The Voice in the Dark - a Harley Quin Short Story

Harley Quin #7

by Agatha Christie

Mr. Satterthwaite is back on the French Riviera, Cannes to be exact, and meets up with his old friend, Lady Barbara Stranleigh. They have known each other since their youth. She is worried about her daughter and asks him to investigate Margery’s claim that the family seat, Abbot's Mede, has become haunted. On the train back to England, he bumps into Mr. Quin. Another coincidence? Quin offers to help as Satterthwaite delves into the mystery.

Librarian's note #1: this short story was published in Flynn's Weekly magazine (1926) and then in the print anthology The Mysterious Mr. Quin which was first published in 1930.

Librarian's note #2: the print anthology contains 12 Mr. Quin short stories. Besides those, there are two more found in other collections: The Love Detectives, and The Harlequin Tea Set. Mr. Satterthwaite also appears in Three Act Tragedy and Dead Man's Mirror. All by Agatha Christie, of course!

Librarian's note #3: the entries for all fourteen Mr. Quin short stories can be found on GR by searching for: a Harley Quin short story. Or for Harley Quin. Details such as characters and settings are included for each.

Genres: Agatha Christie, Mystery, Short Stories, Crime, Fiction, British Literature, Classics

29 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 1927

About the author

Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.

Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Give back what is not yours. Give back what you have stolen.
Lady Barbara Stranleigh is a bit of an ass. But she's been Mr. Satterthwaite's acquaintance since they were young, so when she tells him she's worried about her adult daughter hearing voices from beyond, he agrees to go check on her at her family's home.



You'll have to suspend disbelief quite a bit for this to seem even remotely plausible.
Supposedly, the above-mentioned asshole, Lady Stranleigh, was second in line to inherit everything. Then she and her older sister were involved in a shipwreck, and her sister (Beatrice) conked her head and lost all of her memory. Barbara tells everyone that Beatrice went down with the ship, and then tells Beatrice that her name is ALICE and that she's her MAID. Barbara becomes the heir to the family fortune and lives greedily ever after.
Apparently, no one ever caught on! And decades later, Beatrice's memory has somewhat returned. Except she's batshit, and who wouldn't be with that level of gaslighting? Unfortunately, she's trying to kill not only her sister (who assuredly deserves it) but also her niece (who doesn't).
Hmmm.
So you're telling me nobody realized Alice was Beatrice? Also, that's one hell of a gamble that Barbara took when it came to her sister's memory. It's not like amnesia is known to be a permanent condition. Her memory could have come back at any time, and Barbara would have been in a helluva lot of hot water. There are a ton of holes in this plot, methinks.
However, I actually enjoyed the twisted mystery. I'm of the opinion that it's easier to get away with this level of craziness when you're dealing with short stories.


Originally published in 1926 in Flynn's Weekly.
Read as part of the short story collection The Mysterious Mr. Quin.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another collaboration between Mr Satterthwaite and the ubiquitous Harley Quin. Last seen in Corsica he turns up on the same train as Satterthwaite who is returning from the South of France on an important errand.

Interesting trivia, Mr Satterthwaite was a contemporary of Hercule Poirot and supported him in ‘Three Act Tragedy’. Also but to a lesser extent he appears in the short story ‘Dead Man’s Mirror’.

A friend has asked him to visit her daughter at home in England who is hearing strange noises and voices in the night suggesting she needs to correct a wrong.

Satterthwaite is sceptical but has agreed to pay the girl a visit and get her psychiatric help if she requires medical assistance.

All is not well and he worries for the girl. He returns to London however when he hears her mother is returning with his own unresolved anxiety.

When he hears of a further incident at the family home he tracks Mr Quin down. Quin explains the ‘detective’ is Satterthwaite and he should visit the residence of his friend, he knows the people, he will solve the mystery.

Once more the course of true love is a by product of the case, while bringing understanding to an unfathomable mystery. Mr Quin the catalyst and his friend the guy who resolves the mystery.

While the clues are presented, the reveal is still special and an art form in itself. I just wonder why Satterthwaite didn’t act sooner unless Christie saw that the lack of earlier intervention allowed for natural justice to take its course.

[Jack Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars. An old-fashioned mystery for Mr. Satterthwaite and Mr. Quin. Or am I giving too much away? After his visit to an island in the Mediterranean, Satterthwaite is back in Cannes. He meets up with an old friend, Lady Stranleigh who we learn had enjoyed trips to the beach with Mr. S. as a child. We hear of the Baroness's several marriages and family tree, her ageless beauty, and her concern for her only child, Margery, who suddenly seems to be hearing voices back at the estate in England, Abbot's Mede. The story first appeared in Story-Teller in 1927; my reading was from The Mysterious Mr. Quin, a 2003 collection of 12 Quin short stories. Is the old house haunted? Mr. Satterthwaite volunteers to drop in on Margery in Wiltshire. Lady Stranleigh thinks that his familiarity with psychic matters might come in handy. These Harley Quin short stories always contain a dose of coincidence. No different here. Who does Mr. S. meet on the Train de Luxe from Cannes back to Paris? Quin. And who will once again be staying at the Bells and Motley Inn, central to the third story in the collection, just 15 miles from Abbot's Mede? How many said Quin? (Se2021/Se2025)

[itchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

That was such a nice curveball.

