It is World War II, and while the RAF struggles to keep the Luftwaffe at bay, Britain faces an even more sinister threat from "the enemy within"—Nazis posing as ordinary citizens.With pressure mounting, the intelligence service appoints two unlikely spies, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. Their mission: to seek out a man and a woman from among the colorful guests at Sans Souci, a seaside hotel. But this assignment is no stroll along the promenade—N and M have just murdered Britain's finest agent and no one at all can be trusted. . . . From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. James Warwick delivers a virtuoso performance in this rendition of Agatha Christie's spy thriller. As WWII spreads across Europe, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, former British Intelligence agents and a married couple, are enlisted to uncover Nazi spies at Sans Souci, a hotel in Leahampton. Taking on assumed identities, Tommy and Tuppence arrive at Sans Souci, where they must search for the German agents—known only as N and M—navigate a hotel full of suspicious guests, preserve their secret identities, and, above all else, defend national security. Warwick's portrayals of Tommy and Tuppence are spot-on, as is his evocation of life in a small English hotel in 1940s England. As the story unfolds and each new character—male, female, English, German, adult and child alike—is introduced, Warwick outdoes himself, producing one unique voice after another in an energetic and fully committed performance. A must for Christie fans and devotees of spy stories and cozy mysteries. A Signet paperback. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.From Library JournalMiddle-aged Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, too old to fight and too young to knit, are dismayed to find out that the British government of World War II has little interest in their detecting and spy-catching abilities. Then, almost incidentally, they are asked to spot a traitor, believed to be living at a rural guesthouse. But the place is full of harmless eccentrics: elderly ladies, retired military men, a hypochondriac and his colorless wife, a young mother, and a German refugee. The Beresfords invent personalities and elaborate traps, identify the imposter, and prevent an invasion. The strengths of this Christie "cozy" are the exuberant charm, intelligence, and enthusiasms of the central characters. Middle-aged they may be, but inside Tommy and Tuppence are still the same young adventurers who chased criminals and spies in post-Great War London. James Warwick does a highly competent, nicely unobtrusive job of reading this title, which is likely to be popular with fans of golden age mysteries. Recommended for moderate to large public libraries. I. Pour-El, Des Moines Area Community Coll., Boone, IA Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An all-new collection of summer-themed mysteries from the master of the genre, just in time for the holiday season. Summertime – as the temperature rises, so does the potential for evil. From Cornwall to the French Riviera, whether against a background of Delphic temples or English country houses, Agatha Christie's most famous characters solve even the most devilish of conundrums as the summer sun beats down. Pull up a deckchair and enjoy plot twists and red herrings galore from the bestselling fiction writer of all time. INCLUDES THE STORIES:The Bloodstained PavementThe Double ClueDeath on the NileHarlequin's LaneThe Adventure of the Italian NoblemanJane in Search of a JobThe Disappearance of Mr DavenheimThe Idol House of AstarteThe Rajah's EmeraldThe Oracle at DelphiThe Adventure of the Sinister StrangerThe Incredible Theft

There's a body in a trunk; a dead girl's reflection is caught in a mirror; and one corpse is back from the grave, while another is envisioned in the recurring nightmare of a terrified eccentric. What's behind such ghastly misdeeds? Try money, revenge, passion, and pleasure. With multiple motives, multiple victims, and multiple suspects, it's going to take a multitude of talent to solve these clever crimes. In this inviting collection, Agatha Christie enlists the services of her finest—Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and Parker Pyne—and puts them each to the test in the most challenging cases of their careers. Review“Agatha Christie’s indelibly etched characters have entertained millions across the years and a love of her work has brought together generations of readers—a singular achievement for any author and an inspiration to writers across the literary landscape.” (Jacqueline Winspear, New York Times bestselling author of the Maisie Dobbs novels )“Highly entertaining....Agatha Christie at her best.” (Springfield Republican ) About the AuthorAgatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English and another billion in one hundred foreign countries. She is the author of eighty novels and short-story collections, nineteen plays, and six novels under the name Mary Westmacott. She died in 1976.

