I started reading Agatha Christie's short story "Three Blind Mice" last night. This is the story that her famous, long-running play THE MOUSETRAP is based on.
For years, I avoided reading THE MOUSETRAP (or this story) or going to see or audtion for the play in community theater productions because I wanted my first experience with it to be in London where it's been running since 1952.
Fairly recently, I was reading a think piece about mystery films by critic Manny Farber (this was written many years ago and collected in a book of his reviews and think pieces). In this piece, he foolishly and thoughtlessly revealed the identity of the killer in THE MOUSETRAP thus ruining the solution of the mystery for me (and I assume many others who had never seen the play or read the story or manuscript) and making it impossible to play along with Dame Agatha with a first viewing of her work on stage.
Thus, I made up my mind that since the ending was now ruined, I'd go ahead and first read the short story version and then read the play manuscript to see how Dame Agatha changed it (if she did; she often added things or changed things when adapting her fiction into play form).
I didn't get very far into the story last night. I was very tired. Maybe I can get more read tonight.
