Three Blind Mice is a short story written by Agatha Christie, based on her radio play with the same name. The radio play was also adapted into the stage play The Mousetrap.
The short story was first published in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1948, and in the book The Witness for the Prosecution and Three Blind Mice also in 1948.
Plot[]
A blinding snowstorm—and a homicidal maniac—traps a small party of friends in an isolated estate.
Characters[]
- Molly Davis
- Giles Davis
- Mrs Boyle
- Major Metcalf
- Mr Paravicini
- Christopher Wren
- Sergeant Trotter
- Mrs Lyon (AKA Maureen Gregg)
Cultural References[]
- The title of the story comes from the nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice.
Publication history[]
At Agatha Christie's request the story will not be published in the UK while Mousetrap is still running in the West End.
- 1948, Cosmopolitan magazine (Volume 124, Number 5), illustrations uncredited.[1]
- 1948: The Witness for the Prosecution and Three Blind Mice, The Detective Book Club, Walter J. Black (New York), December 1948.
- 1950, Three Blind Mice and Other Stories
- 1950, Dodd, Mead and Company (New York), Hardback, 250 pp
- 1952, Dell Books, Paperback, 224 pp, (Dell number 633)
- 1960, Dell Books, Paperback, as The Mousetrap and other stories, (Dell number D354)
- 1984, Berkley Books, Paperback, 212 pp, (Berkley number 06806-4)
- 1957: Christie Classics (omnibus), Dodd Mead, 1957.
- 2006: Masterpieces of Mystery and the Unknown, Minotaur (New York), 2006.
- 2020: Midwinter Murder, HarperCollins (London), 2020. (US edition only)