There's a body in a trunk, a dead girl's reflection caught in a mirror, one corpse back from the grave, and another 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...

On a quiet morning in St. Mary Mead, a maid wakes Colonel Bantry and his wife to inform them that a young woman is dead in their library. The victim is dressed in a tawdry dress, with dyed hair and heavy make-up. Mrs. Bantry knows that as long as the murder remains unsolved her husband will be the target of suspicion and gossip, so she asks Miss Marple for help. The victim is 18-year-old Ruby Keene, a dancer at the Majestic Hotel, whose body is identified...

An elderly lady suspected of murder in the sleepy village of Wychwood dies--another victim of an unseen hand. Since too many accidents and unexplained deaths have occurred, even for a town with a history of witchcraft, policeman Luke Fitzwilliam vows to discover the reason--and finds a very cunning killer.

"The luxurious Blue Train carries its passengers across France, from dreary wintertime England to the sunny French Riviera. When it arrives at Nice, a guard attempts to wake serene Ruth Kettering from her slumber. But she will never wake again -- she has been killed, and a heavy blow has disfigured her features almost beyond recognition. What is more, her precious rubies are missing and her ever-present maid was dismissed from the train back in Paris....

"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,...

""N or M Song Susie" were the last words uttered by a government agent. Now Tommy Beresford is asked by the British Intelligence Service to try to smoke out an enemy agent who is believed to the living at the Sans Souci Hotel in the seaside town of Leahampton. Refusing to be left behind, Tuppence joins him. Once inside the Sans Souci, the intrepid Berefords are greeted by hostile guests, a mysterious hotelier, ransacked rooms, and a disappearance....

Hercule Poirot is vacationing on the Cornish coast when he meets Nick Buckly. Nick is the young and reckless mistress of End House, an imposing structure perched on the rocky cliffs of St. Loo. Poirot has taken a particular interest in the young woman who has recently narrowly escaped a series of life-threatening accidents. Something tells the Belgian sleuth that these so-called accidents are more than just mere coincidences or a spate of bad luck....

A blinding snowstorm and a homicidal maniac traps a small party of friends in an isolated estate. Out of this deceptively simple set-up, Agatha Christie fashioned one of her most ingenious puzzlers, which, in turn, would provide the basis for The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in history. From this classic title novella to the deliciously clever gems on its tail (solved to perfection by Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple), this rare collection...

Elspeth McGillicuddy was not a woman usually given to hallucinations. But when she witnesses what appears to be a woman being strangled on a train and no-one else sees it, no-one reports it and no corpse is found she turns to her old friend Jane Marple to help solve the puzzle. Marple asks her highly efficient and intelligent young acquaintance, Lucy Eyelesbarrow to infiltrate the Crackenthorpe family, who seem to be at the heart of the mystery, and...

Collection of Christmas themed short stories from author Agatha Christie.