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    Swan Song: A Short Story
    Swan Song: A Short Story
    Swan Song: A Short Story
    Ebook37 pages20 minutes

    Swan Song: A Short Story

    By Agatha Christie

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    About this ebook

    Previously published in the print anthology The Golden Ball and Other Stories.

    Famed soprano Paula Nazorkoff is invited to give a private performance at Rustonbury Castle. She accepts, since the castle is close to the home of the world-famous retired baritone Breon. What ensues is a story of passion and revenge in which old scores are settled at last.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateNov 5, 2013
    ISBN9780062302779
    Swan Song: A Short Story
    Author

    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.

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    Reviews for Swan Song

    4/5

    101 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Crime fiction in a Wagnerian setting. Whilst the denouement is certainly clever, the way in which the principal characters are introduced the first few pages is exhilarating.
    • 4/5
      It's the first post-war performance of Die Meistersinger, at Oxford, but the lead singer is found hanged in his dressing room. It looks like suicide but he was detested by everyone in the company, and Gervase Fen investigates. The usual cliche characters and unlikely whirlwind romances, but Fen is witty and fun as always. I'm sure if I knew anything about the opera I would have picked up on more of the subtleties.
    • 4/5
      Another fun outing with one of mystery's most eccentric amateur detectives.
    • 3/5
      I was fairly excited to read this book, having just really enjoyed another Edmund Crispin novel. Unfortunately, I rapidly discovered I was actually just rereading the same book.

      I knew that the setting would be the same, and that the theme would be theater people, but I was unprepared for just how similar the two books were.

      - The first few chapters focus on how much everyone hates one particular character.
      - The hated character dies suspiciously.
      - Everyone has a motive; no one has an alibi. Several people announce that they had considered killing the dead person themselves.
      - The police think it is suicide; Gervese Fen thinks it is murder. Everyone tells Fen he should leave well enough alone because the world is better off without the dead person.
      - Fen spends quite a while with a moral dilemma; meanwhile, two couples fall in love and become engaged.
      - One member of the newly engaged couples is also murdered. Everyone is surprised and alarmed.
      - By the end, the murderer(s) is dead, saving Fen from his dilemma.

      I liked the first one enough to give Crispin another shot, so I've got one more book to read. If this one has the same plot, I give up.
    • 5/5
      Sheer, unadulterated joy.
    • 2/5
      A music mystery. Gervase Fen is certainly no Nero Wolfe.

    Book preview

    Swan Song - Agatha Christie

    Contents

    Swan Song

    About the Author

    The Agatha Christie Collection

    Copyright

    About the Publisher

    SWAN SONG

    It was eleven o’clock on a May morning in London. Mr. Cowan was looking out of the window, behind him was the somewhat ornate splendour of a sitting room in a suite at the Ritz Hotel. The suite in question had been reserved for Mme. Paula Nazorkoff, the famous operatic star, who had just arrived in London. Mr. Cowan, who was Madame’s principal man of business, was awaiting an interview with the lady. He turned his head suddenly as the door opened, but it was only Miss Read, Mme. Nazorkoff’s secretary, a pale girl with an efficient manner.

    Oh, so it’s you, my dear, said Mr. Cowan. Madame not up yet, eh?

    Miss Read shook her head.

    She told me to come round at ten o’clock, Mr. Cowan said. I have been waiting an hour.

    He displayed neither resentment nor surprise. Mr. Cowan was indeed accustomed to the vagaries of the artistic temperament. He was a tall man, clean-shaven, with a frame rather too well covered, and clothes that were rather too faultless. His hair was very black and shining, and his teeth were aggressively white. When he spoke, he had a way of slurring his s’s which was not quite a lisp, but came perilously near to it. It required no stretch of imagination to realize that his father’s name had probably been Cohen. At that minute a door at the other side

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