Review of The Mystery of the Blue Jar

A young man, who is studying to become a lawyer, likes to wake up early every morning to enjoy a game of golf in the fields just outside the hotel where he's staying. One morning, he hears a woman crying "Murder! Help! Murder!", but when he looks around the only other person present is a French girl who claims she didn't hear anything. The same thing, at the same time and location, happens on the following days as well, so our hero starts to think he might be going crazy - but another man staying at the same hotel, a self-proclaimed "doctor of the soul", has a different theory about what's happening. In 9 out of 10 Agatha Christie stories, when the supernatural and the occult are involved, not only do they get ultimately disproven, but they are often used as an instrument by the canny to trick the gullible. "The Mystery Of The Blue Jar" stands as one of the earliest examples of that trademark Christie twist. Another thing I liked is that the hero is portrayed as a regular everyday guy and not as a comically exaggerated dork like the leads in "The Manhood Of Edward Robinson" or "The Girl In The Train". Not a great episode (wouldn't it be wiser for the bad guys not to boast about their success and leave the good guys wondering what had happened for longer?), but above-average. *** out of 4.