Agatha Christie

Partners in Crime


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      AGATHA CHRISTIE

      Partners in Crime

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       Copyright

      Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by Collins 1929

      Copyright © 1929 Agatha Christie Ltd

      Cover by www.juliejenkinsdesign.com © HarperCollins/Agatha Christie Ltd 2007

      Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

      Source ISBN: 9780007111503

      Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2010 ISBN: 9780007422678

      Version: 2017-04-17

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       5. Finessing the King

       6. The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper

       7. The Case of the Missing Lady

       8. Blindman’s Buff

       9. The Man in the Mist

       10. The Crackler

       11. The Sunningdale Mystery

       12. The House of Lurking Death

       13. The Unbreakable Alibi

       14. The Clergyman’s Daughter

       15. The Red House

       16. The Ambassador’s Boots

       17. The Man Who Was No. 16

       Keep Reading

       About the Author

       Also by the Author

       About the Publisher

       Chapter 1

       A Fairy in the Flat

      Mrs Thomas Beresford shifted her position on the divan and looked gloomily out of the window of the flat. The prospect was not an extended one, consisting solely of a small block of flats on the other side of the road. Mrs Beresford sighed and then yawned.

      ‘I wish,’ she said, ‘something would happen.’

      Her husband looked up reprovingly.

      ‘Be careful, Tuppence, this craving for vulgar sensation alarms me.’

      Tuppence sighed and closed her eyes dreamily.

      ‘So Tommy and Tuppence were married,’ she chanted, ‘and lived happily ever afterwards. And six years later they were still living together happily ever afterwards. It is extraordinary,’ she said, ‘how different everything always is from what you think it is going to be.’

      ‘A very profound statement, Tuppence. But not original. Eminent poets and still more eminent divines have said it before – and if you will excuse me saying so, have said it better.’

      ‘Six years ago,’ continued Tuppence, ‘I would have sworn that with sufficient money to buy things with, and with you for a husband, all life would have been one grand sweet song, as one of the poets you seem to know so much about puts it.’

      ‘Is it me or the money that palls upon you?’ inquired Tommy coldly.

      ‘Palls isn’t exactly the word,’ said Tuppence kindly. ‘I’m used to my blessings, that’s all. Just as one never thinks what a boon it is to be able to breathe through one’s nose until one has a cold in the head.’

      ‘Shall I neglect you a little?’ suggested Tommy. ‘Take other women about to night clubs. That sort of thing.’

      ‘Useless,’ said Tuppence. ‘You would only meet me there with other men. And I should know perfectly well that you didn’t care for the other women, whereas you would never be quite sure that I didn’t care for the other men. Women are so much more thorough.’

      ‘It’s