The Seven Dials Mystery is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on 24 January 1929 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year.
In this novel, Christie brings back the characters from an earlier novel, The Secret of Chimneys: Lady Eileen (Bundle) Brent, Lord Caterham, Bill Eversleigh, George Lomax, Tredwell, and Superintendent Battle.
The novel received mostly unfavourable reviews. One reviewer noted a change in style ("Less good in point of style") but felt the novel "maintains the author's reputation of ingenuity." Another was quite disappointed in the change in style from some of her earlier novels, saying that she had "deserted the methodical procedure of inquiry into a single and circumscribed crime for the romance of universal conspiracy and international rogues." Another felt that the story started out well, but then earned sharp criticism for the author as "she has carefully avoided leaving any clues pointing to the real criminal. Worst of all, the solution itself is utterly preposterous." In 1990, this novel was considered to have the same characters and house parties as The Secret of Chimneys "but without the same verve and cheek."
Plot summary
Sir Oswald and Lady Coote host a party at the stately home Chimneys, which they have rented for the season. The guest list includes Gerry Wade, Jimmy Thesiger, Ronny Devereux, Bill Eversleigh, and Rupert "Pongo" Bateman. Since Wade has a bad habit of oversleeping, the others play a joke on him by placing eight alarm clocks in his room and timing them to go off at intervals. The next morning, a footman finds Wade dead in his bed, with chloral on his nightstand. Thesiger notices that one of the eight alarm clocks is missing. It is later found in a hedge.
Lord Caterham and his daughter Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent move back into Chimneys. When Bundle drives to London to see Eversleigh, Ronny Devereux jumps out in front of her car. Before he dies, Devereux mutters "Seven Dials..." and "Tell...Jimmy Thesiger." Bundle gets his body to a doctor, who tells her that her car did not hit Devereux; he was shot.
Seven Dials turns out to be a seedy nightclub and gambling den. Bundle recognizes the doorman as Alfred, a footman from Chimneys. Alfred tells her that he left Chimneys for far higher wages offered by Mosgorovsky, owner of the club. Alfred takes Bundle into a secret room, where she hides in a cupboard and witnesses a meeting of seven people wearing hoods with clock faces. They talk of the always-missing "Number Seven", and about an upcoming party at Wyvern Abbey, where a scientist called Eberhard will offer a secret formula for sale to the British Air Minister.
At the party, the formula is stolen and Jimmy Thesiger is shot in his right arm. Thesiger tells how he fought a man who climbed down the ivy. The next morning, Battle finds a charred left-handed glove with teeth marks in the fireplace. He theorizes that the thief threw the gun onto the lawn from the terrace and then climbed back into the house via the ivy. Bundle’s father reports that Bauer, the footman who replaced Alfred, is missing.
Ronny Devereux's executors have sent Eversleigh a letter written by Devereux. Thesiger rings up Bundle and Gerry Wade's sister Loraine and tells them to meet him and Eversleigh at the Seven Dials club. Bundle shows Thesiger the room where the Seven Dials meet. Loraine finds Eversleigh unconscious in the car and they take him into the club.
Someone knocks Bundle unconscious and she comes round in Eversleigh's arms. Mr Mosgorovsky takes them into the meeting of the Seven Dials, where Number Seven is revealed as Superintendent Battle. He reveals that they are a group of people doing secret service work for the government. Battle tells Bundle that the association has succeeded with their main target, an international criminal whose stock in trade is the theft of secret formulae: Jimmy Thesiger was arrested that afternoon with his accomplice, Loraine Wade. Battle explains that Thesiger killed Wade and Devereux when they got onto his track. Devereux took the eighth clock from Wade's room to see if anyone reacted to there being "seven dials". At Wyvern Abbey, Thesiger stole the formula, passed it to Loraine, then shot himself in his right arm and disposed of his left-hand glove using his teeth. Eversleigh feigned unconsciousness in the car outside the Seven Dials club. Thesiger never went for a doctor, but hid in the club, and knocked Bundle unconscious. Bundle takes Wade's place in the Seven Dials and marries Bill Eversleigh.