Тайна Чиминэйс: Ранний детектив Агаты Кристи

1925 novel by Agatha Christie

The Secret of Chimneys is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by The Bodley Head in June 1925 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It introduces the characters of Superintendent Battle and Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. The reviewer for The Observer wrote on 28 June 1925: "Mrs Christie plunges lightheartedly into a real welter of murders, innocently implicated lookers on, Balkan politics (of the lighter Ruritanian kind), impersonators, secret societies, ciphers, experts, secret hiding places, detectives (real and pretended), and emerges triumphantly at the end, before her readers are too hopelessly befogged. Nobody is killed who matters much. The right people marry, after it all, having first endeared themselves to us by their frivolous attitude to the singularly animated doings around them." The reviewer concluded that Christie's "ingenuity and clear headedness are really remarkable." The review in The Scotsman of 16 July 1925 began, "Despite Herzoslovakian politics and a background of oil and finance, this new novel by Agatha Christie gets a grip of the reader when it comes down to the business of disposing of a corpse, innocently come by but not to be repudiated without danger of grave scandal" and went on to say, "It is an exciting story with a bewildering array of potential murderers and a curious collection of detectives, amateur and professional, and with a crook of international importance and (alleged) consummate ability." The review concluded: "There is more than murder in this story; there is a treasure hunt in it, not for gold but a diamond, and the story is suitably staged for the main part at Chimneys, that historic mansion whose secret will be found in Chapter XXIX, though the wise in these matters may have discovered it a little earlier". Robert Barnard said it is important to remember when this novel was written "If you can take all of the racialist remarks, which are very much of their time, this is a first class romp, all the better for not being of the 'plot to take over the world' variety. It concerns the throne and crown jewels of Herzoslovakia, and combines such Hope ful [sic] elements with bright young things and some effective caricatures." His final decision on the novel overall was that it was "By far the least awful of the early thrillers." Charles Osborne: "The Secret of Chimneys is one of the best of Agatha Christie's early thrillers ( ). Her attitude to democracy is so unsympathetic, at least as expressed by a character of whom Mrs Christie evidently approves, that it reveals an unexpectedly authoritarian aspect of the author's nature". In his analysis of Christie's Notebooks published in 2010 and 2012, Christie expert and archivist John Curran wrote that "a hefty suspension of disbelief is called for if some aspects of the plot are to be accepted." Curran considered the novel an "enjoyable but preposterous romp littered with loose ends, unlikely motivations and unconvincing characters" and regarded Christie's The Man in the Brown Suit and The Seven Dials Mystery "if not more credible, at least far less incredible" than Chimneys.

The Blitz Hotel is in part a reference to London's Ritz Hotel, though the location of the Blitz matches that of the Savoy Hotel, where César Ritz had been manager, and which is close to the Embankment. Christie uses the same location (and the same name for it) in the 1924 short stories Blindman's Buff and The Man Who Was No. 16, which later formed part of the 1929 collection Partners in Crime.

The fictional country of Herzoslovakia makes a return appearance in the short story The Stymphalean Birds which was first published in the April 1940 issue of the Strand Magazine and later appeared in the 1947 collection The Labours of Hercules. It is also briefly mentioned in the 1940 novel One, Two, Buckle My Shoe. Christie later used the "Chimneys" mansion, along with the characters of Bill Eversleigh, Bundle, George Lomax, Tredwell, and Lord Caterham from this book, in the 1929 novel The Seven Dials Mystery.

The novel was written in 1925. The characters in the story refer to events that occurred about 7 years earlier, that is, at the end of the Great War when the Austro Hungarian and Ottoman Empires were broken up. The war is never mentioned directly. Instead, in Chapter 19, Superintendent Battle says: "Just over seven years ago, there was a lot what they called reconstruction going on especially in the Near East." At the same time, many royal persons were in England, including the Queen of Herzoslovakia, and Count Stylptitch; all the Balkan states were interested parties in discussions taking place. It is at this time that the Koh i noor diamond disappeared in the plot. Later, in an unspecified year, the Herzoslovakians rose up against the king and his commoner wife. About that time, Mrs Virginia Revel and her husband Tim were part of the diplomatic mission from the UK to Herzoslovakia, so that Mrs Revel had met Prince Michael; she was the only such person at the house party, to know Prince Michael, but not the only person in the house. The time immediately after the war was when the theft, solved in this novel, happened.

In the Bantam edition, the dedication is to "Punkie", who is Madge, Christie's older sister. In other editions the dedication reads:"To my Nephew. In memory of an inscription at Compton Castle and a day at the Zoo." The "nephew" was Jack Watts (1903–1961), the son of Christie's brother in law and sister James and 'Madge' Watts. Christie became very close to her nephew after his birth when she was thirteen and joined her mother in looking after him at his home, Abney Hall, when her sister and brother in law went on skiing holidays to St Moritz and at Christmas. She writes enthusiastically about her memories of this time in the foreword to her 1960 collection of short stories The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. The references to Compton Castle and the zoo are obscure. It is possible that the house "Chimneys" is based on Compton Castle, but Abney Hall is equally probable. Christie gives no description of “Chimneys” in the book, merely stating that "Descriptions of that historic place can be found in any guidebook.”

The dustjacket front flap of the first edition carried no specially written blurb. Instead, both the front and back flap carried advertisements for Christie's five other Bodley Head books together with one or two short quotes from reviews of those books.

This novel has been translated to various languages other than its original English. At least seventeen languages are known to have translated versions of this novel, some published as recently as 2014 and 2015. This is in keeping with the author's reputation for being the most translated author.

The Secret of Chimneys was adapted by Christie into a stage play in 1931 but its planned performance was cancelled. Nonetheless, a copy was placed in the British Library where it was located and a copy provided to Christie's daughter, at whose request its existence was not revealed publicly. Twenty years later, another copy surfaced in Canada, where it received its world premiere on 16 October 2003.

An adaptation was produced for the fifth series of Marple, with Julia McKenzie as the lead. The adaptation retains Chimneys as the setting. However, the substitution of Miss Marple as the main detective is only the first of many changes made to the story, which amalgamates and renames several characters, turns the political connection (transferred from the fictitious Herzoslovakia to Austria) into one of several red herrings, and comprehensively changes both the murderer's identity and motive. It also features elements from the Miss Marple short story, "The Herb of Death". Its cast includes Edward Fox as Lord Caterham, Anthony Higgins as Count Ludwig, Jonas Armstrong as Anthony Cade, Charlotte Salt as Virginia Revel and Dervla Kirwan as Bundle. Dervla Kirwan, in her late thirties, played Bundle, who, though still the daughter of Lord Caterham, was cast as the sister of 23 year old Lady Virginia Revel (Charlotte Salt), an unrelated character in the original story. Of the two, Lady Virginia appeared to have more in common with the Bundle of the novels. The Radio Times observed that this production was "classic Agatha Christie, even though it's only distantly related to her original purists will be utterly flummoxed – and the plot has more holes in it than the murder victim".

The Secret of Chimneys was released by HarperCollins as a graphic novel adaptation on 20 August 2007, adapted by François Rivière and illustrated by Laurence Suhner This was translated from the edition first published in France by Emmanuel Proust éditions in 2002 under the title of Le Secret de Chimneys.