The Seven Dials Mystery is a 1929 novel by Agatha Christie.
It is a sequel to 1925 novel The Secret of Chimneys, featuring the return of spirited flapper Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent and the surprisingly capable Superintendent Battle. The story kicks off at the Chimneys estate, where a bunch of Upper Class Twits are indulging in upper-class twittery. Gerry Wade, one of the Idle Rich spending time at Chimneys, keeps sleeping absurdly late in the mornings. The rest of the gang, including Gerry's nincompoop friends Jimmy Thesiger and Bill Eversleigh, get a bright idea. They will buy a bunch of alarm clocks and sneak them into Gerry's room. The alarm clocks will all go off at once and wake Gerry up at a proper hour.
Come the next morning, the alarm clocks go off, but Gerry still doesn't get out of bed, because he is dead. A sleeping drug is found by his bed and the death is written off as an accidental overdose, but Gerry's friend Ronny Devereaux is dubious. Soon after, Bundle is driving down the road when a dying Ronny Devereaux—he was shot—steps out in front of her car. Before he expires, Ronny gasps out "Tell...Seven Dials...Jimmy Thesiger." Bundle, Jimmy, Gerry Wade's sister Loraine, and Bill Eversleigh (who is in love with Bundle) start investigating the Seven Dials, a shadowy secret society that may be up to all sorts of criminality, including the murders of Gerry and Ronny.
Tropes:
- Almost Dead Guy: Ronny Devereaux, who comes staggering out into a road after he was shot, and whispers half a clue to Bundle before he dies.
- Amateur Sleuth: Bundle Brent, investigating a secret society because she doesn't have to worry about making a living.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Most obviously between Jimmy and Loraine, and emerges between Bill and Bundle as well.
- Even with The Reveal that Jimmy and Loraine have been criminals all along, Jimmy really has been developing feelings for Loraine, while her participation in his crimes has always been out of love for him. Their conversations where Loraine refuses to marry Jimmy "until they're safe" certainly take on a different context after the truth is known...
- The Bore: George Lomax of the Foreign Office, whose endless soliloquies about politics and foreign relations bore everyone to death. Bundle fakes interest in foreign affairs to get invited to a party where some Seven Dials intrigue is supposed to be going down, and, to her horror, finds out that George misinterprets her response and wants to marry her.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Bill natters on about Babe St. Maur, an American actress who is supposed to be very beautiful. Bundle, who has feelings for Bill, gets annoyed. This is played for comedy, but in the end it's revealed that Babe St. Maur is the true identity of the mysterious Countess Radzky, whom Bundle met at George Lomax's house and who is a member of the Seven Dials.
- Clueless Mystery: This novel was criticized even at the time for presenting The Reveal without giving any clues that might help the reader guess. A 1929 review stated that Christie "has held out information which the reader should have had, and, not content with scattering false clues with a lavish hand, she has carefully avoided leaving any clues pointing to the real criminal."
- This is arguably an undeserved criticism, though. Ronny Devereux even literally says who killed him. See: His Name Is.... This is as big of a clue pointing to the real killer as possible, if readers interpret his last words correctly. Another big clue are the biting marks on the glove, them being from someone whose other arm was injured, so he had to use his teeth to take off the glove. In fact, one can argue that it's the most Fair-Play Whodunnit of any of her early thrillers.
- Continuity Nod: Various references to The Secret of Chimneys, mostly from Bundle's father Lord Caterham, who remembers "all that fuss we had four years ago" and is very much against Bundle getting mixed up in anything like that again.
- Cosmopolitan Council: The Seven Dials are a downplayed version. They're a secret society who wear clock-emblazoned masks, each showing a time from 1:00 to 7:00. Number One is a Hungarian countess, Number Two (who isn't at the first meeting readers see) a German former soldier, Number Three a British gentleman, Number Four an American reporter, Number Five a Hungarian ambassador, Number Six a Russian club owner, and Number Seven, whose identity is the central mystery of the book, is Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard. Several reveals follow: the Dials are actually good guys; the "Hungarian" countess is an American actress affecting a voice; and Number Two was another Brit—the suspected German was an undercover police officer, explaining why he wasn't at the meeting. At the end of the book, heroine Eileen Brent agrees to become the "new" Number Two, bringing the total number of Brits in the Dials to three.
- Crushing Handshake: Sir Oswald is kind of a jerk, which is why he employs a strong handshake even when greeting Bundle, a woman.
- Dead Man Writing: Bill receives an "in the event of my death" letter that Ronny Devereaux instructed be sent fourteen days after his death. Subverted when it turns out that actually Bill got no such letter and it was really a trick to flush Jimmy out.
- Detective Mole: No. 7, the leader of the Seven Dials secret society, is revealed to be...Superintendent Battle. Played with when it turns out that the Seven Dials are actually good guys, an amateur secret service working under Battle's direction.
- Discreet Drink Disposal: The audience learns at the end that Jimmy tried to kill Bill with a poisoned drink but Bill, who knew that Jimmy was the killer, poured the drink out when Jimmy's back was turned.
- Distinguishing Mark: How Bundle realizes that Countess Radzky is actually No. 1, one of the Seven Dials that she saw at the secret meeting. The Countess and No. 1 both have the same mole.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: The ending reveals that the killer is not one of the Seven Dials, but instead amiable, seemingly dimwitted Jimmy Thesiger, who has been helping Bundle all along in her investigation. In fact, it was actually Bundle unwittingly helping Jimmy in his efforts to defeat the Seven Dials.
