Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Towards Zero & Ordeal by Innocence
    Towards Zero & Ordeal by Innocence
    Towards Zero & Ordeal by Innocence
    Audiobook (abridged)13 hours

    Towards Zero & Ordeal by Innocence

    Written by Agatha Christie

    Narrated by Hugh Fraser

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    TWO BESTSELLING MYSTERIES IN ONE GREAT PACKAGE! 

    TOWARDS ZERO

    One of Agatha Christie’s own ten favorite novels, Towards Zero puts Superintendent Battle and Inspector Leach on the case as they investigate the murder of an elderly widow.

    What is the connection among a failed suicide attempt, a wrongful accusation of theft against a schoolgirl, and the romantic life of a famous tennis player?

    To the casual observer, apparently nothing. But when a house party gathers at Gull’s Point, the seaside home of an elderly widow, earlier events come to a dramatic head. As Superintendent Battle discovers, it is all part of a carefully laid plan—for murder.

    ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE

    Considered by critics the one of the best of Agatha Christie’s later novels, and a personal favorite for Christie herself, Ordeal by Innocence is a psychological thriller involving crimes from both past and present.

    According to the courts, Jacko Argyle bludgeoned his mother to death with a poker. The sentence was life imprisonment. But when Dr. Arthur Calgary arrives with the proof that confirms Jacko’s innocence, it is too late—Jacko died behind bars following a bout of pneumonia. Worse still, the doctor’s revelations reopen old wounds in the family, increasing the likelihood that the real murderer will strike again.

     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateOct 16, 2012
    ISBN9780062253040
    Towards Zero & Ordeal by Innocence
    Author

    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She died in 1976, after a prolific career spanning six decades.

    More audiobooks from Agatha Christie

    Related to Towards Zero & Ordeal by Innocence

    Related audiobooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Cracking The Case

      Mar 25, 2020

      Cracking The Case
      3 min read

    • Article

      100 Years On, It’s No Mystery Why Agatha Christie’s Stories Endure

      Oct 2, 2020

      The Queen of Mystery’s legendary plot twists and beloved characters have inspired legions of fans – especially mystery authors.

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Trials of Jared K.

      Apr 22, 2020

      The Trials of Jared K.
      6 min read

    • Article

      Shelf Life

      Sep 2, 2021

      Shelf Life
      4 min read

    • Article

      Quantum Radio

      Feb 22, 2023

      Quantum Radio
      5 min read

    • Article

      Fantasy and Reality

      Aug 3, 2017

      Fantasy and Reality
      4 min read

    • Article

      Make A Stand

      Jan 17, 2024

      Make A Stand
      6 min read

    • Article

      Cruel Means, Bitter Ends

      Nov 10, 2021

      “In order for this speech to mean anything to me, I’ll need to dispense with the usual demagoguery and, instead, make an attempt at honesty. With this in mind, there is one thing I have to make clear. I’m not in this race to serve your interests, but

      12 min read

    • Article

      Dampening

      May 10, 2022

      When I first met Inspector Daria Hunt, I wanted to kill her. Not there and then; I wanted to take as long as possible over it, maximizing the pain whilst leaving her with no hope of survival. Images of horrific injuries leapt into my mind, a catalog

      16 min read

    • Article

      Helen

      Jun 5, 2023

      She was a friend of my family—the Carlins, as I have chosen to call them. She and my father met in the fifties through the editor of the architecture magazine where she began her career. My father had taken her out a few times. They were never lovers

      30 min read

    • Article

      Notes From The Struggle

      Nov 10, 2022

      “That’s the thing,” my friend Tomas said. “They always get it wrong. Every time, they get it wrong. They always get the wrong people. Once we get out of this,” he spread his arms and shook his head, as if to say—This colossal fuck-fest of a mess we’v

      15 min read

    • Article

      Equinox

      May 18, 2022

      In this strange world, where identities change with the rising and setting of the sun, supernatural forces are at work – and they’re causing trouble… St Leonars prison was an appropriately imposing building. It rose out of the surrounding shacks and

