Three Act Tragedy. Agatha Christie

      

      

       Three Act Tragedy

      

Copyright

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

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       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by Collins 1935

      Agatha Christie® Poirot® Three Act Tragedy™

      Copyright © 1935 Agatha Christie Limited (a Chorion company). All rights reserved.

       www.agathachristie.com

      Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016

      Title lettering by Ghost Design

      Cover photograph © Ray Spence/Arcangel Images

      Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library

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      Source ISBN: 9780007120901

      Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2016 ISBN: 9780007422883

      Version: 2019-01-08

       Dedication

       Dedicated to

       My Friends, Geoffrey and Violet Shipston

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      Copyright

      Dedication

       First Act: Suspicion

      1. Crow’s Nest

      2. Incident Before Dinner

3. Sir Charles Wonders

4. A Modern Elaine

5. Flight From a Lady

Second Act: Certainty

       1. Sir Charles Receives a Letter

       2. The Missing Butler

       3. Which of Them?

       4. The Evidence of the Servants

       5. In the Butler’s Room

       6. Concerning an Ink-Stain

       7. Plan of Campaign

       Third Act: Discovery

       1. Mrs Babbington

       2. Lady Mary

       3. Re-enter Hercule Poirot

       4. A Watching Brief

       5. Division of Labour

       6. Cynthia Dacres

       7. Captain Dacres

       8. Angela Sutcliffe

       9. Muriel Wills

       10. Oliver Manders

       11. Poirot Gives a Sherry Party

       12. Day at Gilling

       13. Mrs de Rushbridger

       14. Miss Milray

       15. Curtain

       Keep Reading

       Also by Agatha Christie

       About the Publisher

       Directed by

      Sir Charles Cartwright

       Assistant Directors

      Mr Satterthwaite

      Miss Hermione Lytton Gore

       Clothes by

      Ambrosine Ltd

       Illumination by

      Hercule Poirot

FIRST ACT

       CHAPTER 1

       Crow’s Nest

      Mr Satterthwaite sat on the terrace of ‘Crow’s Nest’ and watched his host, Sir Charles Cartwright, climbing up the path from the sea.

      Crow’s Nest was a modern bungalow of the better type. It had no half timbering, no gables, no excrescences dear to a third-class builder’s heart. It was a plain white solid building—deceptive as to size, since it was a good deal bigger than it looked. It owed its name to its position, high up, overlooking the harbour of Loomouth. Indeed from one corner of the terrace, protected by a strong balustrade, there was a sheer drop to the sea below. By road Crow’s Nest was a mile from the town. The road ran inland and then zigzagged high up above the sea. On foot it was accessible in seven minutes by the steep fisherman’s path that Sir Charles Cartwright was ascending at this minute.

      Sir Charles was a well-built, sunburnt man of middle age. He wore old grey flannel trousers and a white sweater. He had a slight rolling gait, and carried his hands half closed as he walked. Nine people out of ten would say, ‘Retired Naval man—can’t mistake the type.’ The tenth, and more discerning, would have