Description

Here is the great Agatha Christie's first novel and the debut of her infallible detective Hercule Poirot. In the midst of World War One, a group of guests at an old mansion in the countryside find themselves caught up in a murder plot. Someone has been poisoned to death and the killer is at large among the visitors. Who could it be? Who else may lose their lives before the killer is caught? Luckily, Hercule Poirot is on the case and, as befits the best murder mysteries, a tangled web of secrets and dark motives is revealed as Poirot's brilliant methods bring him closer and closer to the truth.

About the Author

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) is one of the most widely-read mystery writers of all time, with a career that spans decades and dozens of published works. Christie was born in England to an American father and British mother. In childhood she lost her father and was raised by her widowed mother. Christie was educated at home and abroad, in Paris. She married in 1914, and perhaps because she was unhappy in her marriage, she turned to writing as a creative outlet. Christie published her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which introduced the immortal Hercule Poirot, in 1920. Her success as an author was soon established, and Christie continued to turn out novel after novel, even while enduring personal difficulties. In 1930 Christie married for the second time and found happiness traveling the world and writing further mysteries, often with settings inspired by her exotic destinations. Christie died in 1976, having left behind an enormous body of work, full of bizarre twists and turns, chilling crimes, and detectives who were always just too smart for murderous villains.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

The intense interest aroused in the public by what was known at the time as "The Styles Case" has now somewhat subsided. Nevertheless, in view of the world-wide notoriety which attended it, I have been asked, both by my friend Poirot and the family themselves, to write an account of the whole ...