The Mysterious Mr Quin
Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition | |
| Author | Agatha Christie |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Thomas Derrick |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Detective fiction |
| Publisher | William Collins & Sons |
Publication date | 14 April 1930 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 288 (first edition, hardcover) |
| Preceded by | Partners in Crime |
| Followed by | Giant's Bread |
| Text | The Mysterious Mr Quin at Wikisource |
The Mysterious Mr Quin is a short story collection by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on 14 April 1930 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.
Each chapter or story involves a separate mystery that is solved through the interaction between the characters of Mr Satterthwaite, an elderly socialite, and the eponymous Mr Quin who appears almost magically at the most opportune moments and disappears just as mysteriously.
In her foreword to the collection, Christie states: "Mr Quin, I consider, is an epicure's taste." (HarperCollins 2017 p. vii) Her husband Max Mallowan described the stories as "detection written in a fanciful vein, touching on the fairy story, a natural product of Agatha's peculiar imagination." Christie's favourite stories were 'The World's End', 'The Man from the Sea' and 'Harlequin's Lane'. (p. viii)