As Jane Marple sat basking in the tropical sunshine she felt mildly discontented with life. True, the warmth eased her rheumatism, but here in paradise nothing ever happened. Then a question was put to her by a stranger: 'Would you like to see a picture of a murderer?' Before she has a chance to answer, the man vanishes, only to be found dead the next day. The mysteries abound: Where is the picture? Why is the hotelier prone to nightmares? Why doesn't...

In Death Comes As the End, Dame Agatha Christie transports us back to ancient Egypt 2000 B.C. where a priest?s daughter, investigating a suspicious death, uncovers an asp?s nest of jealousy, betrayal, and serial murder. It is Egypt in 2000 BC, where death gives meaning to life. At the foot of a cliff lies the broken, twisted body of Nofret, concubine to a ka-priest. Young, beautiful, and venomous, most agree that it was fate?she deserved to die like...

As instructed, stenographer Shelia Webb let herself into the house at 19 Wilbraham Cresent. It was then that she made a grisly discovery: the body of a dead man sprawled across the living room floor. What intrigued Poirot about the case was the time factor. Although in a state of shock, Shelia clearly remembered having heard a cuckoo clock strike three o'clock. Yet, the four other clocks in the living room all showed the time as 4:13. Even more strangely,...

Sir Stafford Nye?s journey home from Malaya to London takes an unexpected twist in the passnger loungs at Frankfurt ? a young woman confides in him that someone is trying to kill her. Yet their paths are to cross again and again ? and each time the mystery woman is introduced as a different person. Equally at home in any guise in any society she draws Sir Stafford into a game of political intrigue more dangerous than he could possibly imagine. In...

The Queen of Mystery has come to Harper Collins! Agatha Christie, the acknowledged mistress of suspense--creator of indomitable sleuth Miss Marple, meticulous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and so many other unforgettable characters--brings her entire oeuvre of ingenious whodunits, locked room mysteries, and perplexing puzzles to Harper Paperbacks. Suspicious events at a Middle Eastern archaeological excavation site intrigue the great Poirot as...

The placid village of Lymstock seems the perfect place for Jerry Burton to recuperate from his accident under the care of his sister, Joanna. But soon a series of vicious poison-pen letters destroys the village's quiet charm, eventually causing one recipient to commit suicide. The vicar, the doctor, the servants -- all are on the verge of accusing one another when help arrives from an unexpected quarter. The vicar's houseguest happens to be none other...

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...

They are a vicious international quartet of criminals known as "The Big Four". Number One was a brilliant Chinese, the greatest criminal brain of all time; Number Two was a USAmerican multi-millionaire; Number Three was a beautiful Frenchwoman scientist; and Number Four was "the destroyer," the ruthless murderer with a genius for disguise, whose business it was to remove those who interfered with his masters plans. These four, working together, is...

A murder is announced in a small-town newspaper advertisement?and Miss Marple must unravel the fiendish puzzle when a crime does indeed occur. 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...

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.