us with the motive of having Beryl's real son inherit, which he is going to do anyway as things stand.

So can anyone tell me what I'm missing here?

Who likes the idea of a TV series?!

HTB1996 — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 15:17:46 +0000

I'm amazed that these stories have never been adapted. They could make a great eerie-supernatural-detective miniseries. Who agrees?

My Own Quin?

SeaSnap — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 17:50:57 +0000