Partners in Crime is a short story collection by British writer Agatha Christie, first published by Dodd, Mead and Company in the US in 1929 and in the UK by William Collins, Sons on 16 September of the same year.The Observer, 15 September 1929 (p. 8) The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6). All of the stories in the collection had previously been published in magazines (see First publication of stories below) and feature her detectives Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, first introduced in The Secret Adversary (1922).
This collection of detective short stories has a theme connecting the stories, as well, "a group of short detective stories within a detective novel."
The collection was well received on publication, with the "merriest collection", with amiable parodies, to one reviewer who was less impressed, saying the stories were "entertaining enough". One noted that "By having two detectives who are usually alternately successful she [Christie] has always a foil, less obtuse than 'my dear Watson'. "Her literary skill is equal to the task" of parodies of the style of well-known detective writers. Some of the authors parodied in the 1920s are long-forgotten, yet a review in 1990 commented that "the parodies are not sharp enough for this to matter very much" to prevent enjoyment of the stories. It also noted that the plot of one story, "The House of Lurking Death", "anticipates" a detective novel published in 1930 by Dorothy Sayers.
Plot introduction The Beresfords' old friend Mr Carter, from a government intelligence agency, arrives bearing a proposition for the adventurous duo. They are to take over 'the International Detective Agency', a recently cleaned-out spy stronghold, and pose as the owners so as to intercept any enemy messages coming through. In the meantime Tommy and Tuppence can take on cases as this detective agency, an opportunity that delights the young couple. They employ Albert, a young man also introduced in The Secret Adversary, as their assistant at the agency.
The two tackle a series of cases – mimicking in each the style of a famous fictional detective of the period, including Dr. Thorndyke; Sherlock Holmes; the brothers Okewood, Desmond and Francis, by Valentine Williams; Isabel Ostranders characters, ex-Roundsman Tim McCarty and his friend Dennis Riordan; Clinton H. Staggs fictional blind sleuth Thornley Colton, known as the Problemist; the work of Edgar Wallace; and Christie's own Hercule Poirot. At the end of the book, Tuppence reveals that she is pregnant, and will play a diminished role in the spy business.
Plot summaries
A Fairy in the Flat Prudence ("Tuppence") Beresford, who is happily married to Tommy for six years, is bored with life. She flippantly discusses what exciting things she would wish to happen to her. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Mr Carter (see The Secret Adversary) who asks them to take over The International Detective Agency. The agency's manager, Theodore Blunt, is in prison. Carter's particular request is that they watch for letters on blue paper sent to Mr Blunt from a purported ham merchant anxious to trace his refugee wife. Each such letter will have a Russian stamp with a "16" written underneath. He asks for such letters to be sent to him immediately.
A Pot of Tea Tommy's alias is Mr Blunt, while Tuppence is his confidential secretary, Miss Robinson. The porter from their flat, "a Long Island butler", Albert is their "office boy".
"You see, Tuppence, I can't help feeling that we are more or less amateurs at this business-of course amateurs in one sense we cannot help being, but it would do no harm to acquire the technique, so to speak. These books are detective stories by the leading masters of the art. I intend to try different styles, and compare results." - Tommy
After a week of refusing divorce cases, which Tuppence finds distasteful, they receive a visit from Lawrence St Vincent. He is the nephew of, and heir to, the Earl of Cheriton. He has fallen for a young woman called Janet who works in a hat shop in Brooks Street. She has disappeared from the shop and has not been seen at her lodgings. St Vincent wants them to find her. The Beresfords take on the case, which Tuppence solves with ease. Janet is a friend of hers from her wartime nursing days who was working at the shop where Tuppence makes her purchases. She asked Janet to mention the "Blunts" and then disappear. St Vincent would ask them to take on the case, for which they receive favourable publicity, and when they find Janet, her happiness will provoke St Vincent into a proposal of marriage to Janet.
The Affair of the Pink Pearl Tommy sorts out a pile of famous detective stories, and he thinks it would be a good idea to base their techniques on the styles of their fictional counterparts. He has bought a good camera for taking photographs of footprints and "all that sort of thing". The next client is a young woman named Miss Kingston Bruce. She lives in Wimbledon with her parents, and last night one of their guests lost a valuable pink pearl. The Blunts have been recommended to them by Lawrence St Vincent, who was one of the guests.
