I had not read short stories since Chicken Soup for the Soul and I was pleasantly surprised. I cannot divulge too much on the stories but they all revolve around the dark aspect of love as a theme, as the title suggests. The last story is about Agatha Christie’s love life, just a little excerpt but I thought it was very wise and assertive. So, if you love mystery and Agatha Christie’s work, this will be something you will thoroughly enjoy.

This was much different than I expected. I didn’t realize it was a group of short stories, which threw me off at first. It took a minute to get into the stories, as I was really unsure where the original story had gone, if I hadn’t read it.

Gratifying Agatha collection!

Lively collection of short stories from the Queen of Crime centered around the theme of love—in families, between partners, lovers and spouses. Some old favourites and new faces.
Favourites like Poirot and Hastings, Jane Marple, Tuppence and Tommy Beresford.
New faces for me included the two quiet amateur sleuths the social butterfly Mr. Satterthwaite, and the more effacing Mr. Quinn. “The Face of Helen” includes a beautiful young woman they spy at the opera, “There were, [Mr Satterthwaite] knew, such faces in the world—faces that made history…[a face] of sheer beauty” For the first time Mr. Satterthwaite realizes “the meaning of the words”… “a face that launched a thousand ships.” Tension between the young woman and two men inside the opera and a fight outside has Mr. Satterthwaite lending a hand and subsequently following a “trail of tragedy and violence Gillian West has [innocently] left in her wake.” A sombre note rings true.
Tuppence and Tommy Beresford out practicing their detective skills at the Three Arts Ball and the Art of Spades, a speakeasy in Chelsea, find more than they bargained for.
This collection speaks! A most pleasing Agatha anthology!

A William Morrow and Custom House ARC via NetGalley
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

This book offers a compilation of Christie tales in which many share a common theme of love in some manifestation. Inside are well-known sleuths including favorites Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, Jane Marple, and Hercule Poirot, along with the lesser known Parker Pyne.

Inside this volume, the stories are not new, often having been written in the 20s or 30s but they are combined here for the first time. All are good reads.

Sometimes a short story is just the right read. Maybe a reader is too busy for a long novel or maybe it is a day with a short attention span or possibly a reader’s preferred format is the short story. For all of these readers, here is a treat.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Short stories filled with crimes of passion, count me in!

A Deadly Affair is a collection of 15 short stories. Each story is a love gone wrong murder mystery story. We get a little bit of forbidden love, love triangles and unreturned love.

This was my first Agatha Christie book. I see why she is dubbed as the queen of mystery. Her stories are wittily written and keep you guessing. This was a really fun read.

I would definitely recommend this to someone that enjoys short stories.

A collection of short stories featuring Agatha Christie's famous detectives. Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot and several others. If you are a Agatha Christie fan this book is for you. Great read.

It was really good and the romance / mystery was really good. Also I wish the stories were longer because after I learn more about the characters I need to know what happened.

My favorites stores were : The Face of Helen, Wasp’s Nest, The case of the Rich Woman, & The love Detectives.

The true Queen of Mystery shows her short story talents in this marvelous compendium of odd-ball "love stories". She reprises her fabulous detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, the strange and innovative Parker Pyne, the secretive Harley Quin, and the wildly creative Tommy and Tuppance.

As each story unfolds, readers are taken from the streets of London, to a train on the Nile, the English countryside, and the opera. There is the rich woman who goes to Parker Pyne to ask him for help in spending her money to make her happier. There is the story of stolen jewels, a Russian countess, and Hercule Poirot and his assistant on the search. And the orange grower who lures a beautiful wife away from her husband, but does he?

Don't miss this excellent trip back in time. Agatha Christie had the amazing ability to immediately draw a reader into her stories, and this terrific grouping of tales is no exception.

Do not be fooled by the phrase “love stories” in the title – after all, this is Agatha Christie, the Queen of Mystery, one of the most read (and respected) authors of the 20th century. And these short stories will help explain why she is considered the master. “A Deadly Affair: Unexpected Love Stories from the Queen of Mystery” collects 14 short stories by Agatha Christie, most of which have a component of love thrown in, usually a love triangle or a jilted lover, but expect to see a bit of murder as well.

All of Ms. Christie’s usual detectives have a story or two in this collection: we see Hercule Poirot not only solving murders, but in one case actively preventing them. Miss Marple is here as well, with her understanding of village life saving an innocent man from the hangman. But we also get a bit of her lesser-known detectives: Tommy and Tuppence Beresford (her version of Nick and Nora?) and their witty banter, Parker Pyne (and his newspaper adverts!), and Harley Quin.

True fans of Ms. Christie will have read most (if not all) of these stories already, but this collection brings them together around a theme and breathes new life into some of these works. Even if you know what is coming, it is still wonderful to see how a master crafts her work within the confines of a short story. And as a bonus, we get a brief snippet from Ms. Christie’s autobiography about how she almost made a mistake or two when it came to love. An enjoyable trip with some old friends.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from William Morrow and Custom House, William Morrow Paperbacks via NetGalley. Thank you!

Agatha Christie is a beloved author, but many fans haven't read her short stories. This love themed collection is an amazing way to read different stories and discover new favorite characters. The stories offer a great deal of variety. Some are humorous, while others are chilling. This collection is perfect for Christie fans or those who haven't read her yet but want to dip their toes in the water.

