In Agatha Christie's story "Harlequin's Lane" from the collection "The Mysterious Mr Quin", devoted entirely to one of the author's own favourite characters, Mr Harley Quin, there appears a cameo by the Russian ballerina Tamara Karsavina…

While visiting the married couple the Denmans, the conversation turns to Russia. The wife, Anna, is a Russian émigrée who was rescued from the storm of revolution when still very young. Speaking of ballet, she says that she knows everything about it, since she herself once danced. In the denouement we learn that Anna Denman is in fact the Russian ballerina Anna Karsavina, who is believed to have perished in Russia.

After the part of Columbine in an improvised domestic production, it becomes obvious that the mistress of the house is the great Karsavina, who had hidden her identity on account of her husband, whom, moreover, she had long since ceased to love.

At the end of the story the ballerina dies mysteriously.

In creating Anna Karsavina, Agatha Christie combined two names that were immensely popular in England in the world of ballet, Anna Pavlova and Tamara Karsavina, borrowing small details from the professional biographies of both dancers.

As for Mr Harley Quin, the recurring figure of the collection, he points us to the Harlequin of the English tradition, magical in essence and bound, among other things, to the world beyond the grave: he raises the dead, turns objects into people and performs other sorcerous capers. It is no accident that in one scene Mr Quin appears as himself but ten years younger: by magic this demonic hero can assume the form of a young man.

That Death is a synonym for the name of Harlequin is revealed by Anna Karsavina in the final dialogue. In essence he is the embodiment of the angel of death, the protector of the dead, able, if he so wishes, to bring them back to life, as happens with the vanished ballerina. Christie's Harlequin sees sinners through and through and summons them to repentance: for instance, he asks his "assistant" whether he is not sorry to live out his life with love unrequited. Harlequin not only deals with the world beyond but also sets this one to rights, appearing at the scenes of crimes and, in Christie's case, investigating murders, exposing injustice and reuniting lovers, acting all the while by means of a sort of familiar, a more mediocre character who presents the image of a plain mortal.

Naturally, in the broad sense the prototype of Harlequin in Agatha Christie's detective fiction is the medieval demon Hellequin, who in hell is in charge of the torments inflicted on sinners. In the light of all this, Alla Pugacheva's song of course sounds quite different. What are these lines if not a journey through hell? "Over the sharp needles of bright fire I run, I run, the roads have no end. The vast world has closed in on me, the circle of the arena and a mask without a face... Without a name and, in general, without a fate" — and the posthumous laughter in the refrain is especially terrifying.