A brand new Poirot omnibus, featuring four of the world-renowned detectiveâe(tm)s most challenging cases from the 50s and 60s: After the Funeral, Hickory Dickory Dock, Cat Among the Pigeons and The Clocks As the bleak years of the 1940s and early 50s give way to optimism and the swinging sixties, Hercule Poirot finds himself in a world which bemuses him. But human nature remains the same whatever the decade, and Poirot can console himself in the knowledge that he is still an expert of human nature, of greed, jealousy âe" and murder. After the Funeral The Master of a Victorian mansion dies suddenly âe" and his sister thinks it was murderâe¦ Hickory Dickory Dock Odd things are happening in a London youth hostelâe¦ Cat Among the Pigeons Unpleasant things are going on in an exclusive school for girlsâe¦ The Clocks A typist discovers a manâe(tm)s body behind a sofaâe¦

A brand new three-in-one Poirot omnibus, featuring the world-renowned detectiveâe(tm)s wartime adventures. Includes One, Two Buckle My Shoe, Five Little Pigs, Taken at The Flood. It seems Hitlerâe(tm)s Luftwaffe arenâe(tm)t the only ones responsible for the deaths of innocent people as World War II rages âe" it seems plenty of murderers are willing to help them reduce Britainâe(tm) war-torn population even further. And itâe(tm)s up to Hercule Poirot to stop themâe¦ ONE, TWO, BUCKLE MY SHOE The dentist was found with a blackened hole below his right temple. A pistol lay on the floor near his outflung right hand. Later, one of his patients was found dead from a lethal dose of anaesthetic. A clear case of murder and suicide âe" but why would a dentist commit a crime in the middle of a busy day of appointments? A show buckle holds the key to the mystery. Now âe" in the words of the rhyme âe" can Poirot pick up the sticks and lay them straight? FIVE LITTLE PIGS Beautiful Caroline Crale was convicted of poisoning her husband, yet there were five other subjects: Philip Blake (the stockbroker) who went to market; Meredith Blake (the amateur herbalist) who stayed at home; Elsa Greer (the three-time divorcee) who had roast beef; Cecilia Williams (the devoted governess) who had none; and Angela Warren (the disfigured sister) who cried âe~wee wee weeâe(tm) all the way home. It is sixteen years later, but Hercule Poirot just canâe(tm)t get that nursery rhyme out of his headâe¦ TAKEN AT THE FLOOD A few weeks after marrying an attractive young widow, Gordon Cloade is tragically killed by a bomb blast in the London Blitz. Overnight, the former Mrs Underhay finds herself in sole possession of the Cloade family fortune. Shortly afterward, Hercule Poirot receives a visit from the dead manâe(tm)s sister-in-law, who claims she has been warned by âe~spiritsâe(tm) that Mrs Underhayâe(tm)s first husband is still alive. Yet, what mystifies Poirot most is the womanâe(tm)s true motive for approaching him.

Tied to the fifth LWT series featuring the Agatha Christie detective, Hercule Poirot, this book examines the author's literary success. It also describes how the television series is made, and has a chronology of all episodes, and interviews with and profiles of the cast and crew.

A brand new Poirot omnibus, featuring four of the world-renowned detective's most challenging cases: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Murder on the Orient Express, Murder in the Mews and Hercule Poirot's Christmas. It seems Hercule Poirot can never escape murder -- and in this collection, the crimes are probably the finest he has ever had to solve. Locked rooms, wealth and jealousy -- outwardly all very similar, but when the detective begins to dig, the motives and solutions couldn't be more different. . . The Murder of Roger Ackroyd In the quiet village of King's Abbot, a wealthy widower is found stabbbed to death in his study. . . Murder on the Orient Express A wealthy American dies of multiple stab wounds on a train bound for Paris. . . Murder in the Mews A widow is murdered in her apartment. . . Hercule Poirot's Christmas A sadistic old man is brutally murdered in his locked study. . .

Written by the renowned British historian who has been described as both utterly thorough and humanely delicate, Jeremy Black offers a guided tour through the mind of Agatha Christie and life during the Great World Wars. His incomparable treatment of literary craft developing alongside global military engagement nearly overshadows the natural draw of the crime drama that is the subject of his book. Indeed, the "prurience and sensationalism" of crime is not as exciting as Black's aptitude for drawing the reality from the fiction (and periphery sources), giving Christie a much louder voice than she might ever have dreamed. If Christie is also moralist and mirror to her times, Black here plays his part as the detective and reveals layers of previously unmined truths in her stories. Hercule Poirot as a character is masterfully imagined, but Black shows us how he is inseparable from Christie's turbulent and changing world. He also illuminates significant social commentary in Christie's fiction, and in so doing Black often uses his authority to vindicate Christie's work from hastily, at times stupidly, applied labels and interpretations. He is especially magnificent in his chapters, "Xenophobia" and "The Sixties." Black nevertheless gives due recognition to Christie's critics when they have something relevant and reasonable to say, and hence the reader finds yet another service in Black's comprehensive review of the reviewers over the expanse of Christie's writing career. For all this, Black proves himself to be a worthy history-teller because he can aptly 'detect' the meaning of stories that seeks to answer the past and guide the present. His erudition runs much deeper than his ability to navigate the stores of resources available on the subject, and the reader gets a glimpse of this early on when in the introduction he proffers his own defense for writing about the importance of a Hercule Poirot. Black writes, "the notion of crime had a moral component from the outset, and notably so in terms of the struggle between Good and Evil, and in the detection of the latter. Indeed, it is this detection that is the basis of the most powerful strand of detection story, because Evil disguises its purposes. It has to do so in a world and humanity made fundamentally benign and moral by God." The Golden Age of detective novels represents much more than a triumph of a literary genre. It is in its own right a story of how the challenge to address the problem of evil was accepted. Its convergence with the plot-rich narrative of the twentieth century in the modern age renders Black's account a thrilling masterpiece, seducing historians to read fiction and crime junkies to read more history.

My Name Is Hercule Poirot And I Am Probably The Greatest Detective In The World.' The Dapper, Moustache-Twirling Little Belgian With The Egg-Shaped Head, Curious Mannerisms And Inordinate Respect For His Own 'Little Grey Cells' Has Solved Some Of The Most Puzzling Crimes Of The Century. Yet Despite Being Familiar To Millions, Poirot Himself Has Remained An Enigma Until Now. From His First Appearance In 1920 To His Last In 1975, From Country-House Drawing-Rooms To Opium Dens In Limehouse, From Mayfair To The Mediterranean, Anne Hart Stalks The Legendary Sleuth, Unveiling The Mysteries That Surround Him. Sifting Through 33 Novels And 56 Short Stories, She Examines His Origins, Tastes, Relationships And Peculiarities, Revealing A Character As Fascinating As The Books Themselves.