The collection is notable for the first book appearance of the story Philomel Cottage, which was turned into a highly successful play and two feature films, and was also televised twice in the UK.
On this trip she met a young man called Jim Masterson, who is interested in courting her, but who would be put off if he saw their reduced circumstances.
Looking through the Morning Post, Mrs St. Vincent sees an advertisement for a house to let in Westminster, furnished, and with a nominal rent.
Barbara is delighted, but Rupert is suspicious – the house belonged to Lord Listerdale, who disappeared eighteen months previously and supposedly turned up in East Africa, supplying his cousin, Colonel Carfax, with power of attorney.
His Lordship explains that, ashamed of his selfish life to date, he faked his relocation to Africa, and has since spent his time helping people like the St Vincents, whose lives have been reduced to something akin to begging.
Two events happen suddenly: a distant cousin of Alix dies, leaving her enough money to generate an income of a couple of hundred pounds a year – however, her financial independence seems to annoy Dick – and, at much the same time, Alix meets a man, Gerald Martin, at a friend's house, and after a whirlwind romance they are engaged within a week and married soon after.
George Rowland is a mildly dissolute young man who is dependent on his rich uncle for both his keep and his job at the family's city firm.
Abandoning ambitious plans to go to the colonies, George decides instead to travel by train from the London Waterloo station to a place he spots in an ABC guide called Rowland's Castle.
Sir Edward Palliser, KC, receives a visit in his Westminster house from a woman called Magdalen Vaughan whom he met on a boat trip some ten years previously.
Sir Edward catches sight of a shop over his shoulder called "Four and Twenty Blackbirds" and runs back to the house to confront Martha.
Edward Robinson is a young man firmly under the thumb of his fiancée, Maud, who does not wish to rush into marriage until his prospects and income improve.
Stopping off in the dark evening at the Devil's Punch Bowl, he gets out of his car to admire the view and takes a short walk.
After recognising her, Evans has carried out further investigations and found out that Mrs Merrowdene's stepfather died when he fell off a cliff path when walking with her one day.
Soon afterward, walking in the village, Evans meets and talks with Professor Merrowdene and finds out that he has just taken out a large insurance policy which will pay out to his wife should he die.
Jane agrees and is given money to stay at the nearby Blitz hotel (under the assumed name of Miss Montresor of New York) and to buy a dress to wear when she is following the Grand Duchess to the events.
The girl in the red dress has been traced as staying at the Blitz hotel under the name of Miss Montresor of New York – Jane realises that she has been set up by a gang of jewel thieves.
Stopping off near a stream, they sit by the road to eat the fruit and read in a discarded Sunday paper of the theft of a ruby necklace worth fifty thousand pounds.
On the way back from his office-clerk job that night, Edward reads the latest developments on the jewel robbery in the newspaper but it is another adjacent story, which catches his attention.
He meets Dorothy that night and shows her the second story – it is about a successful advertising stunt in which one out of fifty baskets of fruit sold will contain an imitation necklace.
It goes back over ten years and involves the sale of a Spanish shawl from the impoverished family of a man called Don Fernando to Anna Rosenborg.
Fernando was stabbed to death shortly afterwards and eight attempts have been made to burgle Anna Rosenborg's house in the intervening years.
A week ago, Fernando's daughter, Carmen Ferrarez, arrived in Britain and threatened Rosenberg over the "shawl of a thousand flowers".
From reading stories in the resort's weekly paper, he has no doubt that it belongs to the Rajah of Maraputna, who is staying at Lord Edward Campion's private villa.
Blanche knows differently though and she tells how she has realised that Nazorkoff was in fact Capelli, who has waited years for her revenge on the man who let her lover die – the story of Tosca has come to life.
[4] Philomel Cottage was, before the Second World War, the most successful short story written by Agatha Christie in terms of number of adaptations.
A further adaptation was produced by Hessischer Rundfunk for broadcast on West German television on 5 December 1967 under the title of Ein Fremder klopft an starring Gertrud Kückelmann and Heinz Bennent.
It was adapted three times for the American half-hour radio programme Suspense (CBS) under its original name Philomel Cottage, first airing on 29 July 1942, starring Alice Frost and Eric Dressler.
Adaptor: Mike Walker Producer: Jeremy Mortimer Cast: Lizzy McInnerny as Alex Tom Hollander as Terry Adam Godley as Richard Struan Rodger as Merlin Music was by Nick Russell-Pavier.
The Girl in the Train Transmitted: 21 September 1982 Adaptor: William Corlett Director: Brian Farnham Cast: David Neal as Rogers Roy Kinnear as Cabbie James Grout as William Rowland Ernest Clark as Detective Inspector Jarrold Ron Pember as the Mysterious Stranger Sarah Berger as Elizabeth Osmund Bullock as George Rowland Harry Fielder as the Guard Jane in Search of a Job Transmitted: 9 November 1982 Adaptor: Gerald Savory Director: Christopher Hodson Cast: Tony Jay as Count Streplitch Elizabeth Garvie as Jane Cleveland Stephanie Cole as Princess Anna Geoffrey Hinsliff as Colonel Kranin Amanda Redman as the Duchess of Ostravia Andrew Bicknell as Nigel Guest Helen Lindsay as Lady Anchester Julia McCarthy as Miss Northwood The Manhood of Edward Robinson Transmitted: 16 November 1982 Adaptor: Gerald Savory Director: Brian Farnham Cast: Rupert Everett as Guy Cherie Lunghi as Lady Noreen Elliot Nicholas Farrell as Edward Robinson Ann Thornton as Maud Julian Wadham as Gerald Champneys Margery Mason as Mrs. Lithinglow Tom Mannion as Herbert Sallyanne Law as Millie Patrick Newell as the Major Bryan Coleman as Lord Melbury Nicholas Bell as Jeremy Riona Hendley as Poppy Simon Green as Sebastian Georgina Coombs as Diana Rio Fanning as Barman Frank Duncan as Grosvenor Swan Song was adapted as a thirty-minute play featuring a lesbian relationship for BBC Radio 4 and broadcast at 11.30am on Monday 28 January 2002.
Adaptor: Mike Walker Director: Ned Chaillet Cast: Maria Friedman as Polina Emily Woof as Beth Sylvester Morand as Bréon Ray Lonnen as Dominik The first UK publication details of all the stories contained in The Listerdale Mystery are as follows: As with Parker Pyne Investigates, this collection did not appear under the usual imprint of the Collins Crime Club but instead appeared as part of the Collins Mystery series.