Ft. Poached Eggs at Chimneys
In The Secret of Chimneys, fictional nation Herzoslovakia is currently short a leader after an uprising and murder of the reigning monarch. They dabbled sometime under a Prime Minister, who has also recently passed, and with his passing are rumors of incriminating memoirs that multiple factions want to get their hands on.
These memoirs land in the hands of Anthony Cade, a young Englishman recently returned from Africa and on the lookout for adventure. He is entrusted with a simple mission to publish the memoirs and to return some letters to a mysterious blackmailed woman, which turns into an action packed who-dunnit full of blackmail, frame jobs, a search for a notorious jewel thief, and several inconvenient murders.
Spoilers ahead!
This was a good one, and I read it extremely fast. It takes a few chapters to get into its stride, but once it does, the action goes wacky and the book is hard to put down. I didn’t particularly like a single one of the characters, but I still found the story engaging and the dialogue very funny and witty.
Pros: Witty dialogue, and a speedy story that never gets bogged down at any point.
Cons: Cringy romance, which fortunately doesn’t take much space. Also, the whole book is sprinkled with random racism. Christie was sadly a product of her time; she did not rise above the world she lived in.
I was really mad at myself after finishing this book. I really read Christie and have absolutely no idea of anything that is going on until the very end. I think there are several points where you could have guessed Anthony was heir to the Herzoslovakian throne, or at least certainly more than he said he was.
The part where Boris decides randomly to pledge his allegiance to Anthony, which Anthony finds troubling and awkward, is a big clue. And when discussing the whereabouts of King Victor, Anthony suggests that the jewel thief probably changed his name and went off to Africa, which Anthony himself did when leaving Herzoslovakia. Also, there’s this bit of dialogue in the very first chapter:
[James is speaking] “I’ll tell you the whole story. I suppose you know all about Herzoslovakia?”
Anthony looked up sharply.
“Herzoslovakia?” he said, with a curious ring in his voice.
“Yes. Know anything about it?”
There was quite an appreciable pause before Anthony answered.
I did have some idea that the French inspector was suspicious, which is nice. But, I never thought about it long enough to consider what he might be instead.
Christie does something unusual for me, which is, she gives us the POV of individuals who can very well be suspects, or at least be hiding something important from us, the reader. Even if we are experiencing the story from their perspective, that doesn’t mean they are free from suspicion. I really need to keep that in mind. If I read all of Christie and never guess the murderer, I will become very depressed.
Poached Eggs at Chimneys
This recipe is from the wonderful cookbook Recipes for Murder: 66 Dishes that Celebrate the Mysteries of Agatha Christie, by Karen Pierce.
Poached Eggs make an appearance in the novel when Lord Caterham, the current host of Chimneys (which is an estate, rather than a fixture on a building), is ordering his long-suffering butler Tredwell to bring him a lighter breakfast.
The visitors of Chimneys have just spent the morning in inquisiton over the appearance of a dead body, and Lord Caterham has rightfully lost his appetite when breakfast is served:
“Omelet,” said Lord Caterham, lifting each lid in turn. “Eggs and bacon, kidneys, devilled bird, haddock, cold ham, cold pheasant. I don’t like any of these things, Tredwell. Ask the cook to poach me an egg, will you?”
“Very good, my lord.”
Tredwell withdrew. Lord Caterham, in an absentminded fashion, helped himself plentifully to kidneys and bacon, poured himself out a cup of coffee, and sat down at the long table.
This is a simple, speedy recipe, well suited for Chimneys which was a speedy, easy read. The ingredients are as follows:
- 1 tsp Vinegar
- 2 large Eggs
- Salt and Pepper
It’s really quite simple; you mix your vinegar into a pan with two inches of water, and then after it comes to a bit of a rolling boil, you drop your eggs in.
Theoretically, this recipe only takes 2-3 minutes, once you’ve got your water boiling. However, it took me closer to 10, I think due in part to me being deeply paranoid of anything raw, and in part because I can’t measure 2 inches of water to save my life. It’s not an imprecise measurement, just a relative one, but I didn’t have a convenient way of measuring that except by eyeballing it.
It ended up being very yummy, and very much my preferred kind of egg.
Philosodrama 
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