The Seven Dials Mystery
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The Seven Dials Mystery is a detective novel written by Agatha Christie in 1929. In it, Christie brings back the characters from an earlier novel, The Secret of Chimneys, Lady Eileen (Bundle) Caterham, Bill Eversleigh and Superintendent Battle, as the detectives. The book was made into a movie in 1982.
The title is something of a pun. Seven Dials is a poor neighborhood of London which had a reputation for harboring criminals, while the plot also includes seven clocks.
The story begins in the mansion Chimneys, which is owned by the Caterhams, but rented by the Cootes for a few weeks. Jerry Wade, one of the visitors, is known for sleeping in late, so his friends decide to play a trick on him. The six of them, which include Jimmy Thesiger and Bill Eversleigh, decide to buy one alarm clock apiece and two extra for two other people and set them all off at 6:30 in the morning the next day in Jerry's room. The plan works, however, Jerry does not wake up. In fact, later in the day he was found dead from an overdose of sleeping pills. Also, seven of the clocks (or dials) had been arranged on the mantleshelf and one was thrown out of the window. Two weeks later, the Caterhams return to Chimneys. Eventually Bundle gets involved and teams up with Jimmy and Bill to find out the murderer of Jerry and the meaning behind the Seven Dials.