The Market Basing Mystery {short story}

“After all, there’s nothing like the country, is there?” — Japp

When the Scotland Yard Inspector presents the idea of his old friends Poirot and Hastings joining him for a weekend jaunt to Market Basing, it’s met with welcome.

“Nobody knows us, and we know nobody,” explained Japp. “That’s the idea.”

An especially charming Poirot story that starts out with our favorite little Belgian on mini-holiday, having breakfast with Hastings and Japp. But of course their morning is interrupted by a constable who has a suicide which can’t possibly be a suicide.

Having the three together makes this one great fun in another wonderful short Hercule Poirot mystery story from Agatha Christie.

This Hercule Poirot short story was first published in The Sketch magazine in the UK on October 17, 1923. US publication followed in The Blue Book magazine in May 1925.

Hercule Poirot visits a quaint, quiet village with Captain Hastings and Inspector Japp. Their goal is to get away for a few days to a place where nobody knows them...to have a vacation. But it's not in the cards. When a resident of Market Basing is found dead from apparent suicide, the trio is on the case. The local doctor says the man could not possibly have shot himself. So it is suicide....or murder??

This story is quite short, but it does add some character development to Inspector Japp. I enjoyed finding out that he is a amateur botanist. All in all, a great story!

The show more Market Basing Mystery was not adapted into an episode of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot. Christie took the plot from this story, lengthened it, made changes to characters and the setting and published a novella, Murder in the Mews, in 1936. The television show did an adaptation of the novella, so it did not adapt the earlier short story as the plots would have been too similar. I really love the fact that the television show did an adaptation of every Hercule Poirot story that Christie wrote....and then ended the show with Curtain, Hercule's death. I can totally understand why they passed by this short story and adapted the longer novella instead. It will be awhile before I get to read Mews though, as I am reading Christie's writing in publication order.

On to the next short story: The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman! show less

While on holiday with Inspector Japp, he and Poirot are called to a suspicious death at Leigh Hall in Market Basing.
An enjoyable mystery