A Hercule Poirot Amuse-Bouche: The Third Floor Flat by Agatha Christie
All About Agatha Christie
Catherine Brobeck & Kemper Donovan
4.7 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 15 July 2022
⏱️ 46 minutes
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Summary
It's time to pick apart a Poirot short story in excruciating detail, though thankfully the process is anything but excruciating--especially with a miniature puzzle mystery as clever as this one, and set in the vicinity of Poirot's own digs, to boot! Let us never underestimate the power of propinquity....
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to all about Agatha, the podcast dedicated to reading and ranking every single mystery |
| 0:10.5 | novel written by the Queen of Crime, Dame Agatha Christie. |
| 0:14.8 | I am Kemper Donovan, and on this episode we will be discussing a Poirot short story it |
| 0:22.2 | is time to review and analyze the third floor flat. |
| 0:28.8 | I could count on one hand the number of these Poirot short stories we have left, which |
| 0:33.6 | makes me very sad, but let's not wallow in that sadness. |
| 0:38.0 | Let us instead focus on the joy of having a Poirot short story to discuss in the here |
| 0:45.1 | and now. |
| 0:46.1 | The publishing history of the third floor flat is pretty straightforward. |
| 0:50.7 | It was first published in the UK in Hutchinson's Adventure and Mystery Story magazine in January |
| 0:57.7 | 1929. |
| 1:00.1 | It wasn't collected in book form in the UK till much, much later in 1974 in Poirot's early |
| 1:06.6 | cases. |
| 1:07.6 | This was the sole new Christie for that year. |
| 1:10.6 | It was the Christie for Christmas, a short story collection, which followed the publication |
| 1:16.0 | of Posterna Fate in 1973 that of course was the final book Christie wrote, and this would |
| 1:22.0 | be the year before Curtin was to come out in the final year of Hack of the Christie's |
| 1:28.4 | Life. |
| 1:29.4 | So in a way, it's fitting that we are covering this short story now on the podcast, although |
| 1:34.6 | I will be honest with you, that is a coincidence. |
| 1:37.7 | Coincidences happen in Hack of the Christie Mysteries, and they also happen in real life. |
| 1:42.8 | In the US, this short story appeared in the book collection, Three Blind Mice and Other |
... |
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