Agatha Christie
In the Agatha Christie classic Peril at End House, a young woman who has recently survived a series of very close calls appears to be the target of a dedicated killer—and it's up to Hercule Poirot to save her life.
On holiday on the Cornish Riviera, Hercule Poirot is alarmed to hear pretty Nick Buckley describe her recent "accidental brushes with death." First, on a treacherous Cornish hillside, the
...In Agatha Christie's classic mystery, Cards on the Table, the wily Hercule Poirot is on the case when a bridge night turns deadly
Mr. Shaitana is famous as a flamboyant party host. Nevertheless, he is a man of whom everybody is a little afraid. So when he boasts to Hercule Poirot that he considers murder an art form, the detective has some reservations about accepting a party invitation to view Shaitana's "private collection."
Indeed,
...Twelve classic Christie short stories are given a modern spin in these BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations.
Agatha Christie is the acknowledged 'Queen of Crime', and these twelve short stories showcase her skilful plotting and talent for producing compelling mysteries. First broadcast in the early 2000s, the stories were adapted and brought up-to-date for a contemporary audience.
Among the star cast are Tom Hollander, Emilia Fox,
In Agatha Christie's classic, A Pocket Full of Rye, the bizarre death of a financial tycoon has Miss Marple investigating a very odd case of crime by rhyme.
Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his "counting house" when he suffered an agonizing and sudden death. On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain traces of cereals.
Yet,
...The unstoppable Hercule Poirot finds himself in the Middle East with only one day to solve a murder in the classic Agatha Christie mystery, Appointment with Death.
Among the towering red cliffs of Petra, like some monstrous swollen Buddha, sits the corpse of Mrs. Boynton. A tiny puncture mark on her wrist is the only sign of the fatal injection that killed her.
With
...47) Dumb Witness
In Agatha Christie's Dumb Witness, Hercule Poirot investigates the very suspicious death of an elderly spinster who, fearing the very worst, had written to the great detective prior to her demise.
Everyone blamed Emily Arundell's accident on a rubber ball left on the stairs by her frisky terrier. But the more she thought about her fall, the more convinced she became that one of her relatives was trying to
...Hercule Poirot must solve a perplexing case of midair murder in Death in the Clouds when he discovers that the woman in seat two of the airborne aeroplane he's traveling on is quite unexpectedly—and unnaturally—deceased.
From seat No. 9, Hercule Poirot was ideally placed to observe his fellow air passengers on the short flight from Paris to London. Over to his right sat a pretty young woman, clearly infatuated
...At Bertram's Hotel the intrepid Miss Marple, on holiday in London, must solve a deadly mystery at the end of a chain of very violent events.
An old-fashioned London hotel is not quite as reputable as it makes out to be....
When Miss Marple comes up from the country for a holiday in London, she finds what she's looking for at Bertram's Hotel: traditional decor, impeccable service, and an unmistakable atmosphere of danger
...In Mrs. McGinty's Dead, one of Agatha Christie's most ingenious mysteries, the intrepid Hercule Poirot must look into the case of a brutally murdered landlady.
Mrs. McGinty died from a brutal blow to the back of her head. Suspicion falls immediately on her shifty lodger, James Bentley, whose clothes reveal traces of the victim's blood and hair. Yet something is amiss: Bentley just doesn't seem like a murderer.
Could
...The indomitable sleuth Miss Marple is led to a small town with shameful secrets in Agatha Christie's classic detective story, The Moving Finger.
Lymstock is a town with more than its share of scandalous secrets—a town where even a sudden outbreak of anonymous hate mail causes only a minor stir.
But all that changes when one of the recipients, Mrs. Symmington, commits suicide. Her final note says "I can't go on,"
...The classic Evil Under the Sun, one of the most famous of Agatha Christie's Poirot investigations, has the fastidious sleuth on the trail of the killer of a sun-bronzed beauty whose death brings some rather shocking secrets into the light.
The beautiful bronzed body of Arlena Stuart lay face down on the beach. But strangely, there was no sun and Arlena was not sunbathing...she had been strangled.
Ever since Arlena's
...Agatha Christie's classic Murder in the Mews presents four mystifying criminal conundrums that will seriously test the superior detecting skills of the unflappable Hercule Poirot.
How did a woman holding a pistol in her right hand manage to shoot herself in the left temple? What was the link between a ghost sighting and the disappearance of top secret military plans? How did the bullet that killed Sir Gervase shatter a mirror
...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
...The delightful Miss Marple is ensnared in A Caribbean Mystery when a retired military man sparks her curiosity with a photograph and a strange story of a murderer
As Miss Marple sat basking in the Caribbean sunshine, she felt mildly discontented with life. True, the warmth eased her rheumatism, but here in paradise nothing ever happened.
Eventually, her interest was aroused by an old soldier's yarn about a murderer
...In Agatha Christie's classic mystery 4:50 From Paddington, a woman in one train witnesses a murder occurring in another passing one...and only Miss Marple believes her story.
For an instant the two trains ran side by side. In that frozen moment, Elspeth McGillicuddy stared helplessly out of her carriage window as a man tightened his grip around a woman's throat. The body crumpled. Then the
...In Agatha Christie's classic mystery, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, a fatal dose of poison meant for a glamorous movie star fells her ardent admirer instead—and Miss Marple is there to unmask a murderer.
One minute, silly Heather Babcock had been babbling on at her movie idol, the glamorous Marina Gregg. The next, Heather suffered a massive seizure, poisoned by a deadly cocktail.
It seems likely that the
...59) Nemesis
In Agatha Christie's baffling detective story, Nemesis, a letter from a dead man instructs Miss Marple how to conduct an investigation into a puzzlingly unspecific crime.
In utter disbelief, Miss Marple read the letter addressed to her from the recently deceased Mr. Rafiel—an acquaintance she had met briefly on her travels. He had left instructions for her to investigate a crime after his death. The only problem was,
...In Agatha Christie's They Do It with Mirrors, the indomitable Miss Marple investigates some rather deadly doings at a rehabilitation center for delinquents.
Miss Marple senses danger when she visits a friend living in Stoneygates, a rehabilitation center for delinquents. Her fears are confirmed when someone shoots at the administrator. Although he is not injured, a mysterious visitor is less
...