Second paragraph of third story (“The Case of the Missing Will”):

She arrived punctually—a tall, handsome young woman, plainly but neatly dressed, with an assured and business-like manner. Clearly a young woman who meant to get on in the world. I am not a great admirer of the so-called New Woman myself, and, in spite of her good looks, I was not particularly prepossessed in her favour.

The subtitle here is “Twelve Devonshire Mysteries”, but in fact several of them are set in Cornwall rather than Devon – just warning anyone who is expecting Dumnonian exactitude. The stories were originally published between 1923 and 1940 – Agatha Christie’s peak – in a variety of different magazines and collections, and they feature individually Poirot, Miss Marple, Parker Pyne and Tommy and Tuppence, so a decent sampling from across the spectrum of her protagonists. The collection was assembled between hard covers only last year.

One story, “The Hound of Death“, is not about crime at all but a horror story involving a Belgian nun in Cornwall. There is a foreword, extracted from her autobiography, about Agatha Christie’s love of Torquay. Some of the short stories depend on an obvious twist, but the point is more about Christie’s convincing portrayal of the West Country’s landscape and society than the actual plot. Worth it for the Christie fan.

You can get Country Christie here.