Miss Marple and Mystery (90 page)

At last – the complete collection of over 50 Hercule Poirot short stories in a single volume!

Hercule Poirot had a passion for order, for rational thought, and had a justified confidence in his deductive genius. No matter what the provocation, he always remained calm.

The shrewd little detective with the egg-shaped head and the enormous black moustache was created by one of the world’s greatest storytellers, Agatha Christie, who excelled at the art of short story writing. Only she could have devised the cases worthy of Poirot’s skill, the ingenious mysteries that challenge the reader as well as the detective.

There is a spectacular diversity in the plots and themes of these cases, ranging from very brief tales to full-length novellas. Violent murders, poisonings, kidnappings and thefts, all are solved or thwarted with Poirot’s usual panache – and the characteristic application of his ‘little grey cells’.

‘Little masterpieces of detection – Poirot and Agatha Christie at their inimitable best.’

Sunday Express

VOLUME ONE

Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. It was her sharp observations of people’s ambitions, relationships and conflicts that added life and sparkle to her ingenious detective novels. When she turned this understanding of human nature away from the crime genre, writing anonymously as Mary Westmacott, she created bittersweet novels, love stories with a jagged edge, as compelling and memorable as the best of her work.

GIANT’S BREAD

When a gifted composer returns home after being reported killed in the war, he finds his wife has already remarried…

UNFINISHED PORTRAIT

On the verge of suicide after a marriage break up, a young novelist unburdens herself on an unsuspecting young man…

ABSENT IN THE SPRING

Unexpectedly stranded in Iraq, a loyal wife and mother tries to come to terms with her husband’s love for another woman…

‘I’ve not been so emotionally moved by a story since the memorable
Brief Encounter
.
Absent in the Spring
is a
tour de force
which should be recognized as a classic.’

New York Times

VOLUME TWO

Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. It was her sharp observations of people’s ambitions, relationships and conflicts that added life and sparkle to her ingenious detective novels. When she turned this understanding of human nature away from the crime genre, writing anonymously as Mary Westmacott, she created bittersweet novels, love stories with a jagged edge, as compelling and memorable as the best of her work.

THE ROSE AND THE YEW TREE

When an aristocratic young woman falls for a working-class war hero, the price of love proves to be costly for both sides…

A DAUGHTER’S A DAUGHTER

Rejecting personal happiness for the sake of her daughter, a mother later regrets the decision and love turns to bitterness…

THE BURDEN

With childhood jealousy behind them, the growing bond between two sisters becomes dangerously one-sided and destructive…

‘Miss Westmacott writes crisply and is always lucid. Much material has been skilfully compressed within little more than 200 pages.’

Times Literary Supplement

This collection first published 2008

1

Copyright © 2008 Agatha Christie Limited (a Chorion company).

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

The publishers would like to acknowledge the help of Karl Pike in the preparation of this volume.

ISBN 978 0 00 728418 4

EPub Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780007438976

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