Read as part of the collection The Mysterious Mr. Quin.

[nic p · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was lackluster. Mr. Satterthwaite encounters an old friend, Lady Barbara, who is concerned about her daughter because she is hearing voices and consulting a medium. Mr. Satterthwaite agrees to visit her in London and attend the seance she is organizing. The medium calls forth Lady Barbara’s deceased sister, who died when they were both aboard a ship that sunk. Later that night, Lady Barbara dies in her bathtub. However, it turns out that both girls survived the shipwreck but Lady Barbara, recognizing that her older sister had lost her memory, passed her off as her maid rather than her sister and was able to take her inheritance. Now, many years later, her maid/sister has regained her memory and killed Lady Barbara. Mr. Quinn is just a bit player.

[Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dame Christie's proclaimed favorite

I read this because Agatha Christie said in her biography that Harley Quinn was her favorite. I was curious. He seems to me to be very like Poirot. But he was barely in this story at all. Two seconds of hello and goodbye. The mystery of why he is her favorite continues.

I enjoyed the short story very much and will read more. For being a fifteen minute read, Christie had no problem at all with flow. There were no overdramatic conclusions that seemed to appear out of no where.

I only knocked a star off because I'm greedy and wanted a longer story. I wasn't expecting this to be that short. Otherwise it's a great little read.

[Carole Jarvis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Voice in the Dark is one of my favorites among the Mr. Quin stories. It opens in Cannes, where Mr. Satterthwaite's friend asks for his help with her daughter, then moves to an English estate. It's a story of mysterious voices at night, possible hauntings - but the age-old problem of greed most of all. I love how Mr. Quin conveniently appears and doesn't actually solve a mystery, but rather asks leading questions that help Mr. Satterthwaite think clearly and arrive at a conclusion logically. I was quickly caught up in this traditional mystery that was fulfilling as a short story, but could have easily been expanded to a longer novel. Highly recommended.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short story - no kidding! It was much shorter than I expected - definitely easy to get through in one sitting. This had the elements of a good Agatha Christie mystery, but it was too short and abrupt to be appreciated as such. I think this could have been developed into a full novel, but oh well.

[a ☕︎ · Rating 2 out of 5]

this one is totally bonkers, one of the disappointing quin-satterthwaite offerings. a girl hears voices and her mother has a strange past, running through quite a few husbands and surviving a shipwreck in her youth (whereas her sister didn’t).

[Abeer Albossany · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fine and collective story.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was really good.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

(From a collection of short stories)

Same again haha - not long enough to be good

[Courtney · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Evelyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even with the understanding that this is a short-story mystery, this was ultimately disappointing in its logic. You're telling me nobody knew what Beatrice looked like? No relative? No long-time friend? Killing 1 person was enough to hide the switch forevermore? Doubtful. The main character is literally said to be a friend of the two sisters for 40 years, and yet we're to believe that somehow he wasn't around them at the time of the ship sinking and its aftermath? Somehow he was not in contact with the family long enough for appearances to change drastically enough to hide the truth? This is a high-status family - surely someone would have recognized Beatrice. I have no idea how such a farce was kept up for decades without any questions or call for Barbara to pay off or kill more people to keep her secret safe). And then it concludes with no confrontation whatsoever. Unfortunately this short-story relies too much on you suspending your disbelief, and doesn't leave you with any feeling of satisfaction. The only part that caught my attention was a brief mention of the main character's acquaintences within psychic research circles at the time, although it just made me think "ah, I should rewatch Fuyumi Ono's Ghost Hunt or read her novels" lol!

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.25 out of 5 Stars

Now this one, I really enjoyed! There's mystery, a strange voice in the dark, a séance, maybe a haunting?

Mr. Satterthwaite is back from vacation or on another vacation, this time in Cannes. He meets up with an old friend, Lady Stranleigh, who asks him to investigate her daughter's claims that their château Abbot's Mede is haunted. On the way there, he runs into Mr. Quin, which means something mysterious is afoot.

This is like one of those stories you might tell around a campfire - short, scary, twisty mystery with actually a satisfying ending. Might be my fave from this collection so far!

[William Vaudin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t pay any attention to most of this story because by this point, I was so fucking bord with this collection that I just wanted it to be over so bad. There was something about hearing voices, someone got a knife pointed at their neck and a séance, that’s it. The only reason this doesn’t get one star rather than two is because I at least could make out some of what happened and I liked the elements, even though I didn’t know how they connected to anything.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is rather a good short story by Agatha Christie a Ghost Story too. It's time for Mr Satterthwaite to take centre stage. Just as Hastings solving a mystery or Watson besting Holmes. Here, there was very little need for Mr Quin but Satterhwaite looked into a perceived haunting and a will. But what could it all mean?

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, that series does not really work for me. The plot involves an all too common theft of identity, and the very last sentence felt to me like the author had no clue how to really end the story in a satisfying way.

[Joop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prima verhaal met een wat minder slot.

[Rolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

More great locations (the French Riviera, a gothic estate with ghosts) that make a less-than-great story worth reading.

[Serena · Rating 5 out of 5]

the Mysterious Mr. Quin

My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was on hold for a while.