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By the Pricking of My Thumbs

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By the Pricking of My Thumbs

By: Agatha Christie
Narrated by: Hugh Fraser
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About this listen

The third Tommy & Tuppence novel.

When Tommy and Tuppence visited an elderly aunt in her gothic nursing home, they thought nothing of her mistrust of the doctors; after all, Ada was a very difficult old lady.

But when Mrs Lockett mentioned a poisoned mushroom stew and Mrs Lancaster talked about ‘something behind the fireplace’, Tommy and Tuppence found themselves caught up in an unexpected adventure involving possible black magic…

©1968 Agatha Christie Limited. A Chorion Company. All rights reserved (P)2006 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, London UK Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Fiction Detective

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Critic reviews

"The most macabre and eerie Christie I have read for a long time." (Sunday Express)

"Ladies disappearing from homes of rest, sinister empty houses, hints of gang-leaders mixed with black magic: mystery at the usual high Christie level." (Evening Standard)

"All beautifully plotted in the way that Mrs Christie is famous for. The title is from Macbeth: 'By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.' Wicked indeed!" (Best Sellers)
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l love Hugh Fraser's narration of Christie's novels. The great author's lesser known characters - Tommy and Tuppence Beresford - have never been presented more supremely than in The Pricking of My Thumbs which is an exhilarating listen. From beginning to end, the story is replete with twists, turns and romping good fun. The novel is exciting and funny to the very last page.

The brilliant story.

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To start with, this was a bit confusing, but once you got into it, the storyline, became very intriguing.
This is the first Tommy & Tuppence book I've listened to and I'm tempted to buy some of the other book's, in the same series I hope that when I'm their age, I've got the same enthusiasm for life

By the Pricking of my thumbs

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Would you listen to By the Pricking of My Thumbs again? Why?

By the Pricking of My Thumbs is a return listen for sure because it balances a wonderfully twisty whodunnit with genuine pathos.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Tommy and Tuppence, two characters that Christie had used before, are now approaching old age and this device gives Christie the opportunity to make readers feel genuinely moved by their attempts to deal with this.

Which character – as performed by Hugh Fraser – was your favourite?

Hugh Fraser, a familiar voice to Christie fans, brings the characters to life with ease.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Danger and Old Age

Effortless joy

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i do love my AC and read by Hugh Fraser, Hastings himself, is an excellent choice.

Agatha Christie

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Hugh Fraser does great performance and the tale kept me gripped till the end. If like me you have a vivid imagination, then I recommend you don't read or listen to this book just before bed. Agatha Christie incorporates humour, horror, suspense as well as interesting insights into human behaviour.

Kept me awake at night

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I am a fan of AC. Its quite simple, she writes well, the plots are great and nowadays I feel transported to a simpler life when I read her stories.

So how did I get on with this one...? I rated it. Hugh Fraser is a splendid reader and has the knack down to a tee. His narration is concise and clear, the characters come to life and the pace/quality are spot on. No peaks and troughs here.

I could quite imagine our principle characters off having their adventures whilst being able to come home at the end to a nice roast chicken. I shall certainly be avoiding Anywhere named Sunnyridge in future.

Something special this way comes

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Amazing performance from Hugh Fraser who captures the characters answers of this mystery. So enjoyable

Hugh Fraser voices and timing in this performance

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It's 1968 and Agatha catches up with her sleuthing duo Tommy and Tuppence, who she introduced in 1922 when they fell in love. Being in their twilight years now, doesn't stop them investigating, even with creaking bones and the occasional need for a nap.
The Tommy and Tuppence novels have a more jolly hockey sticks, adventurous flavour than her other books but still manage to be creepy and disarming.
Well worth the listen, thanks to Hugh Fraser's tip top narration.

(Earlier Tommy and Tuppence books: The Secret Adversary; N or M?)

Something wicked this way comes!

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A rather elderly Tommy and Tuppemce (mainly Tuppence) investigate the disappearance of an elderly lady from a Rest Home; their only clue is a painting of a house. Before long they are wrapped up in a mystery involving historical child murders and a criminal gang. An interesting and creepy twist at the end - does this spell the end for Tuppence...? A rather unusual Christie with a good mix of characters. As always, beautifully narrated by Hugh Fraser - I wish it was possible to get every Agatha Christie read by him!

Rather creepy

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When Tommy and Tuppence visit Tommy’s elderly Aunt Ada in the Sunny Ridge nursing home, Tuppence falls into conversation with a sweet but rather confused old lady called Mrs Lancaster. As Tuppence, in a thoughtful moment, gazes at the fireplace, she is startled when Mrs Lancaster asks, “Was it your poor child?” The way she asks sends a shiver down Tuppence’s spine (and mine). A few weeks later Aunt Ada dies and when they return to the home to collect her belongings, Tuppence determines to speak to Mrs Lancaster again. But they discover Mrs Lancaster has gone – collected by her relatives. Tuppence, with nothing but her instincts to go on, finds this puzzling and worrying, and decides to track Mrs Lancaster down. She meets with a brick wall, however, of lawyers and bankers none of whom seem to know exactly where Mrs Lancaster might be…

This is a late Christie, published in 1968, and as with many of the later books the plotting isn’t as tight as when she was at her peak. But although it all gets a bit rambly in the middle, it has a wonderfully spooky atmosphere. From Mrs Lancaster’s spine-shivering question, Tuppence finds herself entering a maze of old rumours and gossip, much of them about murdered or missing children. People are very willing to talk, but memories are vague and Tuppence finds it impossible to pin down hard facts or dates.

All she has to go on is a painting that Mrs Lancaster had given to Aunt Ada, of a house by a canal that Tuppence feels sure she has seen once before, perhaps from a car or a train. So while Tommy is off at a hush-hush conference with his old colleagues from his days in the Secret Service, Tuppence digs out train timetables and old diaries, and sets out to repeat any journeys she has made over the last few years in the hope of spotting the house again. But it seems that someone doesn’t want Mrs Lancaster to be found, and Tuppence soon finds herself in danger. Will Tommy find her in time?

Tommy and Tuppence are the only detectives of Christie who age in real time, so in this book they are now in their sixties. Between this and the nursing home theme, there’s quite a bit of musing on ageing in the book, both on the physical limitations it brings and on the mental decline that faces some elderly people. Christie, herself ageing of course, does this rather well. Tommy and Tuppence still spar as much as they always have, but Tommy perhaps worries about his wife a little more now, feeling that Tuppence should recognise that she’s not a young adventurer any more and should take more care for her safety. But that wouldn’t be Tuppence’s style at all! Once she gets her teeth into a thing she doesn’t let go, no matter where it leads her.

Hugh Fraser really is a fantastic narrator! He always brings out the humour in the books, but in this one he also creates the spooky atmosphere brilliantly, never over-acting but knowing exactly how to chill the reader. He copes with a range of elderly lady voices beautifully, bringing out all the fun of Aunt Ada’s rudeness and the pathos of Mrs Lancaster’s confusion. He differentiates the characters with a different voice for each and never slips, so that it’s always easy to tell who’s speaking even when several people are conversing together. And he does a great job with Tuppence’s character, making her just as enjoyable as she is on the page!

Despite the woolliness in the mid-section, the basic plot is strong and the unsettling atmosphere lasts all the way through to the chilling ending. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.

“Was it your poor child?”

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