Agatha Christie

Page Updated: 08/09/2004

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Agatha Christie - Page 5

The Labours of Hercules

The Labours of Hercules
See Review by Martin Edwards - creator of the highly acclaimed, Liverpool based Harry Devlin Mysteries
In appearance Hercule Poirot hardly resembled an ancient Greek hero. Yet - reasoned the detective - like Hercules he had been responsible for ridding society of some of its most unpleasant monsters.
So, in the period leading up to his retirement, Poirot made up his mind to accept just twelve more cases: his self-imposed 'Labours'. Each would go down n the annals of crime as a heroic feat of deduction.
'Twelve little masterpieces of detection. Poirot and Agatha Christie at their inimitable best.' Sunday Express

Paperback - harpercollins (2002)

Towards Zero
What is the connection between a failed suicide attempt, a wrongful accusation of theft against a schoolgirl, and the romantic life of a famous tennis player?
To the casual observer, apparently nothing. But when a houseparty gathers at Gull's Point, the seaside home of an elderly widow, earlier events come to a dramatic head.
A Superintendent Battle discovers, it is all part of a carefully laid plan - for murder...
'Agatha Christie has surpassed herself' New York Times

Paperback - Penguin (1960)

The Moving Finger
See Review by Martin Edwards - creator of the highly acclaimed, Liverpool based Harry Devlin Mysteries
As a place to convalesce after a bad flying crash Lymstock sounded ideal. So thought Jerry Burton when he took a house there for himself and his sister Joanna. But they soon discovered that the under-currents of this placid backwater were both swift and dangerous. A poison pen was hard at work sending letters which were usually as ridiculous as they were unpleasant, until one day somebody died. Who could it be in this peaceful, old-world village who was bent on creating chaos? The police found many suspects and their investigations revealed some surprising facts, but they didn't find the criminal, and the letters went on circulating. It needed an expert in human wickedness to solve the mystery of the moving finger, and the inevitable expert is Agatha Christie's seemingly innocuous spinster, old Miss Marple.
'There is no one like Agatha Christie for baffling the most experienced detective story readers; her vein of comedy is as fresh as ever.' Daily Telegraph
'I have offen thought that Mrs Christie was not so much the best as the only living writer of the true or classic detective story ... Her simple aim is to write a puzzle story to keep us curious and leave us pleased, and she pulls it off every blessed time.' Margery Allingham in the Daily Graphic
'She has held the throne of detection for the last ten years and brooks no rival near her.' New Statesman

Paperback - Collins Crime Club (n.d.)

Five Little Pigs
A Hercule Poivot Story. How to find out the truth about a crime that was committed sixteen years ago is indeed a problem. No wonder Carla Lemarchant sought the best help available, and it was fortunate for her that she found Hercule Poirot, for as he said himself, "Rest assured-I am the best." Faced with the question : Did Carla's mother, Caroline Crale, really commit the murder for which she was sentenced? he began to reconstruct in his mind events long past. She was an enigmatic character, this Caroline Crale, who has pleaded innocent yet had not fought to prove it. Her life with Amyas Crale had been difficult, certainly. He was selfish, quarrelsome, inconsiderate and unfaithful, even though he was a great painter as some said. Approaching deftly and tactfully the other five people involved in the case, Poirot un-ravels bit by bit the true story of that summer day sixteen years ago. It is a fascinating story which leaves the reader to marvel more than ever at Poirot's performance and to acclaim Mrs.Christie for yet another brilliant landmark in the history of detective fiction.

Paperback - harpercollins (2001)

Evil under the Sun
It was not unusual to find the beautiful bronzed body of the sun-loving Arlena Stuart stretched out on a beach, face down. Only, on this occasion, there was no sun ... she had been strangled.
Ever since Arlena’s arrival at the resort, Hercule Poirot had detected sexual tension in the seaside air. But could this apparent `crime of passion’ have been something more evil and premeditated altogether?
`She springs her secret like a land mine.’ Times Literary Supplement