The Murder on the Links (1923) by Agatha Christie.

Introduction.

The Murder on the Links is Agatha Christie’s third published book with Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings making their second appearance. The story takes them to the fictional French seaside town of Merlinville‑sur‑Mer, located on the north coast of France and likely inspired by the communities along the Côte d'Opale.

First Appearances in Print.

The story was first serialised by The Grand Magazine, a British monthly, starting in December 1922 and ending in March 1923. It was published under Christie's original title for this novel - The Girl with Anxious Eyes.

The first American appearance in a magazine occurred after the book was published. In September 1925, Brief Stories published it under another alternate title - The Merlinville Mystery (above right).

Before the book was published, it was also serialised in a British newspaper - the Birmingham Daily Gazette. This was the first appearance under the title The Murder on the Links. The first instalment was on February 12, 1923 while the last was on April 3, 1923. While there were forty-one instalments, only the first was illustrated. The artist was Charles (Chas) Howarth (1893-1980). There does not appear to be an American newspaper that carried the story.

First Editions.

The Murder on the Links was first published in New York by Dodd, Mead & Co. on March 17, 1923. It was priced $1.75 on the front flap of the jacket (artist unknown). Thus, two of her first three books were published in America before Britain.

The first British edition was published by The Bodley Head on May 18, 1923. It was priced 7/6 on the spine of the jacket. Cover art was by H.T. Warren. I do not own this jacket, so forgive the poor quality image!

One way to confirm that actual distribution of the book occurred around those dates is to look for newspaper reviews and advertisements. The New York Times reviewed this book in their ‘Latest Fiction’ section on March 25th, 1923 while The Times Literary Supplement (London) reviewed the novel on June 7th, 1923.

Early Reprints.

The Bodley Head reprinted The Murder on the Links two times in 1923 - the second and third printings. The book, jacket and pricing all remained unchanged. In 1925, the fourth printing was initially called a ‘Cheap Edition’ by The Bodley Head but was later referred to as the ‘Popular Edition’. The English Catalogue of Books states the price was reduced to ‘3/6 net’ on the spine. However, it is highly possible that stickers were used to reflect this new price as I haven’t actually seen a jacket with only the 3/6 price on it. If any reader has this jacket please let me know. If stickers were used, it is probable that they’ve been removed and the jackets paired with first printings.

Note: Reprints from the late 1930s and early 1940s were priced ‘3s 6d net’ on the spine. Avoid confusion by noting that early books separated shillings and pence with a slash. Later books did not, but used the ‘s’ and ‘d’ abbreviations. Also, look at the rear panel of the jacket to confirm edition as the later printings are different.

The Bodley Head then reprinted Links twice in 1928 - the fifth and sixth editions. These were marketed as a ‘Cheap Edition’ and priced it at 2/- net. These editions were sized 7 ¼” x 4 ½”, so very slightly smaller than the regular 5” width on the 8vo Crown printings. All of these printings are exceptionally rare in jackets. The next format they printed was their paperback.

In the States, Grosset & Dunlap handled the reprinting of this book as they did with almost all Christie’s of this era. It appears there was only one reprint in the 1920s. Grosset & Dunlap used the original printing sheets and did not update the copyright page. The book was likely printed in 1924. The same cover art was used as were the text blocks. However, Grosset used red cloth and changed the title page. Even though it is a reprint, it is still incredibly rare to find in a jacket.

First Omnibus Edition.

In February 1931, The Bodley Head leveraged their copyright over the initial six Christie books by publishing the first Agatha Christie omnibus. Titled An Agatha Christie Omnibus, it contained three books - The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1921), Murder on the Links (1923) and Poirot Investigates (1924).  Each novel is paginated separately. This is the first omnibus appearance of this title and is a very scarce book to find. For more details go to (link). Of note, Collins followed suit the following year publishing their first Christie omnibus.

Other Printings of Note.

In 1926, Reynolds’s Illustrated News, a London based newspaper, serialised the novel beginning December 12^th, 1926. It continued until March 27^th, 1927. Their decision to publish this novel was clearly done to leverage the publicity surrounding Christie's disappearance which began one week earlier. However, the serialisation is appealing to view as it was well illustrated (artist unknown).

In 1932, the novel was first published in France by Librairie des Champs-Élysées as No. 118 in their Le Masque series. It was titled Le Crime du Golf. Two different covers are known for this edition (later edition below left). When the first Canadian edition in French was published in 1943 by the magazine Policier et D’Aventures (centre image), it also used this title.

In the 1940s, Grosset & Dunlap reprinted the title as a Madison Square wartime book. This book had a different jacket design which appears to have been the jacket originally designed for the book in 1923 but not used based on Christie's feedback (above right). I discuss this further below.

Notable Early Paperbacks.

While The Bodley Head had pipped Collins with the concept of an omnibus, the tables were turned in February 1932 when Collins published the first ever Christie paperback - Partners in Crime. The Bodley Head quickly followed suit, but chose to publish The Murder on the Links in the new paperback format before The Mysterious Affair at Styles: Published in March 1932, and listed in the English Catalogue of Book as a ‘Cheap Edition’, it measured 8 ¼” x 5 ¼” and was marketed as a ninepenny (9d) novel. The cover art was by Salomon Van Abbe, a prolific cover artist who also created the jacket for Collins' first edition of The Mystery of the Blue Train.

