History Literature / TheMysteriousMrQuin

* ContrivedCoincidence: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] in "The Coming of Mr. Quin," the first story in the collection. Mr. Sattherthwaite and some friends reminisce about Derek Capel, an acquaintance of theirs who shot himself ten years prior; they all dined with Capel that night and remarked that he seemed exuberantly happy, which made his sudden suicide all the more confusing. With Mr. Quin's help to guide their memories, they realize what really happened--Capel had secretly poisoned his lover's abusive husband, and an exhumation order had been granted to investigate. This led to a string of unfortunate coincidences: Capel read about the exhumation in the paper, looked out the window, and, at that precise moment, spotted a policeman (who'd found one of Capel's dogs in a snowbank and wanted to return him) approaching the house. He figured that he'd been found out and killed himself to escape.

Mr Quin and Mr Satterthwaite are the central characters of a series of mystery stories by Creator/AgathaChristie, most of which were collected in ''The Mysterious Mr Quin'' in 1930.

Mr Satterthwaite is an upper-class gentleman of advanced years, a keen observer of life albeit mostly from the sidelines. Mr Quin is a (seemingly) young man with a knack of turning up mysteriously just when something is about to happen and saying just the right thing or asking just the right question that will inspire Mr Satterthwaite to solve the mystery.

It is frequently hinted that Mr Quin may be supernatural in some respect; his sudden appearances and disappearances, his exquisite timing, and the frequent impression that he knows more than he's letting on, suggest it without ever providing solid evidence. There's also a recurring thing where a trick of the light will momentarily make him appearing to be wearing brightly-coloured motley, or a trick of shadow will make him appear to be wearing a mask; these, along with his name, connect him to the magical central character of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlequinade harlequinade]].

Christie was using a symbol that was better known in her time than now, which is why Mr Quin always shows up just when tragedy in the form of murder or suicide is about to strike--especially when it's about to strike lovers. The harlequin in the CommediaDellArte is both likable and romantic. But in other tales, the harlequin is more sinister--a trickster who makes his own rules and who may bring chaos or death. Quin combines the two images, as he's both a likable romantic and someone who quite enjoys throwing a spanner named Mr Satterthwaite into the works now and then. And judging by the frequency with which Quin knows when someone is dying or about to die, it's very likely that he's either an agent of death or is Death itself. Christie's words support that; [[http://agathachristie.com/christies-work/detectives-and-sidekicks/harley-quin/ in her autobiography]], Agatha Christie listed the Harley Quin stories as her favorites and describes Harley Quin as "a friend of lovers and connected with death." Christie dedicated ''The Mysterious Mr Quin'' to "Harlequin the invisible"--which doesn't make much sense if she was talking about a character noted for his sudden and unexplained appearances, but does make sense if she was referring to an entity by a different name.

Quin and Satterthwaite appear together in two stories that were not collected in ''The Mysterious Mr Quin''. "At the Crossroads", the fifth story in original magazine publication order, was omitted from the collection; it's one of the weaker series entries, and Christie had already scavenged bits of it for the novel ''Literature/TheMurderAtTheVicarage''. (It eventually made it into one of the miscellaneous Christie collections under the title "The Love Detectives".) "The Harlequin Tea Set" was written years later to round off the series. In the interval between ''The Mysterious Mr Quin'' and "The Harlequin Tea Set", Mr Satterthwaite made two appearances with Literature/HerculePoirot, a cameo in "Dead Man's Mirror" and a full team-up in ''Literature/ThreeActTragedy''.

The 1928 movie ''The Passing of Mr Quin'', the first film adaptation of any of Agatha Christie's works, is loosely based on the first Quin and Satterthwaite story, but leaves out Satterthwaite entirely and retains Mr Quin InNameOnly. ''Three Act Tragedy'' has been adapted several times, always without Satterthwaite.

* "The Coming of Mr Quin"

* BrokenBird: Mabelle Clydesley, the title character of "The Bird with the Broken Wing". She is described as having an ethereal tragic quality to her, she comes from an ill-fated family, she wears clothing that resembles bird-feathers, [[spoiler: and she ends up a murder victim due to an insane attempt to grab attention that had nothing to do with her]]. Mr Quin represents her in the story as a blue bird statue.

