It's seven in the morning. The Bantrys wake to find the body of a young woman in their library. She is wearing an evening dress and heavy makeup, which is now smeared across her cheeks. But who is she? How did she get there? And what is the connection with another dead girl, whose charred remains are later discovered in an abandoned quarry? The respectable Bantrys invite Miss Marple into their home to investigate. Amid rumors of scandal, she baits...

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."...

A handful of grain is found in the pocket of a murdered businessman! Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his 'counting house' when he suffered an agonising and sudden death. On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain traces of cereals. Yet, it was the incident in the parlour which confirmed Jane Marple's suspicion that here she was looking at a case of crime by rhym.

A simple case of theft turns into a triple murder. The girl was dead, clearly a case of suicide. "Or was it suicide," Hercule Poirot mused. Applying his shrewd mind to the disorderly facts and events surrounding the senseless thefts and the subsequent death of the girl, Poirot realized that the suicide really had been murder. Was it part of a larger scheme? Before he could act, there was a second murder, and then a third. Which of this international...

CRIME & MYSTERY. The famous Orient Express, thundering along on its three days' journey across Europe, came to a sudden stop in the night. Snowdrifts blocked the line at a desolate spot somewhere in the Balkans. Everything was deathly quiet. "Decidedly I suffer from the nerves," murmured Hercule Poirot, and fell asleep again. He awoke to find himself very much wanted. For in the night murder had been committed. Mr. Ratchett, an American millionaire,...

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 only twenty-four hours available to solve themystery, Hercule Poirot recalled a chance remark he'd overheard back in Jerusalem: You see, don't you, that she's got to be killed? Mrs. Boynton was, indeed, the most detestable woman he'd ever met.

While visiting Tommy's Aunt Ada at Sunny Ridge Nursing Home, Tuppence encounters some odd residents including Mrs. Lancaster who mystifies her with talk about "your poor child" and "something behind the fireplace." When Aunt Ada dies a few weeks later, she leaves Tommy and Tuppence a painting featuring a house, which Tuppence is sure she has seen before. This realization leads her on a dangerous adventure involving a missing tombstone, diamond smuggling...

A child boasted of having witnessed a murder. Only a few hours later, that child was dead. And Hercule Poirot was faced with one of the most challenging cases of his long and brilliant career. Joyce was thirteen, a tiresome girl given to extravagant statements. The group of adults and children who were getting the games ready for the Hallowe'en party just laughed unbelievingly when she insisted she had once seen a murder committed. Yet that night...

A collection of stories by the renowned mystery author featurs bizarre romantic entanglements, supernatural visitations, and murder.

What reason would an amiable dentist like Dr. Morely have for committing suicide? He didn't have emotional difficulties, money problems, or love trouble. What he did have was an appointment with Hercule Poirot, who is not persuaded by the suicide story and has therefore taken it upon himself to questions the good doctor's patients, partners, and friends. All he's come up with is the numbing fear that Dr. Morely wasn't an unlikely victim at all. Nor...