HIMNEYS begins in Bulawayo, Africa, when Jimmy McGrath runs across his old friend Anthony Cade. Jimmy has in his possession a manuscript that needs to be delivered to a publisher in London by a particular date. He also has a bundle of incriminating love letters that he wants returned to the person who wrote them. He can't take them himself as he on the hunt for some gold.
Cade agrees to take on both tasks, and travels to London by steamer in the guise of James McGrath.

One of elements of this story is political intrigue related to the kingdom of Herzoslovakia in the Balkins. Its last king was assassinated seven years earlier and the kingdom has been a republic ever since. However the heir to the throne is attempting to claim it back. The Herzoslovakian links in the story become important because the manuscript is the memoir of a former Prime Minister.

The action moves to London and then on to Lord Caterham's country house Chimneys, where a murder takes place. Christie's search for a suitable protagonist continues. THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS marks the appearance of yet another, this time a Scotland Yard detective, Superintendent Battle. He is assigned to this case because of the importance of Chimneys, which is apparently often used as a pleasant meeting place for affairs of state. We are told Battle is a man of "ripe experience", and there certainly seems an attempt to give him a modicum of intelligence, and to allow him at times to be a step or two ahead of others in his understanding and intuition. On the other hand he is often poker-faced and expressionless.

Other people who will appear in later novels are Caterham's daughter Eileen (Bundle) and Bill Eversham, a young clerk from the foreign office. Colonel Melrose makes a cameo appearance as the Chief Constable although in later stories and novels he will be the Coroner.

The novel is possibly set I think in "real time". There is a reference to European nations rebuilding for the past 7 years, which seems to indicate a passage of time since a cataclysm, possibly the Great War. There is however no other reference to those events. There is also a reference to the previous, assassinated, queen of Herzoslovakia having claimed Romanov connections.
Perhaps I am mistaken and the setting is actually in the period just before World War I when the Balkans was in great turmoil. Another point in favour of this earlier period is the reference to Bertillon measurements as a means of identifying a person. These were measurements taken of various parts of the body: a system in common use in France in the late 19th century.

This is a novel in which many characters are not who they seem to be, beginning with Anthony Cade who poses as Jimmy McGrath. There are many who are leading a double life, and it becomes difficult for the reader to decide who is on whose side.

There are elements in THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS that really don't work all that well. The idea of an arch criminal which first appeared in THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT makes an
appearance, as does the idea of conspiracy and secret societies, in this case the Society of the Red Hand. The Koh-i-noor diamond, part of the British Crown Jewels since 1858, makes a puzzling appearance.

This is also a novel in which Christie shows that she doesn't really care if the reader has all the information, that we should expect that she will keep cards up her sleeve to be revealed in the final denouement. The novel is full of red herrings, and at the end we ask ourselves if we had enough information to solve the mystery. A pattern that is becoming a trademark in her novels even by this, the 5th one, is that in the final pages the cast of characters will be gathered and all will be revealed.

I wouldn't rate this as one of her best novels, although at the time of publication it was well received. It feels rather over-populated with characters, heavily reliant on ideas of conspiracy, intrigue and political upheaval, with some romantic elements. ( )

In August 2007 the BBC announced "Agatha Christie's crime novels, already immortalised on television, on film, on stage and in audio books, have been adapted as comic strip editions. The relaunch of Christie in this new way is timed to coincide with the annual Agatha Christie Week on September 9 to 15, 31 years after the novelist's death. The relaunch in comic form is an effort to make the world's second best-selling author more appealing to new and younger readers."

In much less than an hour today I have read "THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS", adapted by Francois Riveier, and illustrated by Laurence Suhner. The blurb asks "What connects Chimneys, a formidable country estate nestled in the English countryside, with the small Balkan nation of Herzoslovakia? If Anthony Cade had known the answer, perhaps the chance to earn a thousand pounds just delivering a parcel would not have seemed like such easy money!"
The Agatha Christie site lists its RRP as £9.99.

What you get for that price is 46 pages of quite well drawn comic frames, nice colour, a rather confusing story of espionage, jewel thieves, an international conspiracy, a romance, the debut appearance of Superintendent Battle, and absolutely no character development.

Well, I hope nobody is kidding themselves that these comics, a total of 83 titles, are going to turn anybody into a reader of the Agatha Christie classics!

The connection between this "graphic novel" and the original novel is just the main elements of the story. There is no suspense, and really none of what attracted readers to Agatha Christie's books.

Pardon the cynic in me who sees them as part of a money-making, marketing exercise. On the back of the copy of SECRET OF CHIMNEYS which I borrowed from my local library the reader is encourage to "collect all of the new Agatha Christie adventures, adapted by some of the world's most original comic book artists".

So if you are a collector you can now add another dimension to your collection of Agatha Christie memorabilia: to your hardbacks, paperbacks, audio tapes, audio CDs, films on VHS and DVD, jigsaw puzzles, book bags, mugs, PC games, Nintendo games, and deck chairs. ( )

Sort of Agatha Christie does John Buchan (but not as well) - still amusing period detail... ( )

This is a fun frothy novel and is everything that The Secret Adversary wasn't. It is very much a novel of its time and is a reworking of the country house murder with romantic overtones. This is a novelist having fun with characters and story and it shows. ( )

This was one of my favorite Agatha Christie novels, combining both mystery and romance. Thought it was great! ( )