** Mr Satterthwaite's appearances in the Hercule Poirot series.

* ComicBookTime: Mr Satterthwaite has been described as either 62 or 69 years old.

* DontFearTheReaper: [[spoiler: Mr Satterthwaite is unable to save a few people from death in "The Bird With the Broken Wing" and "Harlequin's Lane", but Mr Quin counsels him that death is not the worst thing that can happen.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: The stories have lovers in dire straits as an integral part of the premise; consequently a disproportionate number of them include somebody admitting, explicitly or tacitly, that they were on the brink of ending it all when Mr Quin and Mr Satterthwaite straightened things out.
** Mr Quin also intervenes (on request, in his words) in stories where suicides have occurred ("The Coming of Mr Quin", "The Man from the Sea").

** [[spoiler: The central character of "Harlequin's Lane" goes through with it in the end; when it comes to love, not all problems have a neat solution that includes everybody.]]

* GoodIsOldFashioned: Mr Satterthwaite is seen as this. Though slightly antiquated, he has a shrewd insight and judgement of human nature, which Mr Quin relies on.

* IRegretNothing: Played with. At the end of "Harlequin's Lane", Mr Satterthwaithe is asked if he regrets having had no one to love. He reluctantly says he doesn't. [[spoiler: At the time, he was at the site of a lover's suicide, which he could not stop.]]

** Mr Quin, who has a knack for showing up just when something is about to happen, and of saying or doing just the right thing at just the right moment to nudge events in the direction of a happy conclusion. It's heavily implied that he's something other than human, but he never does anything unambiguously supernatural.

* MeaningfulName: Mr Harley Quin, in concert with the CommediaDellArte theme.
* MrExposition: Mr Satterthwaite has a talent for describing the backstory lucidly and with the occasional poetic touch, and is frequently called on to exercise it. Played with a bit in that this is also his main detective talent; in the course of describing the situation to another character (and to the audience), he will often notice a detail or correlation of details that points to the solution.
* NoFullNameGiven: Mr Satterthwaite's given name is never revealed.
* OffscreenInertia: ''The Mysterious Mr Quin'' ends with Mr Quin and Mr Satterthwaite parting ways after an argument. Christie eventually wrote "The Harlequin Tea Set", specifically to establish that that wasn't the end of their friendship, and making a point of ending it with Quin assuring Satterthwaite they will meet again.
* OnceMoreWithClarity: Many cases involve Mr Quin being told the events of the case, and then retelling those same events in a way that reveals the truth.
* {{Psychopomp}}: Mr Satterthwaite considers Mr Quin an advocate for the dead.
* SadClown: Mr Quin is often described as mocking yet melancholy. Tellingly, he says his favourite opera is Theatre/{{Pagliacci}}.

* StealthHiBye: Mr Quin frequently appears out of nowhere and disappears in a blink of an eye.

* YouJustToldMe: As Mr Quin generally can't act directly, he uses facts told to him by others and relays them back with his own deduction of them, which provide the solution.

* StealthHiBye: Mr Quin does this a lot.

Quin and Satterthwaite appear together in two stories that were not collected in ''The Mysterious Mr Quin''. "At the Crossroads", the fifth story in original magazine publication order, was omitted from the collection; it's one of the weaker series entries, and Christie had already scavenged bits of it for the novel ''Literature/TheMurderAtTheVicarage''. (It eventually made it into one of the miscellaneous Christie collections under the title "The Love Detectives".) "The Harlequin Tea Set" was written years later to round off the series. In the interval between ''The Mysterious Mr Quin'' and "The Harlequin Tea Set", Mr Satterthwaite made two appearances with Literature/HerculePoirot, a cameo in "Dead Man's Mirror" and a full team-up in ''Three Act Tragedy''.

* OnceMoreWithClarity: Many cases involve Mr Quinn being told the events of the case, and then retelling those same events in a way that reveals the truth.

* Main/ComicBookTime: Mr Satterthwaite has been described as either 62 or 69 years old.

* Main/GenteelInterbellumSetting: The stories are primarily set in the 1920s.

* Main/GoMadFromTheIsolation: The criminal of "The Bird with the Broken Wing" is a genius whom nobody noticed or could understand, which caused him to snap.
* Main/GoodIsOldFashioned: Mr Satterthwaite is seen as this. Though slightly antiquated, he has a shrewd insight and judgement of human nature, which Mr Quin relies on.

