BOOK OF THE MONTH FEBRUARY 2018- PARKER PYNE INVESTIGATES

GKCfanGKCfan Wisconsin, United States
Here's a thread to discuss this month's Book of the Month.  Have you read Parker Pyne Investigates?  When I first read the book, my 1990's edition did not include two additional short stories that appeared in The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories.  The current edition contains every Parker Pyne story.

Notice how the book stories are divided– The first several stories are about unhappy people who visit Pyne's office in the hopes of finding love or fulfillment.  The last several are more traditional mysteries– murders, theft, and kidnapping– occurring while Pyne was on vacation.  The two newly added stories are one jewel theft, and another "heart problem" on vacation.

Comments

  • I have not read Parker Pyne yet but have recently bought it, and was wondering what people thought of it?
  • GKCfanGKCfan Wisconsin, United States
    It's definitely different from most of Christie's other work, especially the first half.  The big question running throughout all the Pyne works is, what do we have to do to be happy?

  • SPOILER!!!!! I haven't read it in a long time, but thinking back, the first part (the stories about people who answer the advertisement "Are you happy? if not consult Parker Pyne") are actually a forerunner of virtual reality/ In each story, Pyne creates a false reality, using actors and contrived scenes, that brings happiness to the client. I suppose now it makes more sense than it did at the time it was published. It reminds me of one episode in star trek where the former captain, who is completely crippled, asks to be landed on a planet where people live in an imagined reality. 
  • Thank you, I will look forward to reading it
  • Tommy_A_JonesTommy_A_Jones Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
    Poirot and Parker Pyne are similar to a point and then they go in opposite diretions which is just like a few Poirot Books, they start the same SPOILER ALERT Poirot gets a letter from someone wanting to consult Poirot or Poirot meets someone wanting his help and then the Books take different Directions, I enjoy the first 2 Parker Pyne stories and the last one more than others.
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