The loose theme of this book of short stories written by The Queen of Crime herself is love, but few of the stories have happy endings for all of the characters (as one would expect from Agatha Christie). The stories have all been published before, but despite being an avid Christie fan, I had only read one or two previously, and it was a true pleasure to sit down with this compilation. The stories hold up well despite some first being published almost 100 years ago. Many of Christie's beloved and famous characters make appearances, from Poirot and Miss Marple, to Tommy & Tuppence, to Parker Pyne and Harley Quin.

This is a fun collection of 15 of Agatha Christie's short stories with the theme of love. All but two were written in the 1920's and early 1930's. Poirot stars in three stories, and Miss Marple, Parker Pyne, and Tuppence and Tommy in two each. The others had protagonists with whom I was not familiar. I thought I had read all her stories, but these appear to have been published in magazines in the era in which they were written. The last story was about Agatha and her courtships and were taken from her biography. My favorite story in the book was The Love Detectives, in which two people admitted guilt in the murder, with each of them giving a different method of murder! However, The Wasp's Nest, where Poirot solves a murder that doesn't take place takes a very close second place. If you are a fan of Agatha Christie, you will love this book!

A Deadly Affair compiles several lesser known Christie stories, previously published in other collections. She's known as the Queen of Crime for good reason, and these stories, written over decades, give a good sample of her recurring characters while staying in a them of love and lovers.

5.0/5 of course!

Is there a soul in the world that does not love Agatha Christie?

No? I didn't think so.

This is a collection of short stories. Every time I read one, I would insist the next one could not possibly be better. However, in true Agatha Christie, fashion, they were ALL that good.

Any fan of Agatha Christie, will not want to miss this book. I loved every bit of this. I cant wait to share these stories with friends and family.

A Deadly Affair is a collection of short stories by Agatha Christie that are about love gone wrong. The stories feature a variety of Christie's famous detectives, including Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, Parker Pyne, and Harley Quin.

I had already read several of these stories, but I love the inclusion of so many of Christie's famous detectives as well as some standalone stories. My favorites in the collection are all of the stories featuring Miss Marple, a Poirot tale in which he calls on an old acquaintance to prevent a murder, and a standalone story about a young couple who get more than they expected in a basket of fruit from a roadside vendor.

Parker Pyne and Harley Quin have always been my least favorite main characters. However, the Harley Quin and Mr. Satterthwaite stories in this collection are both really clever and were fun to read. I've been an Agatha Christie fan for many years and loved this collection. It would also be a great introduction to Christie for those who are less familiar with her work. I would rate the book 4.5 stars.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley, through the courtesy of William Morrow Books. An advance copy was provided to me at no cost, but my review is voluntary and unbiased.

There is a reason Agatha Christie is known as the Queen of Mystery — even if you’ve never read one of her stories or books, you still know her name. For fans of Agatha Christie this book is a no-brainer. It feels like catching up with old friends. The stories are just the right length to either devour the entire book or stretch it out over several days/nights to savor at your leisure.

Wow! this was so fun to read! Lots of love, thwarted love, unrequited love, jealousy, forbidden love, and every other shade of love. Lots of short stories featuring Miss Marple, Poirot, and other friends. This was a delightful collection of stories and felt like a comforting hang-out with old friends.

This forthcoming collection of short stories by the aptly titled Queen of Crime is organized around the theme of love, following three previous themed collections, one each for Halloween, Winter, and Summer. (This one is, I believe, intended for Valentine’s Day, although it will be released in early January.)
If you haven’t read many of Mrs. Christie’s short stories previously, then you are in for a treat! This collection of short stories is an absolute delight! Although the stories have love as a central theme, just as often as not it is love that has gone wrong rather than anything actually resembling a romance. These are definitely mysteries.
As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, mysteries are hard to create in a short story form. There isn’t always time to lay down clues and misdirection as there is in a full-length novel. Mrs. Christie, however, does an excellent job even in this brief format. If you have enjoyed any of her full-length work, I think you will be just as pleased with her short stories and A Deadly Affair is an excellent place to start.
Although the stories have all been previously released in other collections, I love this recent trend of regrouping them by theme/season. I had read all of the stories previously, but really enjoyed having them in these new collections. By having the stories in a different context, it really made some of them seem new again. A few, also, were from collections that, although I had read them at some point, are more obscure, at least to me, so reading these felt like finding a long-lost friend.

A Deadly Affair is a collection of short stories written by the Queen herself, Agatha Christie. Each short story takes you on a journey with several of her most popular characters such as, Hercule Poirot and Mrs. Marple. I grew up reading Agatha Christie and she’s one of the author’s I credit for my deep love of reading.

If you have never read Agatha Christie, then you are in for a treat with this wonderful collection of short stories. One thing I have noticed and had forgotten about Ms. Christie is that she will expand your vocabulary in ways no other books do.

I highly recommend you grab a copy of this wonderful collection as it introduces you to so many wonderful characters and will spur you on to read each of the series she has written. I love the fact that Agatha Christie is being reintroduced to new readers and is one you won’t want to miss.

Thank you to #netgalley and #williammorrowandcustomhouse for the opportunity to read this fabulous collection.

Great round-up of Agatha Christie shorts on love turned twisted. This one would make for a great read or re-read around Valentine's Day.