* NoNameGiven: Mr Satterthwaite's given name is never revealed.

* DrivenToSuicide: The stories have lovers in dire straits as an integral part of the premise; consequently a disproportionate number of them include somebody admitting, explicitly or tacitly, that they were on the brink of ending it all when Mr Quin and Mr Satterthwaite straightened things out. [[spoiler:The central character of "Harlequin's Lane" goes through with it in the end; when it comes to love, not all problems have a neat solution that includes everybody.]]

* OffscreenInertia: ''The Mysterious Mr Quin'' ends with Mr Quin and Mr Sattherthwaite parting ways after an argument. Christie eventually wrote "The Harlequin Tea Set", specifically to establish that that wasn't the end of their friendship, and making a point of ending it with Quin assuring Satterthwaite they will meet again.

* DontFearTheReaper: [[spoiler: Mr Satterthwaite is unable to save a few people from death in "The Bird With the Broken Wing" and "Harlequin's Lane", but Mr Quinn counsels him that death is not the worst thing that can happen.]]

* Main/Psychopomp: Mr Satterthwaithe considers Mr Quin an advocate for the dead.
* SadClown: Mr Quin is often described as mocking yet melancholy. Tellingly, he says his favourite opera is Theatre/Pagliacci.

* DontFeartheReaper: [[spoiler: Mr Satterthwaite is unable to save a few people from death in "The Bird With the Broken Wing" and "Harlequin's Lane", but Mr Quinn counsels him that death is not the worst thing that can happen.]]

* ForTheEvulz: One murderer killed a woman [[spoiler:with her ukulele's string]] essentially because he felt like it.

* Psychopomp: [[spoiler: Mr Quin's purpose is revealed to be this.]]

* EvilGenius: One character was a brilliant chemist who specialized in poison gas during WWI. [[spoiler:He took his love interest ignoring him very badly, sending her a glass bubble filled with gas and arranging for a GlassShatteringSound.]]

* ScoobyDooHoax: One murderess managed to get rid of an incriminating bloodstain by [[spoiler:going to the room with a pot of hot water. It just so happened that the house was said to be haunted by the ghost of a woman with a silver vase...]]

* OffscreenInertia: ''The Mysterious Mr Quin'' ends with Mr Quin and My Sattherthwaite parting ways after an argument. Christie eventually wrote "The Harlequin Tea Set", specifically to establish that that wasn't the end of their friendship, and making a point of ending it with Quin assuring Satterthwaite they will meet again.
* ScoobyDooHoax: One murderess managed to get rid of an incriminating bloodstain by [[spoiler:going to the room with pot of hot water. It just so happened that the house was said to be haunted by the ghost of a woman with a silver vase...]]

* TheDitz: A starlet had a young man condemned to two years in prison for stealing her opal, despite his denying it and the opal never being found. It turns out [[spoiler:she'd misplaced it inside a trick box with a secret compartment and only found out when someone else saw the box and explained the trick]].

* DrivenToSuicide: The stories have lovers in dire straits as an integral part of the premise; consequently a disproportionate number of them include somebody admitting, explicitly or tacitly, that they were ''this close'' to ending it all before Mr Quin and Mr Satterthwaite straightened things out. [[spoiler:The central character of "Harlequin's Lane" goes through with it in the end; when it comes to love, not all problems have a neat solution that includes everybody.]]

* TheDitz: A starlet had a young man condemned to two years in prison for stealin her opal, despite his denying it and the opal never being found. It turns out [[spoiler: she'd misplaced it inside a trick box with a secret compartment and only found out when someone else saw the box and explained the trick.]]

* EvilGenius: One character was a brilliant chemist specialized in poison gas during WWI. [[spoiler:He took his love interest ignoring him very badly, sending her a glass bubble filled with gas and told her to listen to the radio.]]

* ForTheEvulz: One murderer killed a woman [[spoiler:with here ukulele's string]] essentially because he felt like it.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Mr Quin, who has a knack for showing up just when something is about to happen, and of saying or doing just the right thing at just the right moment to nudge events in the direction of a happy conclusion. It's heavily implied that he's something other than human, but he never does anything unambiguously supernatural.

* MeaningfulName: Mr Harley Quin.