Do it, Rockapella: Well he glides around the globe from Paris to Damascus. He’s a double-dealing sleuth with a taste for trickery He’ll take you for a ride on a slow boat down the Nile Tell me where in the world is… Parker Pyne, heart specialist? This week he's in Greece, in close proximity to an oracle, no less. You know what that means: a kidnapping, an impersonation, and an attempted jewel heist, of course. Enjoy!

How is it possible that another year has passed? We lay the blame squarely on Dame Agatha, whose light prose and masterful puzzles have made the months slip silkily on by.... ! It's time for another nerd-fest as we assess the state of our rankings, having just passed the three-year mark (!!) on our literary trek through the Christie-verse. We hope you all have as much fun listening to this podcast as we do creating it. Onward, to Year 4!

We are back with another Poirot novel! And we were on the whole quite pleased with this twisty-turny post-WWII puzzle mystery, perhaps most notable for its searing evocation of a specific time and place in history. So travel back with us to 1946 and the tiny village of Warmsley Vale where--spoiler!--all is not as it first appears to be....

'Tis time for the final story in the Mysterious Mr. Quin collection, and while *technically* things end with a thud rather than a bang, we were by no means disappointed by what we found in this crazypants tale of love gone SERIOUSLY awry. Oh, Mr. Quin. It's a good thing you're a supernatural being intent on haunting us till the end of days, because at this point we'd be lost without you....

We've got an early short story involving supernatural premonitions, inherited insanity, and an early example of the very Christie-ish imperative to read closely. All we're missing is an actor, but hey, there's always next time.

Sometimes when Christie takes to the short story form, she gets a little loose, a little wacky. We saw that in our last Miss Marple short story, and we see it again here, in a story that features... well, we won't be specific about the number, but let's just say there are a fair amount of maids in this one. Are any of them perfect? Let's find out!

Well, whenever we go beyond an hour of nattering away about a title, it's a good sign, and this episode is no exception. Come and bask with us in the many splendors of The Hollow, a much-beloved, mid-career masterwork of Christie's with rich characters and yet almost no puzzling to speak of, despite the presence of our dear Poirot. If this one is a Christie "crown jewel," it's one with all sorts of imperfections, but everyone knows it's the flaws that make a thing more interesting....

You know the drill by now: we've got Quin; we've got Satterthwaite; we've got spooky intrigue; we've got thwarted lovers. How's it all going to end? With an abrupt departure by our favorite proto-Tyler Durden, of course.

It's been a while since we visited the enchanting city of Petra by way of Christie, and this one is definitely a much simpler, slighter puzzle mystery than what we encountered in Appointment with Death. But there is always a healthy amount of intrigue where the wily Parker Pyne is concerned....

What's better than a tale of twin poisonings like we had in our last episode? Twin tales of twin poisonings, of course. This short story is substantially similar to Sparkling Cyanide, which we just covered, but it actually came first, and as a precursor to that novel it also has some fascinating differences. Journey with us not only to New York but--in the Suchet adaptation--to Argentina too as we explore all that this Poirot story has to offer.