- Drives Like Crazy: More references to Bundle driving her car at reckless high speeds. Her father at one point refuses to take a ride with her, saying "it's not fair on any elderly man."
- The Flapper: Bundle Brent, a high-spirited, fast-driving party girl, who jumps into an investigation of a mysterious secret society because it's fun.
- Funetik Aksent: Christie enjoyed making fun of Americans and American accents. Babe St. Maur the actress is described as speaking in "pure transatlantic nasal" and speaks of her parents having come from Eastern "Yurrop".
- Girls With Mustaches: Bundle's Aunt Marcia, aka Lady Caterham, a stern and unfriendly character, sports "the faintest suspicion of a mustache."
- His Name Is...: Ronny's dying words "Tell...Seven Dials...Jimmy Thesiger" start Bundle investigating in earnest.
- Holding Both Sides of the Conversation: The ending reveals that Jimmy faked the shooting, wrecking the living room where the fight supposedly took place, then speaking both in his own voice and "a hoarse half-whisper."
- The Killer Was Left-Handed: When a left-handed glove is found at the scene of the shooting Bundle deduces that they must be looking for a left-handed man. She is wrong.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: A lot of talk between Jimmy and Bundle about how mysterious secret societies. Jimmy assumes that Countess Radzky the beautiful, mysterious foreigner must be there to seduce George Lomax and pry secrets out of him, because that's how it's done in mystery novels."It’s impossible," said Jimmy, following out his own train of thought. "The beautiful foreign adventuress, the international gang, the mysterious No 7, whose identity nobody knows—I’ve read it all a hundred times in books."
- Lingerie Scene: The Countess Radzky is founded fainted dead away on the floor, wearing nothing but "a very transparent negligee". Bundle, who is already jealous of the Countess and has noted Bill's attention to her, gets even more jealous when Bill goes to the aid of the scantily clad Countess.
- MacGuffin: George Lomax is hosting a party at his estate because he and the British government are seeking to acquire a secret formula that allows the production of very light but very strong steel.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: A bottle of chloral hydrate (a sleeping drug) is set in Gerry's room to make it seem as if he simply took too much. Naturally, it was really murder.
- Nouveau Riche: Sir Oswald Coote is a self-made man, a steel magnate who rose up from being a clerk to a captain of industry. He is also an obnoxious jerk and looked down upon by Bundle's Old Money elite as well as the snobby servants at Chimneys. (Of course, Bundle's circle is a bunch of Upper Class Twits so this cuts both ways.)
- Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The Seven Dials, whom, as a hidden Bundle observes, gather in a secret room, all wearing masks, to speak of the secret MacGuffin formula and their missing man. Fortunately, even though they don't know Bundle is listening, the masks and the pseudonyms and their vague talk don't let Bundle know that they're actually good guys and that two of them are personally known to her.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent, who insists on being called "Bundle". The fact that George Lomax from the Foreign Office insists on calling her "Eileen" is a signal that his hopes for marriage won't go anywhere.
- A minor character, a society lady and one of the Upper Class Twits who play the prank with the clocks, is only ever called "Socks".
- Secret Circle of Secrets: The investigation in leads to the titular secret society, whose members wear masks shaped like clock faces and address each other by pseudonyms. It's a society of amateur detectives led by the police superintendent.
- Separated by a Common Language: Christie's Running Gag of making fun of Americans and Americanisms. Once the beautiful, mysterious Countess Radzky is revealed to actually be American actress Babe St. Maur, the "Countess" drops the accent and starts talking in speech peppered with American slang."It’s not a terrible lot of credit to me, because Poppa and Momma came from that part of Yurrup—so I got the patter fairly easy. Gee, but I nearly gave myself away once at the Abbey, talking about gardens."
- Sequel: To The Secret of Chimneys. Bundle Brent, a supporting character in that novel, returns as protagonist. Also returning are her dimwitted father Lord Caterham, her admirer Bill Eversleigh, and Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard, who once again knows more than he's telling.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Rupert "Pongo" Twistleton, seemingly the smartest person among the gang of mostly idiots around Jimmy and Bill, wears glasses.
- Suspicious Spending: Superintendent Battle gives as his reason for first focusing on Jimmy that Jimmy, who lives a life of the Idle Rich, actually does not come from Old Money like Bundle and the rest of the gang, and the source of his income was unknown.
- Title Drop Chapter: The chapter near the end where Bundle wakes up in the clutches of the Seven Dials and finds out to her horror that Superintendent Battle is their leader, is called "The Seven Dials".
- Upper-Class Twit: Bundle's social circle is filled with a bunch of idle rich youth who aren't terribly bright and don't have a lot of work to do. Bill himself confesses that he isn't the smartest. Bundle, when told that someone died at Chimneys, is particularly aghast that he died in her room (the house was being rented)."We ought to be able to think of something," said Bill. "Who's got any brains?"
- You Are Number 6: The "Seven Dials" are people who meet in secret, wearing masks with clock faces on them. They are addressed by the times on the clocks, so the person who wears a mask with a clock that says 4:00 is addressed as "No. 4".