      5 min read

    • Article

      Storyteller

      Nov 4, 2021

      Storyteller
      11 min read

    • Article

      Dead Reckoning

      Sep 9, 2020

      Dead Reckoning
      6 min read

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk in Austenworld

      May 17, 2018

      There are two traits in her character which are pleasing; namely, she admires Camilla, and drinks no cream in her tea. —Jane Austen in a letter to Cassandra, January 1796 The company was seated for dinner on the second night of the camp, and as we di

      5 min read

    • Article

      Pats On The Back

      Dec 12, 2019

      I AM writing this column from a prone position. Reclining on my sofa in the library, propped up with cushions like some latter-day Lady Ottoline Morrell, but without the wit, brilliance and patronage. I wish I could say my current condition arose fro

      3 min read

    • Article

      My Trouble And Strife

      Sep 21, 2022

      My Trouble And Strife
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Towards Zero & Ordeal by Innocence

    4/5

    513 ratings31 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Aww Calgary got his happy ending. Normally would have been a bit annoyed with how it ended but it was just so sweet. And the mystery made a lot of sense. Rounded up from 4.5 stars because of some weird ideas about adoption but that was the time period I guess.
    • 4/5
      Told from the point of view (though not in first person) of man who is hit by a lorry (truck) and forgets a chance encounter which happens to prove an alibi for a young man accused of murdering his mother. By the time the witness remembers, the young man has been convicted and has died in prison. But when the witness comes forward, it creates a new danger for (and from) the real murderer. It also gives the opportunity for a romance between the witness and a member of the victim's household.
    • 4/5
      In which Superintendent Battle comes across a familial murder.

