A Deadly Affair

This is a compilation of mystery short stories by Agatha Christie featuring several of her famous detectives like Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Parker Pyne, Harley Quinn, and Tommy and Tuppence. There were some here that I don't feel like I've read before, but also some that I'm fairly sure I've read in other short story collections. The theme of the short stories collected here is, as the tagline says, “love stories”, although I find that term to be loosely defined here. Basically any mystery that features any sort of possible romantic couple qualifies.

The book was palatable enough, and true to Agatha Christie's tried and tested formula. I might've rated this lower because of how formulaic it was, but tbh the formula is what I read Christie for - it's comforting and I know everything will be solved in the end and the story will progress according to a certain pattern.

Perhaps the most standout story in this collection to me is “Magnolia Blossoms”, one that I haven't read before. It's not a mystery at all, doesn't feature any detective, and is really just a piece of drama. It features an enigmatic and almost undecipherable female protagonist, Theodora, who is caught between her husband and her lover. Because it's not a mystery, it doesn't follow any of Christie's usual formula and it had me wondering what was going to happen and how. Spoilery thoughts: Because Theodora was so wooden and unexpressive at the beginning when she was eloping with Vincent, I was certain that there was something sus with her. But then she turned around and went back to Richard despite not having any affection for him at all, simply because she felt it her duty as his wife to be with him in his time of need. Then finally, the ending where she walks away from Richard and chooses to be alone instead of going back to Vincent really caught me off-guard and had me intrigued by her.

A good read if you are already a Christie fan and looking for a palate cleanser from other genres and books, but not something I'd recommend to people just discovering Christie for the first time.