Agatha Christie

While en route from Syria to Paris, in the middle of a freezing winter's night, the Orient Express is stopped dead in its tracks by a snowdrift. Passengers awake to find the train still stranded and to discover that a wealthy American has been brutally stabbed to death in his private compartment. Incredibly, that compartment is locked from the inside. With no escape into the wintery landscape the killer must still be on board. Fortunately, the brilliant...

One of Agatha Christie's most famous novels, featuring her beloved detective Hercule Poirot--and her most surprising twist.The story that made Agatha Christie famous ends with one of her most dramatic twists. The villagers of King's Abbot are shocked when a wealthy local widow commits suicide and the very next day her fiancé, Roger Ackroyd, is stabbed to death. Dr. James Sheppard, the local physician, discovers the body of his friend and narrates...

The first Miss Marple mystery, one which tests all her powers of observation and deduction. "Anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe," declared the parson, brandishing a carving knife above a joint of roast beef, "would be doing the world at large a favor!" It was a careless remark for a man of the cloth. And one which was to come back and haunt the clergyman just a few hours later - when the Colonel is found shot dead in the clergyman's study. But...

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 doubler murderer.

The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn are agog with curiosity when the Gazette advertises "A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m." A childish practical joke? Or a spiteful hoax? Unable to resist the mysterious invitation, the locals arrive at Little Paddocks at the appointed time. Without warning, the lights go out and a door swings open revealing a man with a gun who demands "Stick 'em up."...

Bound for the Riviera, detective Hercule Poirot has boarded Le Train Bleu, an elegant, leisurely means of travel, free of intrigue. Then he meets Ruth Kettering. The American heiress -- bailing out of a doomed marriage -- is en route to reconcile with her former lover. But by morning, her private affairs are made public when she is found murdered in her luxury compartment. The rumour of a strange man loitering in the victim's shadow is all Poirot...

"In A sprawling, ramshackle mansion in the affluent suburb of Swindley Dean, Aristide Leonides lies dead from barbiturate poisoning. An accident? The police think it's unlikely, and suspicion immediately falls on Aristide's luscious widow, fifty years his junior, who is now set to inherit a fortune and is rumored to be cavorting with a strapping young tutor already ensconced in the family estate. But criminologist Charles Hayward is taking a much...

The site of the house called The Towers had once been known as Gipsy's Acre. It was there that Michael Rogers first met a wealthy American oil heiress, Fenella Guteman, whom he was later to marry. Gypsies' warnings, and revelation of a crime follow.

"Christmas Eve, and the Lee family's reunion is shattered by a deafening crash of furniture and a high-pitched wailing scream. Upstairs, the tyrannical Simeon Lee lies dead in a pool of blood, his throat slashed. When Hercule Poirot offers to assist, he finds an atmosphere not of mourning but of mutual suspicion. It seems everyone had their own reason to hate the old man...".

Novel is set in a restored London hotel which continues to court a pre-World War II clientele to mix with guests who exhibit changing contemporary values. The plot centers on the efforts of Miss Jane Marple to uncover a gang of criminals who are using Bertram's as their home base and endangering the lives of innocent guests.