Hello everyone! It was a long time since my first post and I had been advised by a friend of mine to post my blogs a little quicker in succession. So here I am again with yet another article for the blog “Detective Novels”!
Recently while reading one of my favourite novels, Agatha Christie’s “The Mysterious Mr. Quin”, I, being a wonderful connoisseur and patron of detective novels, discovered the imagery and environment in which the novel had been written. For those who have not yet had the pleasure of reading this novel, I am summarizing the novel stories in a nutshell.
Mr. Satterthwaite who is the “dried up, elderly bachelor detective”, encounters a variety of cases of a variety of flavours, of which the twelve given in the book, are masterpiece pickings. He meets, in all these twelve stories, a dark-complexioned man, clad in a hat and suit, who introduces himself as Mr. Harley Quin. Mr. Satterthwaite believes in the chemistry of Life, that he is incapable of solving his cases without the presence of Mr. Quin, who makes him “see things and gives him the inconspicuous cue in the drama of Life”. Thus he believes that his Life is a Catalysis reaction, which is solely credited to the presence of a catalyst, which does not take part in the reaction.
Agatha Christie’s logic behind her choosing the name “Harley Quin” is significant and remarkable. She had once seen the Dresden statue of the Harlequin on the mantelpiece of her mother’s bedroom. She says, “He is a figure invisible except when he chose, not quite human, yet concerned with the affairs of human beings. He is also the advocate of the dead”.
Her vivid description of the queer and subtle changes in a person’s life and the eventual and inevitable circumstances befalling him are worth praising. Whether this seems too philosophical or analytical, I recently discovered that while reading between the lines of the story, “The Dead Harlequin”, it was inevitable for anybody to read the lines in a rapid flow, such is the suspense and imagery of the story. I believe I should be able to complete and publish my next post which will be my last in this blog. Happy net-surfing! –Zeus!
