AGATHA CHRISTIE: MYSTERY: THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY (CHAPS 1-2) by AGATHA CHRISTIE

1001 Adventure and Mystery Stories For The Road

Jon Hagadorn

Arts, Fiction

4.7 • 520 Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2026

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Agatha Christie's 1929 novel The Seven Dials Mystery, the story kicks off with a mix of high-society high jinks and a sudden, sobering tragedy.

Set against the vibrant, slightly reckless backdrop of the 1920s, this is one of Christie's more "light-hearted" thrillers. It leans into the "bright young things" trope of the era, blending a comedic, adventurous tone with a classic whodunnit structure.

Chapter 1: The Alarm Clocks
The story begins at Chimneys, a grand country estate currently being rented by Sir Oswald and Lady Coote. A group of young houseguests, including the likable but lazy Gerry Wade, is staying there. Gerry is notoriously difficult to wake up in the morning, so his friends—led by Jimmy Thesiger—decide to play a prank. They purchase eight alarm clocks and hide them in Gerry's room, timed to go off at intervals starting early the next morning to ensure he finally gets up on time.

Chapter 2: Death at Chimneys
The prank takes a dark turn the following morning. While the alarm clocks go off as planned, Gerry doesn't emerge. When the guests eventually enter his room, they find Gerry Wade dead in his bed from an apparent overdose of sleeping draught. Curiously, seven of the alarm clocks are lined up on the mantelpiece, but the eighth is missing (later found discarded in the garden). The chapter introduces the vibrant and sharp-witted "Bundle" Brent, daughter of the estate's owner, who returns home to find the police and a brewing mystery.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back, everyone to one thousand one stories for the road.
0:16.4	This is your host, John Haggardorn.
0:19.0	We're taking a turn away from the pirates and headed for an
0:22.0	Agatha Christie mystery called the Seven Dials Mystery. This is a 1929 classic from the Queen of
0:28.8	Crime herself, Agatha Christie. But if you're expecting a quiet afternoon with a knitting Miss
0:34.2	Marple or a fastidious Eric Pouro, think again. We're headed to chimneys,
0:40.4	a grand country estate that's been rented out to a group of high-spirited, somewhat rowdy young
0:45.3	aristocrats. The trouble begins with a prank. To cure a friend, Jerry Wade, of his habit of
0:52.5	oversleeping, his house guests line up eight alarm clocks in his
0:56.6	room, time to go off in a deafening sequence. But when morning comes, the clock scream,
1:04.1	and Jerry doesn't move. He's dead. And strangely, one of the eight clocks is missing, leaving only seven lined up on the mantelpiece.
1:15.2	Enter our heroine, Lady Bundle Brent.
1:19.0	She's fast talking, fast driving, and far too curious for her own safety.
1:24.1	When a second death occurs with the cryptic dying words,
1:33.1	Seven Dials. Bundle realizes this isn't just a streak of bad luck. It's a conspiracy.
1:41.4	Alongside the charmingly laid-back Bill Eversley and the Stoic Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard,
1:44.8	Bundle descends into the London underworld to find the Seven Dials, a secret society that meets in a sinister club in Soho, masked and shrouded in
1:51.7	mystery. This is the Seven Dials Mystery.
1:58.2	Chapter 1 On Early Rising
2:01.2	That amiable youth, Jimmy Thysiger, came racing down the big staircase of chimneys two steps at a time.
2:10.2	So precipitate was his descent that he collided with Treadwell, the stately butler,
2:14.8	just as the latter was crossing the hall bearing a fresh supply of hot coffee.
	...

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