A young drifter finds more than he bargained for when he agrees to deliver a parcel to an English country house…Little did Anthony Cade suspect that a simple errand on behalf of a friend would make him the centrepiece of a murderous international conspiracy. Someone would stop at nothing to prevent the monarchy being restored in faraway Herzoslovakia.The combined forces of Scotland Yard and the French Surete can do no better than go in circles – until the final murder at Chimneys, the great country estate that yields up an amazing secret…
In this set of short stories Captain Hastings recounts 18 of Poirot’s early cases from the days before he was famous…Hercule Poirot delighted in telling people that he was probably the best detective in the world. So turning back the clock to trace eighteen of the cases which helped establish his professional reputation was always going to be a fascinating experience. With his career still in its formative years, the panache with which Hercule Poirot could solve even the most puzzling mystery is obvious.Chronicled by his friend Captain Hastings, these eighteen early cases – from theft and robbery to kidnapping and murder – were all guaranteed to test Poirot’s soon-to-be-famous ‘little grey cells’ to their absolute limit.
The very first collection of superb short stories featuring Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings…First there was the mystery of the film star and the diamond… then came the ‘suicide’ that was murder… the mystery of the absurdly chaep flat… a suspicious death in a locked gun-room… a million dollar bond robbery… the curse of a pharoah’s tomb… a jewel robbery by the sea… the abduction of a Prime Minister… the disappearance of a banker… a phone call from a dying man… and, finally, the mystery of the missing willl.What links these fascinating cases? Only the brilliant deductive powers of Hercule Poirot!
Tommy & Tuppence are hired to track down wartime spies at a seaside resort…It is World War II, and while the RAF struggles to keep the Luftwaffe at bay, Britain faces an even more sinister threat from ‘the enemy within’ – Nazis posing as ordinary citizens.With pressure mounting, the Intelligence service appoints two unlikely spies, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. Their mission: to seek out a man and a woman from among the colourful guests at Sans Souci, a seaside hotel. But this assignment is no stroll along the promenade. After all, N and M have just murdered Britain’s finest agent…
A teenage murder witness is drowned in a tub of apples…At a Hallowe’en party, Joyce – a hostile thirteen-year-old – boasts that she once witnessed a murder. When no-one believes her, she storms off home. But within hours her body is found, still in the house, drowned in an apple-bobbing tub.That night, Hercule Poirot is called in to find the ‘evil presence’. But first he must establish whether he is looking for a murderer or a double-murderer…
Agatha Christie’s disturbing 1960s mystery thriller, reissued with a striking cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers.Gipsy’s Acre was a truly beautiful upland site with views out to sea – and in Michael Rogers it stirred a child-like fantasy.There, amongst the dark fir trees, he planned to build a house, find a girl and live happily ever after.Yet, as he left the village, a shadow of menace hung over the land. For this was the place where accidents happened. Perhaps Michael should have heeded the locals’ warnings: ‘There’s no luck for them as meddles with Gipsy’s Acre.’Michael Rogers is a man who is about to learn the true meaning of the old saying ‘In my end is my beginning…’
Hercule Poirot is determined to solve an old husband and wife double murder that is still an open verdict…Hercule Poirot stood on the cliff-top. Here, many years earlier, there had been a tragic accident. This was followed by the grisly discovery of two more bodies – a husband and wife – shot dead.But who had killed whom? Was it a suicide pact? A crime of passion? Or cold-blooded murder? Poirot delves back into the past and discovers that ‘old sin leave long shadows’.
An elderly spinster has been poisoned in her country home…Everyone blamed Emily’s accident on a rubber ball left on the stairs by her frisky terrier. But the more she thought about her fall, the more convinced she became that one of her relatives was trying to kill her.On April 17th she wrote her suspicions in a letter to Hercule Poirot. Mysteriously he didn’t receive the letter until June 28th… by which time Emily was already dead…
Marking exactly 100 years since the publication of Agatha Christie’s first novel, this new edition includes a previously deleted chapter and a newly discovered essay, ‘Drugs and Detective Stories’, in which Agatha Christie reminisces about the inspiration for Poirot’s first case.‘Beware! Peril to the detective who says: “It is so small – it does not matter…” Everything matters.’After the Great War, life can never be the same again. Wounds need healing, and the horror of violent death banished into memory.Captain Arthur Hastings is invited to the rolling country estate of Styles to recuperate from injuries sustained at the Front. It is the last place he expects to encounter murder. Fortunately he knows a former detective, a Belgian refugee, who has grown bored of retirement…‘Agatha Christie is the gateway drug to crime fiction thanks to her storytelling skills. Just one book is never enough…’ VAL McDERMID‘What a writer. A hundred years after her first novel, and we are all still standing in her shadow.’ ANDREW TAYLOR‘Agatha Christie must surely be the most imitated author in the entire canon of literature – what greater acclaim could there be?’ PETER JAMES
A mystery that will defy even the most ingenious of detectives. Because, when you turn over a stone in an English village, you have no idea what will crawl out…‘I’m not too late, am I? When does the murder begin?’An announcement appears in the local paper: this Friday, at exactly 6.30pm, a murder will take place.Who could resist such an invitation?Driven by morbid curiosity, the villagers head to the appointed location: a quiet house on the outskirts of the village.The crowd gathers. The clock counts down. And then the lights go out.