The Dressmaker's Doll is a short story, written by Agatha Christie which was first published in the 25 Oct 1958 issue of Toronto's Star Weekly. It was subseqeuntly compiled and published posthumously as part of the collection Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories in the UK in 1979.
Plot[]
Alicia Coombe manages her very smart dressmaking business with the help of her young assistant, Sybil. One day, a doll appears in the shop—a floppy, long-legged doll that sits itself on the best sofa. But where did it come from, and why does it appear to watch them?
Characters[]
- Alicia Coombe, owner of a dressmaking business
- Sybil Fox, her young assistant
- Elspeth, the forewoman of the workroom
- Marlene
- Nellie
- Margaret
- Mrs Fellows-Brown
- Fou-Ling, Mrs Fellows-Brown's Pekingese
- Mrs Groves, the cleaner
- Lady Lee
Publication History[]
- 1958: Star Weekly, 25 Oct 1958.[1]
- 1958: Woman's Journal, December 1958.
- 1959: Ellery Queen’s 14th Mystery Annual, ed. Ellery Queen, Random House, 1959
- 1959: Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, vol. 33 no. 6, whole no. 187, Jun 1959.[2]
- 1959: Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, no. 79, Dec 1958.
- 1966: Suspense…, ed. Seon Manley & Gogo Lewis, Funk & Wagnalls, 1966
- 1970: The Dark of the Soul, Don Ward (ed.), Tower 1970.
- 1972: Argosy (U.K. edition), vol. 33 no. 6, Jun 1972.
- 1974: Detective Fiction: Crime and Compromise, Allen/Chacko, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974.
- 1979: Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories, Collins Crime Club, (London), October 1979.
- 1980: The Haunted Dolls, Seon Manley and Gogo Lewis, Doubleday, 1980.
- 1985: Handle With Care, ed. Joan Kahn, Greenwillow Books, 1985.
- 2006: Masterpieces of Mystery and the Unknown, Minotaur (New York), 2006.
- 2008: Miss Marple and Mystery: The Complete Short Stories, HarperCollins (London), 2008.
- 2019: The Last Séance: Tales of the Supernatural, HarperCollins (London), Oct 2019, 368 pp; ISBN 978-0008336738.
References[]
- ↑ Evening Express, Portland, Maine, 22 Oct 1958 has an advertisement for Star Weekly which states: "Agatha Christie will give you a start, too, in her thrilling new novel "The Dressmaker's Doll" complete in this issue...."
- ↑ See this listing at Galactic Central