The Affair at the Bungalow: A Miss Marple Story

By Agatha Christie

Previously published in the print anthology The Thirteen Problems.

A beautiful actress tells a mysterious tale, but Miss Marple has her suspicions about the story’s truth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jun 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9780062298096

Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was an English author of mystery fiction whose status in the genre is unparalleled. A prolific and dedicated creator, she wrote short stories, plays and poems, but her fame is due primarily to her mystery novels, especially those featuring two of the most celebrated sleuths in crime fiction, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Ms. Christie’s novels have sold in excess of two billion copies, making her the best-selling author of fiction in the world, with total sales comparable only to those of William Shakespeare or The Bible. Despite the fact that she did not enjoy cinema, almost 40 films have been produced based on her work.

Book preview

Contents

The Affair at the Bungalow

About the Author

The Agatha Christie Collection

Copyright

About the Publisher

The Affair at the Bungalow

‘I’ve thought of something,’ said Jane Helier.

Her beautiful face was lit up with the confident smile of a child expecting approbation. It was a smile such as moved audiences nightly in London, and which had made the fortunes of photographers.

‘It happened,’ she went on carefully, ‘to a friend of mine.’

Everyone made encouraging but slightly hypocritical noises. Colonel Bantry, Mrs Bantry, Sir Henry Clithering, Dr Lloyd and old Miss Marple were one and all convinced that Jane’s ‘friend’ was Jane herself. She would have been quite incapable of remembering or taking an interest in anything affecting anyone else.

‘My friend,’ went on Jane, ‘(I won’t mention her name) was an actress—a very well-known actress.’

No one expressed surprise. Sir Henry Clithering thought to himself: ‘Now I wonder how many sentences it will be before she forgets to keep up the fiction, and says I instead of She?’

‘My friend was on tour in the provinces—this was a year or two ago. I suppose I’d better not give the name of the place. It was a riverside town not very far from London. I’ll call it—’

She paused, her brows perplexed in thought. The invention of even a simple name appeared to be too much for her. Sir Henry came to the rescue.

‘Shall we call it Riverbury?’ he suggested gravely.

‘Oh, yes, that would do splendidly. Riverbury, I’ll remember that. Well, as I say, this—my friend—was at Riverbury