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Parker Pyne is not a detective, he is, as he describes himself, a heart specialist. He has an advertisement in newspaper: “Are you happy? If not, consult Mr. Parker Pyne.��

In this book Agatha Christi changes her story writing a little: first, this is a collection of 12 short stories and second Agatha tries to challenge the psychological aspects of the characters. But after the first seven story, we see that she again comes back to her conventional writing story and makes a detective from Parker Pyne also.

The psychological stories can be divided into following categories:

1- A middle-aged woman who is not satisfied with her marital life; her husband betrays her and he thinks his wife is jealous of him,
2- A man whose wife does not like him anymore and she wants to get married with another man,
3- A man whose life’s become boring and he doesn’t feel any excitement,
4- A wealthy widow whose rich life does not attracts her anymore and life becomes monotonous for her.

I found the approaches that Agatha suggests to the characters in the form of Parker Pyne, natural and reasonable. Agatha’s understanding was good for women as well as men:
Each person at any age has his/her own unique charms and she/he should be proud of them and work on them to make them better. There are some behaviors like contentment for instance which although they are good in general, they can be harmful sometimes over the time and may lose their meaning in relationships. Sometimes musts should be put aside to make life happier. There are some specifications which can be said they have become intrinsic, there are some activities that people are interested in them or not. There is no reason that a person should underestimate her/his interests. Too much humility is not good and does not work. Excitement and variety can be made in life by small things. Sometimes by changing some habitual habits to positive way can be exciting. One other message of Agatha is that wealth without love cannot bring happiness (specially for a woman).

The other six stories are criminal and they are attractive in their own way. The stories are happening in different countries (especially Eastern countries), such as: Iraq, Iran, Oman and Greece. My favorite criminal story was “The House at Shiraz��:

JUST AFTER NOON the following day, Mr. Parker Pyne had his first view of Shiraz. They had flown over mountain ranges with narrow, desolate valleys between, and all arid, parched, dry wilderness. Then suddenly Shiraz came into view—an emerald-green jewel in the heart of the wilderness.