The Beresfords travel to Wimbledon and meet Colonel Kingston Bruce. He proudly tells them that Lady Laura Barton, daughter of the late Earl of Carroway, is staying with them together with an American couple, Mr and Mrs Hamilton Betts, who wanted to meet a titled lady. During a bridge game after dinner, the clasp of Mrs Betts' pearl pendant necklace broke. She laid it down on a small table and forgot to take it upstairs. The next morning, the necklace was still there but the pearl itself had gone. Aside from the Kingston Bruces, the Betts, Lady Laura, and St Vincent, the only other guest was Mr Rennie, paying court to Miss Kingston Bruce. Her father does not like him as he is a socialist. No one has been allowed to leave the house since the pearl was discovered to be missing, except for the daughter when she went to the Blunts. They search the house as part of their investigations.
Tommy uses his new camera whilst Tuppence tactfully questions the servants. They overhear a scrap of conversation between Mrs Kingston Bruce and her daughter about someone hiding a teaspoon in their muff. Later on, Tuppence ferrets out of Lady Laura's French maid, Elise, that her employer is something of a kleptomaniac, and five times in the past items have gone missing when she has been staying at friends' houses. They search Lady Laura's bedroom and bathroom, momentarily getting stuck in the latter room when Elise cannot open the door. Tommy takes pictures in the bedroom with Elise's assistance and then quietly tells Tuppence that he has an idea and has to go out to pursue it. In the meantime, she is not to let Lady Laura out of the house.
Tommy returns with Inspector Marriot of Scotland Yard. They go straight back to the bathroom and cut the cake of soap in half. Inside it is the pearl. The reason Elise could not open the door was that she had soap on her hands after depositing the pearl there. Tommy's photographs included one of the maid and she handled one of the glass slides, leaving her fingerprints. Scotland Yard has identified her from their records as a missing criminal and arrested her. Being the maid of a lady suspected of kleptomania was the best cover she could have had.
The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger Tuppence receives a package with an engraved silver cigarette case, which she had bought for General Francis Haviland whom she drove in the First World War. It is her wedding gift to him. Tommy's disparaging remarks about the General are interrupted by the arrival of the post and the first of the expected blue Russian letters. Their perusal of the letter is interrupted by the arrival of a large man with a club foot who states that he is Dr Charles Bower of Hampstead. Twice in the last week he has been summoned away to an urgent case but on each occasion the call has been a hoax. On arriving back home, he has found signs that his study has been carefully searched in his absence, probably for papers relating to his studies of alkaloids, these papers being securely held in a secret drawer in his desk. He has now received another summons, this time to a patient in Bournemouth, but in checking on this summons he has found it to be another decoy. Bower therefore expects that another search of his study will be made tonight, and wants Blunt to be there when the third attempt is made.
Bower leaves, and his club foot reminds Tuppence of the brothers Okewood. Tommy resolves to be Desmond while she is Francis. Their next visitor is Detective Inspector Dymchurch from Scotland Yard, a colleague of Marriot, who understands the need to keep a watch on the blue letters and is following Bower. The doctor's real purpose is to decoy the Beresfords away from their office that night in order that it can be searched and the latest letter retrieved. Tommy and Dymchurch make another plan to return to the office that night and catch the agents in the act. They do so but it is a trap, and Tommy is bound. Dymchurch is a foreign agent accompanied by several of his men. Bower (real spelling, Bauer) is one of his gang. He threatens Tommy with torture to reveal the whereabouts of the blue letter. Tommy tells them that Tuppence has it, and writes a letter summoning her to the office; but he signs this "Francis" and shows them the General's wedding present as proof that this is his real name and not "Theodore Blunt". Tuppence arrives and alerted by the false name in the note, she has brought Inspector Marriot with her and several armed policemen. "Dymchurch" and his co-conspirators are arrested.
Finessing the King/The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper While reading the 'Daily Leader' newspaper, Tuppence decides that she wants to go dancing. A reluctant Tommy tries to distract her attention by pointing out to her the interesting fact that dots in the masthead of the newspaper indicate the different days on which the paper was produced, while his wife spots an advert in the personal column which reads, "I should go three hearts. 12 tricks. Ace of Spades. Necessary to finesse the King." She deduces that this refers to the Three Arts Ball the next evening, "12 tricks" means twelve o'clock midnight and the "Ace of Spades" refers to a somewhat decadent nightclub-cum-eating place in Chelsea where it is fashionable to go to after events like the Three Arts Ball. Curious about "Necessary to finesse the King" and feeling that they need to hone their detective skills, she decides that she and Tommy will go the ball in costume to investigate. They will act as the detectives Tommy McCarty and Dennis Riordan.