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, it was the incident in the parlor which confirmed Miss Marple’s suspicion that here she was looking at a case of crime by rhyme. . . .From Publishers WeeklyIt hardly seems possible for anyone to best Hugh Fraser's savvy audio performance of Christie's Hickory Dickory Dock, but Rosalind Ayres produces an amazing range of voices and accents to create her own one-woman full-cast audio book. After the death by poisoning of wealthy Rex Fortescue, others in the household are murdered in ways that mimic a Mother Goose rhyme. Ayres's Miss Marple is well-mannered, polite and even diffident. Ayres seems to be mocking stereotypes of British accents. Percival, the elder son, is stuffy and nasally clogged. Lancelot, the younger son, is ironic and cavalier. Ayres can slip effortlessly from one accent to another, as when the lofty voice of Rex's secretary collapses into the low-class accent of an East Ender after she discovers her boss's body. The greatest mystery in this 1953 novel is why any mid-century father would name his children Lancelot and Percival. Though the story lacks action and enough Jane Marple for Ayres to develop, her performance is a delightful romp for any Christie fan. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review“Agatha Christie was the absolute master of misdirection. No matter how logical we think we’re being when we read her, she always manages to send us swimming after her red herrings while ignoring that huge whale in the corner of the tank.” (Margaret Maron, award-winning author of the Deborah Knott Mysteries )“This is the best of the novels starring Christie’s Miss Marple.” (New York Times )“A model of complex skulduggery.” (New Yorker )“Ingenious.” (Times Literary Supplement (London) )

A retelling of the Christmas Story in a way you've never heard it before. . . . The fable of a donkey who carries a mother and child safely to Egypt. . . . The tale of a widow who dislikes people until she meets a stranger. . . .From the most popular writer of all time comes a treasured collection of short stories and poems celebrating the holiday season.This special edition also contains a wealth of Agatha Christie rarities—not only all the stories, poems, and illustrations from her long out-of-print book Star over Bethlehem (1965) but also a reproduction of all her rare poetry from the two collections The Road of Dreams (1924) and Poems (1973).

E-book exclusive extras:1) Christie biographer Charles Osborne's essay on Cat Among the Pigeons2) "The Poirots": the complete guide to all the cases of the great Belgian detectiveA revolution in the Middle East has a direct and deadly impact upon the summer term at Meadowbank, a picture-perfect girls' school in the English countryside. Prince Ali Yusuf, Hereditary Sheikh of Ramat, whose great liberalizing experiment—hospitals, schools, a Health Service—is coming to chaos, knows that he must prepare for the day of his exile. He asks his pilot and school friend, Bob Rawlinson, to care for a packet of jewels. Rawlinson does so, hiding them among the possessions of his niece, Jennifer Sutcliffe, who is bound for Meadowbank. Rawlinson is killed before he can reveal the hiding place—or even the fact that he has employed his niece as a smuggler. But someone knows, or suspects, that Jennifer has the jewels. As murder strikes Meadowbank, only Hercule Poirot can...

E-book exclusive extras:1) Christie biographer Charles Osborne's essay on Hallowe'en Party2) "The Poirots": the complete guide to all the cases of the great Belgian detectiveMystery writer Ariadne Oliver has been invited to a Hallowe'en party at Woodleigh Common. One of the other guests is an adolescent girl known for telling tall tales of murder and intrigue—and for being generally unpleasant. But when the girl, Joyce, is found drowned in an apple-bobbing tub, Mrs. Oliver wonders after the fictional nature of the girl's claim that she had once witnessed a murder. Which of the party guests wanted to keep her quiet is a question for Ariadne's friend Hercule Poirot. But unmasking a killer this Hallowe'en is not going to be easy—for there isn't a soul in Woodleigh who believes the late little storyteller was actually murdered.

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 the most talked-about guest, a reclusive millionaire, ever leave his room? And why is Miss Marple herself fearful for her life? Of not A Caribbean Mystery introduces the wealthy (and difficult) Mr Jason Rafiel, who will call upon Miss Marple for help in Nemesis (1971)—after his death.

Never before published—the lost classic, unseen for sixty years!A party game goes dead wrong in this ingenious mystery from the most beloved novelist of all time. Hercule Poirot, the world's favorite detective, has agreed to take part in a mock murder mystery in a charming English village—but when tragedy strikes, a different sort of game begins ...In 1954, Agatha Christie wrote this novella with the intention of donating the proceeds to a fund set up to buy stained glass windows for her local church at Churston Ferrers, and she filled the story with references to local places, including her own home of Greenway. But, having completed it, she decided instead to expand the story into a full-length novel, Dead Man's Folly, which was published two years later, and donated a Miss Marple story (Greenshaw's Folly) to the church fund instead.Unseen for sixty years, Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly is finally published in this ebook-exclusive edition.

An urgent cry for help brings Poirot to France. But he arrives too late to save his client, whose brutally stabbed body now lies face downwards in a shallow grave on a golf course. But why is the dead man wearing his son's overcoat? And who was the impassioned love-letter in the pocket for? Before Poirot can answer these questions, the case is turned upside down by the discovery of a second, identically murdered corpse . . .

The complete eBook collection of all five Tommy & Tuppence mysteries by the Queen of Mystery herself, Agatha Christie, including The Secret Adversary, Partners in Crime, N or M?, By the Pricking of My Thumbs, and Postern of Fate.