Rule of Three

by Agatha Christie

Rule of Three is a collection of the three short plays "Afternoon At The Seaside, The Rats, " and "The Patient."

Genres: Agatha Christie, Plays, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Crime, Drama

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

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

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three plays of Agatha Christie are contained in this book.
The first is (Afternoon at the Seaside). We are introduced to a cast of characters who are talking about the theft of an emerald necklace. There are also stories within that I found interesting. Percy who is the dutiful son finds some strength at the end to make his own choices.
What was best about this play was the ending? The criminal is in custody and all is right, only to discover he is a fall guy for the real criminals.
The second play was the reason I gave this book 4 stars. (The Rats), is about two characters who are drawn to a room on the pretense of a party, only to discover they are being set up.
Sandra and David are having a liaison but are unaware they are about to be exposed. Alex who was the friend implied lover of Sandra's first husband Berry has brought about their downfall. He has also brought her current husband to the room, killed him, and hid his body in a trunk.
In the end, the police are at the door and the lovers are trapped.
The final play is (The Patient)
A woman has been pushed from a balcony and an inspector sets up an ingenious way to discover the criminal. Four people were in the house, all with motives to want the woman dead. This play had an interesting conclusion that I did not see coming.
All in all a good book by Christie, but for me, the second play was worth the price of the book on its own.

[Gail Sacharski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains three one-act plays by Agatha Christie. The first, Afternoon by the Seaside, has a plot that has been used in another short story, The Rajah's Emerald, with a bit of tweaking to change it up. Three bathing huts on the beach & the occupants of each as well as various & sundry bathers enjoying the day are the participants. One couple with a know-it-all nagging wife & a taciturn husband that mumbles comments under his breath are reading about the theft of an emerald necklace at a nearby resort. The second couple, a hypochondriac controlling mother & her tightly leashed son, are listening & commenting on the theft to the first couple. The third group, an older man his young bubbly wife & a brash, masculine companion are also enjoying the beach activities. Into this gathering steps a lovely young French miss in a brief bikini who draws the attention of all the males, especially the repressed young man. Also making an appearance is a police inspector searching all the bathing huts on a tip that the stolen necklace may have been placed in one of them. This play was a lot of fun & very good.
The second play was The Rats & a bit darker in nature. In a top story apartment, a woman arrives believing she has been invited to a party for cocktails. A second woman arrives, an acquaintance, who informs her that the apartment owners are out of the country & couldn't possibly have invited her for drinks. The second woman is there to feed the pet bird in their absence & hints that the first woman may be using the apartment to meet a secret lover. Conveniently, a man shows up next, seeming a bit confused, but falling in with the "here for a party" excuse. The pet minder leaves & we discover that the first woman & the man are, in fact, secret lovers, but neither of them has planned this meeting. A second man arrives, well known to both the others & then the trouble begins. He accidentally drops a souvenier knife they've all been inspecting, drops it off the balcony & offers to run down & fetch it. Once, he leaves, the couple discovers they are locked in the apartment with no escape. What is going on? How will they get out? Or will they? They begin to untangle the mystery & are unpleasantly surprised when they figure it out. This story also used a device from another short story--The Spanish Chest. The twist on it was very good & it leaves you hanging as to the ending.
The final play is The Patient. A woman recovering from an illness falls from her balcony & is seriously injured. Recovering in the hospital, the doctor informs her family & household members that she has a temporary paralyzation & cannot move or speak. A police inspector joins them at the nursing home where they've all been summoned by the doctor whose assistant & nurse will be helping him to conduct an experiment to discover if the woman can tell them, using a newfangled machine, what exactly happened the day she fell. Was it an accident or was she pushed by someone in the house? Her husband, perhaps, who is having an affair with his secretary, the secretary herself, the sister or the brother who both will inherit her money? Will the patient be able to reveal the person who tried to murder her? This also was a clever & interesting play. It was very easy to imagine all three of these stories happening on a stage. I enjoyed them very much.

[Diana Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three plays are featured all are good and typical Christie.

[Panda Incognito · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an obscure collection of Agatha Christie plays. I learned about it a few years ago when I couldn't inter-library loan anything because of the pandemic, and finally followed through on reading it. It was fun to read something by Christie that was new to me!

The first play is set at the seaside, and it involves a large cast of characters and jewel thievery. It is rather painful to try to distinguish all of the unnamed Mothers and Young Men assigned lines, and parts of the story feel very familiar from her novels and short stories, but the last third of the play is very clever.

The second play involves a device that Agatha Christie used at least three times, but the surrounding material is very different and quiet gripping. The most unique element here is the implication that the man framing an adulterous couple for the dead body in the chest is getting revenge for the death of his former male lover. To my knowledge, this is the only time when Agatha Christie identified one of her characters as gay, versus fans speculating about a character's sexuality.

The third play is clever and unique, and was unlike any Christie story I had read before. I was kicking myself for not having figured it out, and the misdirection was excellent.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three very short plays by Agatha Christie.

Afternoon at the Seaside rang very familiar to me - it is very similar to Christie's short story The Rajah's Emerald. There are some interesting psychological elements, but I didn't like that the one woman just turned a blind eye on the other woman's narcissism and the men were all harrumphing "Women!". So I was a bit meh on this one.

The Rats is the strongest of the three. An adulterous couple are lured to a house, but for what purpose? Pretty original and if staged right, could be very thrilling I think.

The Patient I found a bit melodramatic. The police are trying to figure out if a comatose woman fell over a balcony or was pushed, and if so by whom. They contrive an unlikely device to worm the truth out of the suspects.

One for AC completionists, I wouldn't say these are very strong plays that deserve to be specifically sought out.

[Judine Brey · Rating 4 out of 5]

These three one act plays are good as stand alone pieces. Two of them, Afternoon at the Seaside and The Patient, I found to be interesting and satisfying. The patient, especially did a nice job of setting up a good final twist for the viewer. I was much less impressed with the middle play, The Rats. As a four-character play, I was intrigued, but none of the characters were likeable, and I didn't really care what was happening to them at the end. Interesting short works that may make it into my classroom literature.

[Patricia Fischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although her plays are not my favorites, I love everything Christie. This is a collection of 3 one-act plays. The first one, “Afternoon at the Seaside,” was amusing,but as a former director of plays, I couldn’t help but think what a nightmare it would be to stage a beach scene with sand, three cabanas and a girl in a bikini. I can’t decide which of the other two I liked better - “The Rats” or “The Patient.”

[Molly]

fun! "afternoon by the seaside" was pretty straightforward and enjoyable to try and solve along with the characters, "the rats" was darker and super psychologically interesting, and "the patient" has an interesting gimmick and funny coincidences that lead to chaos among the characters. nothing hugely new or out there or surprising, but solid christie fun nonetheless!

[Steven Garner · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

What a treat after decades of being a Christie fan to discover this - new to me - collection of three one-act plays. The first is a bit of cheeky fun, the second would be genuinely creepy if staged well, and the third is a piece of classic Christie with misdirection and motives a-plenty. Recommended for any Agatha devotee!

[Humbledaisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this collection of three short plays for a book group. The longest play, "Afternoon at the Seaside" was the most entertaining.

[Dejnicka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Agatka wtf? Slabe

[Alberto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two of the plays are rehashes of short stories. And the other is original but pretty weak.