This was my first introduction to Mr. Pyne, and I can see why I'd never heard of him. He isn't a detective like Poirot; he is a retired civil servant with a passion for statistics. Pyne runs an ad in the paper for unhappy people to come to him so he can fix their problems. Usually the happiness cure is highly dependent on some kind of deception. Husbands and wives are constantly provoking their uninterested spouses to jealousy, bored people are being given adventure, etc.

The characters are pretty flat and several of the stories (especially the ones about husbands and wives) were repetitive. Christie changed it up a bit and had some of her stories end unhappily, but it wasn't enough to break the monotony. Thank goodness this was so short. I read it in one sitting and probably wouldn't have picked it up to finish it if I hadn't.

And is it just me, or is Christie a little bit obsessed with characters in disguise? In The Floating Admiral, a mystery written chapter by chapter with other members of the Detection Club, Christie's proposed solution was almost absurd; she had a man pretending to be a woman, and fooling everybody somehow. There's a character in disguise in one of these Parker Pyne stories, and I found it almost as silly.

I really didn't like Pyne himself at all either. He didn't have much personality, and the constant dishonesty bothered me. Keeping back part of the truth for a good reason is one thing, but setting up entire scenarios and calling on your resident giglio and vamp to trick every customer is different. I can't recommend the book, and I don't think I'd bother reading any more Pyne books (if there even are any). ( )

One of my favorite collections of Christie short stories yet! Very entertaining - Parker Pyne is an intriguing character. ( )

Interesting premise whereby an ex-civil servant, who worked in some kind of stastical analysis, sets himself to happy people become happy. He is not always successful. There is a generally a twist in the tale which makes these stories enjoyable. This collection is also noteworthy for introducing Ariadne Oliver, who appears in some of the later Poirot novels. ( )

I might have kept this, except it was falling apart. It was fun, the consensus of the debate in the Golden Age Detectives fan site was, this came after Poirot, but sometimes they were interchangeable. They are very similar. To begin with, the stories are not so much mysteries, as sort of fix your life kind of stuff. Cute. Further in, the detective actually has to solve a mystery before he can fix the lives of people. ( )

Pretty entertaining stories about people who wants to get a better life, even if Christie uses standard characters througout. ( )