      Superintendent Battle makes his final appearance in Christie’s canon in this nifty little novel, published toward the end of WWII. I’ve always liked Battle, who – like Japp before him – is a thoughtful investigator whose books fit him like a glove. His previous books – "The Secret of Chimneys", "The Seven Dials Mystery" and "Murder is Easy" – are all rather light affairs, but Battle is nonetheless an admirable part of the canon, and a good way of her writing a standard detective story that could still utilise a recurring character. "Towards Zero" is Battle’s best solo outing (although he’s lucky enough to join Poirot, Colonel Race and Ariadne Oliver in "Cards on the Table"), and it’s a splendid novel. Backstabbing households were always a strong point in Dame Agatha’s repertoire and the inter-relationships here are particularly well-drawn. Just genuinely a good book.
    • 4/5
      Two years ago Jack Argyle was convicted of the murder of his adoptive mother, Rachel Argyle, despite protesting his innocence, and subsequently died in prison. Now a stranger arrives to tell the Argyles he can prove Jack was innocent and is surprised to find that they are distressed by this news rather than overjoyed. But if Jack is innocent, someone else in the house must have been guilty of the murder....Unusually for Christie this is light on murders and more focused on the psychological (and social) issues of this portrait of a very unhappy family. Like Streatfeild's [Saplings], I thought this was a very astute look at the effects of disruption and displacement on Rachel Argyle's five adopted children.
    • 3/5
      Having seen many AC adaptations to television and film the plot was somewhat predictable. Christie's use of language is still admirable.
    • 4/5
      Ordeal by Innocence is one of Agatha Christie’s later ‘stand-alone’ novels, i.e. it features neither Poirot nor Miss Marple. The setup is quite simple: the wealthy, do-gooder matriarch of a family of adopted children has been murdered, it seems, by one of her now-adult charges, who’s been duly convicted, and has died in prison. But then an unexpected witness shows up with an iron-clad alibi for the unfortunate convict, and the whole case is opened up again, sowing doubt and discord amongst the widower and his surviving children.This is not an unflawed effort – it’s longer than it needs to be, with too much dialogue spent recapping the facts of the case.But it’s an interesting read. I’m particularly fond of Christie’s recurring theme – worked out in detail here – of nature vs. nurture in the development of personality and temperament. Christie critically examines the blank-slate theory of development (although she would not have known it by that name) and finds it sorely lacking. Recommended.
    • 3/5
      Agatha Christie delighted in throwing old, unsolved mysteries into her mix, and seeing if her detectives/cops/busybodies could solve them. In this case, the two year lag between the murder and the story is not as far as some of her time lapses, but still far enough to make a trail grow cold. Fun, easy reading, not too challenging, at least not for someone who has read Christie for many years (my first perp turned out to be right, and I never found any of the others terribly satisfying or convincing, so I stuck with it, but it was almost too neat).
    • 3/5
      This is one of Christie's "stand alone" mysteries, of which there are *far* more than I had previously realized. I read this as a buddy read with an old friend, and the discussion of the book was by far the most interesting aspect of this reading experience as a whole. The book isn't bad, exactly, but the pacing was odd (it dragged *a lot* in the middle), and there were little to no clues or detecting that a reader could follow. Add in some period-appropriate and largely not malicious but still (at best) quite distasteful attitudes towards race, and this Christie falls pretty far down my list of favorites from her.
    • 4/5
      I started reading this on a plane and thought how much more appropriate it would have been to read "Death in the Clouds".... the book started off in a style which to me as an avid Christie fan was unfamiliar. Nevertheless the book did contain a good deal of the wit and humour that is expected in Christie's novels and presented an interesting "closed room" murder mystery. The problem was the room was too tightly closed and everyone had an alibi as tight as a drum. Backed into a corner many second rate writers resort to the device of deus ex machina to resolve the unresolvable.I was disapponited that Christie fell back on this unsatisfying method of storytelling. The evidence of a child came out of the blue and was so nebulous as to signify very little in the unfolding of the tale, whilst the reader does not get to share in the detections of Dr. Calgary, and the ending of the novel was rather dubious. As an entertainment this was a perfect piece of airport reading.
    • 3/5
      For me this book is not one of Agatha Christie's better books but still a good read.
    • 4/5
      This is one of the last Christie's I'll be reviewing for the Cool Down With AC challenge this summer. I fell a little behind schedule when I needed a break from the Christie a week schedule I was on. This is one of the stand alone novels and was one Agatha Christie's top ten personal favorites making a must read. In this novel we have Dr. Arthur Calgary, who after having suffered a concussion, suddenly remembers an important piece of information in a murder case. Unfortunately by the time he delivers the news, the son of the family has died in prison after being accused of the murder of his adopted mother. Dr. Calgary swears that he can provide an alibi for the son Jacko for the time of the murder and is somewhat mystified when no one in the family seems very happy to hear the news. It turns out, the mother Rachel was a somewhat polarizing figure in the family. She adopted many children during the war but it seems that it was to fulfill a need in her rather than a need in them. You would think that the largely poor and abandoned children would feel only happiness at being adopted into a wealthy loving family but this is not the case for all of them. Things aren't what they seem in typical Christie fashion and the hunt is on for Rachel Argyle's true killer before the victim count stacks up. I enjoyed this book very much. I don't usually figure out the killer but I have read so many of her books now that I am starting to hone in on the who done it. This was a very interesting commentary on adoption. i love how Christie is able to take something you assume and flip it. This is another recommended read from the queen of crime.
    • 4/5
      This was a case of watching the BBC series before reading the book and many of the details/the ending was entirely different. Threw me for a loop. This was very good, not a favorite though.
    • 5/5
      This is a fine Agatha Christie. I enjoyed it and absolutely didn't guess the end, which I enjoy very much. The character development was superb and the interactions between them all were excellent. Inspector Battle is a treat. I also personally enjoyed the philosophical conversation about "towards zero" from the law gent* in the beginning.*I don't know from barristers vs solicitors etc.
    • 5/5
      How did I miss Superintendent Battle all these years? What a great character.
    • 4/5
      After my last read, I needed a relaxing and delightfully escape into one of my favorite genres and what better choice could I have than an Agatha Christie mystery. Towards Zero is a “manor mystery”, where the crime is committed while there is a gathering of suspects at a country house, in this case Gull House which is perched high above the ocean upon seaside cliffs. When the owner of the mansion, an eccentric old lady in her eighties, is found murdered in her bed, there are any number of suspects to be found among the guests and the servants and although this book does not benefit from the “little grey cells” of Poirot, or the sharp observations Miss Marple, it does have Superintendent Battle to put the clues together and to unravel the twists and turns that the story takes. Battle is perhaps not one of Christie’s more colorful sleuths, but his solid steady ways are reassuring as he oversees the investigation. I found this to be a very entertaining “vintage” mystery. Over the course of the book, I found myself suspecting one person or another and yet was still surprised at the final outcome. Although the ending seemed a little rushed and I didn’t totally embrace the romance angle, Towards Zero was exactly the read I needed at this time.
    • 4/5
      ‘I like a good detective story,’ he said. ‘But, you know, they begin in the wrong place! They begin with the murder. But the murder is the end. The story begins long before that– years before sometimes– with all the causes and events that bring certain people to a certain place at a certain time on a certain day.