Four years later, in March 1936, Penguin Books (London, UK) published a paperback with smaller dimensions than The Bodley Head's (the size now commonly considered as a paperback). They priced it 6d (sixpence) and issued it with a dust wrapper. Initially referred to as Series No. 6A, it replaced The Mysterious Affair at Styles which had initially been No. 6. As the image shows, Penguin's affiliation with The Bodley Head is prominently displayed on these early editions. To learn more about this affiliation and Penguin books, go to (link).

Penguin reprinted the title many times with six reprints occuring just in the following three years. One unique Penguin edition is the June 1945 edition printed in Australia by the Lothian Publishing Company. The war in the Pacific was still raging and VE day had only just occurred. During the war, many publishers arranged for regional editions to address both paper shortages in Britain and global shipping challenges. This Australian Penguin is a unique reminder of these obstacles.

The first American paperback was published in 1946 by Lawrence Spivak (New York) under his Mercury Mystery imprint as Series No. 100. However, the story was abridged. The first complete American printing was in 1950 by Dell Books (New York) as series No. 454. The cover of this book is questionable as the quote has been modified from the text and both Bella's outfit and the logo placement are all most questionable. The appeal of this book is for the map on the rear.

In Canada, the publisher Harlequin (not yet a pure romance publisher) partnered with Pan Books (UK) to secure rights to publish some of the titles The Bodley Head controlled. They selected three Christies - one of which was The Murder on the Links. It was published twice - initially as Series No. 242 in 1953 (below left) and then as Series No. 441 in 1958 (below middle). Both are challenging to locate. Learn more at (link).

An uncommon British paperback to collect is the 1954 edition published by Corgi Books (UK) as Series No. T54 (above right). The first version is surprisingly difficult to find in collector quality condition. The book was reprinted several times, initially in 1957, but is dated correctly when a later issue. Corgi was a unit of Transworld Publishers which was established in 1950 as the British division of the American publisher Bantam Books. It is now part of Penguin Random House UK. For Christie paperback collectors, these one-off printers of Christie books are highly collectible.

While Pan had given Harlequin the rights to publish the book in 1953, the first Pan Book in Britain didn't appear until 1960, as Series No. G323 (below left). This delay was likely due to The Bodley Head continuing to print cheap hardbacks of the title in the 1950s. Pan retained this Series No. for the 1962 reprint, but changed the cover (below right).

Jacket Design.

Correspondence exists showing Christie’s input on the dust wrapper’s artwork for the Bodley Head first edition. In a letter to Mr. Willett – the Director of The Bodley Head – we learn that Christie was engaged in the publication process – from discussing what title will be used and providing ideas for the jacket’s design:

I see that The Girl with The Anxious Eyes will be concluded in the February number of the Grand Magazine which is due out shortly. When are you publishing this in book form and under what title? I suggest for the cover a green patch of grass on the links, the grave and near it the man’s body with a dagger sticking out of it. – Agatha Christie.

However, the proof jacket Christie received back clearly was nothing like this. As we can see from her Autobiography (Collins, 1977), she wasn’t pleased with the design.

The Bodley Head were pleased with Murder on the Links, but I had a slight row with them over the jacket they had designed for it. Apart from being ugly colours, it was badly drawn, and represented, as far as I could make out, a man in pyjamas on a golf-links, dying of an epileptic fit. Since the man who had been murdered had been fully dressed and stabbed with a dagger, I objected.

Christie goes on to say:

It was agreed in future I should see the jacket first and approve of it.

While the jacket that she so disliked was not used on the British or American first editions there is a hint of it in the 1940s American reprint discussed above. This cover's victim certainly seems to be having the epileptic fit that she described (refer to the image shown earlier in this article). It is possible that this design was provided to the American publisher (Dodd, Mead & Co.) by The Bodley Head but pulled based on Christie’s request, only to resurface 20 years later on this World War II era Madison Square reprint.

Values.

The British first edition is fairly valued at £70,000 in a very good jacket or £7,000 if lacking the wrapper.  The American first is valued at £17,000 in a very good jacket or £1,000 if unjacketed. Lesser quality books are worth significantly less. First edition jacketed copies (both British and American) rarely ever appear for sale and only a handful of them likely exist.

British reprints from the 1920s with a contemporaneous jacket are still exceptionally rare and valuable. Any jacket with a 3/6 or 2/- price on it would likely command £3,000 - £4,000. However, none have appeared for sale in many years. Unjacketed reprints are significantly less.

The first reprint by Grosset & Dunlap (USA) is fairly valued at $2,000 in a very good complete jacket, though around $500 when missing large parts of the jacket as several for sale do.

The ninepenny paperback by John Lane, The Bodley Head, and the first Penguin (with its wrapper) are both valued at £400 - £500 for a very good example.

All other paperbacks and any hardback reprints from the late 1930s onwards are affordable collectibles, ranging from used book prices up to £50.

Other 'Deep Dive' Articles.

If you enjoy these deep dive articles where I go in depth on a specific book, then please look at my new 'Title Index' of articles. It can be accessed from the top of the home page on the website anytime, or via this (link). As more titles are reviewed in depth, they will be added to this index.

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Image Credits: Grand Magazine covers - philsp.com