      What makes a good detective story? Suspense? Atmosphere? An outrageous plot? Memorable characters? Twists?

      As with many others of Christie's stories, Towards Zero relies on a set of characters, the type of which is already familiar to Christie's readers. The setting (a version of country house) and plot (errm....murder), is also in line with the expectation of the "typical" Christie novel. What I had not expected was for Christie to actually question the whole setup of her "typical" story by proclaiming that the story cannot stop with the detection of the murderer but that it needs to reveal the background in order for the story of the murder to be understood.

      It's almost like Christie used this story to prove that the police investigation needs to include an understanding of the psychology of the characters involved in order to successfully solve the crime.
      But did she need to do this? Surely, the fact that her Marple and Poirot act as the psychologists to aid the inspectors in her other books is proof enough that there is a partnership between the two?

      Towards Zero does not feature Marple or Poirot but instead has Inspector Battle, who takes on the role of the "enlightened" policeman. We learn early on that he has little time for amateur psychology, and later we learn that he is also capable of trickery - although, Christie stays away from implying that there is a member of the police who would use trickery to get a murderer to confess. No, she added a different character to do this.

      Which brings me to one of the few complaints I have about the story - the multitude of characters. There are so many of them that it is hard to keep track of. Some are mentioned, but then disappear in almost the next scene - with no relevance to the story.
      Were they included to merely bulk out the pages?

      I mean, I really enjoyed the main plot and characters, but I wish she had spent more time fleshing them out, rather than just throwing new characters in the mix. Maybe getting to learn more about the characters would have also helped the ending, which reminded me of the somewhat creepy relationship in Du Maurier's Rebecca:

      ‘You needn’t,’ said Audrey softly, ‘look so stern.’
      He said gently as he came towards her: ‘Last time I had my hands on you, you felt like a bird– struggling to escape. You’ll never escape now…’
      She said: ‘I shall never want to escape.’
    • 4/5
      I read this book again, because I didn't remember reading it..... But once I got into the story I remembered I had read it, or something very very similar to it.The book begins w/ a group of barristers at their club relating stories and Mr. Trewes the senior member speaking about a child that had shot & killed another child w/ a bow and arrow....... It was supposedly an accident, but the one who had killed had been seen practicing w/ a bow & arrow quite some time prior.Neville is married to Kay & divorced from Audrey.... Audrey always goes to visit Neville's family in September and this particular year Neville persuades his Aunt to allow him & Kay to visit at the same time as Audrey... hoping the women might become "friends".Mr. Trewes is a long-time friend of the family and he is invited to dinner.... He then tells the story of the two children, alerting someone to the fact they have been recognized. Later that night upon returning to his hotel, he is forced to climb 3 flights of stairs to his room as the lift is out of order. Mr. Trewes succumbs to exhaustion & dies.Days later, the Aunt is found bludgeoned to death, and at first all the evidence points to Neville... then later to Neville's first wife Audrey.....A very good story, w/ a few slurs towards Italians (because of course, Christie loved to add her personal prejudices into her stories) and a bit of romance......It certainly held my interest......
    • 4/5
      My favorite Agatha Christie sleuth is Miss Marple. I'm really not familiar with Superintendent Battle, but I checked out Towards Zero anyway.In this case 'zero' is the moment of the murder. True to the discussion at the beginning of the book, we don't get the murders right away. We're given some background.Our setting is a fancy house, Gull's Point. A wealthy invalid widow, Lady Tressilian lives there. Her companion is the nice and competent Mary Aldin. The two women are having to cope with a very uncomfortable set of guests: Nevile Strange, a tennis star who was once the ward of Lady Tressilian's beloved husband, his current wife, the beautiful Kay, and his ex-wife, Audrey. Kay is not a proper lady. Audrey is the classy type who makes Kay look cheap by comparison. The idea is to be modern and have both women become friends. Ha!Kay is absolutely convinced that the idea was Audrey's, not Nevile's, and Audrey is trying to get him back. If that's the case, it seems to be working. Is Kay going to have to console herself with her old friend, the handsome Ted Latimer, who happens to be in town? Two other visitors are Thomas Royde, Audrey's cousin, who has loved her for years, and an elderly lawyer of the solicitor variety, Mr. Treves. Mr. Treves tells an intriguing story before returning to his hotel. (Frankly, I think he should have spent the night at Gull's Point.)Will Tom get his chance with the lovely Audrey? Personally, I was rooting for him to turn to Mary.The murder is brutal. There are plenty of clues, some pointing to one guest, some to another. What a pity for the killer that a local copper, Inspector James Leach, is Superintendent Battle's nephew, and has his uncle visiting. Ms. Christie got in some digs at unqualified persons who think they understand and can apply psychology in a scene involving the headmistress of the school attended by Battle's youngest daughter. She did even better with why suicide isn't the answer in the person of Angus MacWhirter.Angus was angry when his attempt to kill himself didn't work out. He'd lost his job and his wife had left him. He thought he had no reason to live. The doctor who cares for him after the rescue gives him some words of wisdom, but Angus isn't listening.Angus has a job offer that will take him out of England. He decides to revisit the place where he tried to end himself. Of course it turns out to be where the killer is busy killing. I'm sure the killer wishes Angus' suicide attempt had succeeded.By the way, one of the characters complained about it being a hot September -- it was 70 degrees [F] in the shade! Even granted England's greater humidity, this southern Arizonan would consider that a bit chilly.I hadn't suspected the motive for the main murder, but it was chilling. Mr. Fraser's narration was fine. I recommend this book to lovers of classic mysteries and tricky plots.
    • 5/5
      A brilliant construction of criss-crossing motives and red herrings , very suspenseful. I think the only reason it's not more well-known is that it hasn't got any of her best-loved detectives -- not dapper Poirot, not clever Miss Marple, just stolid old Inspector Battle.
    • 4/5
      Murder is the last act in a process that begins months or years earlier. Towards Zero begins with the contemplation of a murder and proceeds toward zero hour. Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard is familiar enough with Hercule Poirot to begin to think like him as he unmasks a murderer.Christie has used both the setting – a seaside home/country house with suspects limited to members of the household – and the plot before, although she adds a twist to make it a little different. Christie's policemen usually need the help of Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple to identify the killer. Inspector Battle isn't as eccentric as Poirot or as genteel as Miss Marple, but he does get the job done without outside assistance. I listened to the audio version read by Hugh Fraser (who plays Hastings on TV), and his Inspector Battle sounds a lot like Philip Jackson's Inspector Japp from the Poirot TV series.
    • 3/5
      This one's about functions.
    • 5/5
      It's been some time since a murder mystery has imposed on my mind so heavily. Even when this mystery had all its clothes on, you could guess the promise it contained. I kept thinking, and the question and the curiosity, the suspense and the wonder, they kept occupying my mind. As the pages flew by, the time to say goodbye to Inspector Battle came too soon. At least Miss Marple starred in 13 of her books. Poor Battle was shunted aside in the public's stampede for Poirot.I guessed wrongly regarding the culprit. I fell for one of the many false trails painted by Mrs Christie. I react strongly to the narration of life and how it's being wasted, in more ways than one, by this great author. The main characters here are Nevile, Audrey, Kay, Ted, and Mary. The most mysterious of them was Audrey, whose secret feeling was not anger, love, or sadness, but fear. I never thought that she was the culprit, and I could have guessed rightly who was, but then I got waylaid.I was amused by the inimitable Mr Treves. When an author like Christie has a limited number of brushstrokes at her disposal for painting a character, then one like Treves often walks a fine line between brilliance and parody. I was very entertained by this situation, and Mr Treves played like a retarded and oblivious person who thinks he's being very observative. Finally after being slightly disappointed by the real solution, I was cheered by the downright creepy lovey dovey ending. Agatha Christie must generate a happy ending, no matter what. But then she probably knew her audience too well. Nevertheless this book has secured its perfect score, and time has come for me to escape, even if some people in the book don't want to!
    • 5/5
      What is the connection between a failed suicide attempt, a wrongful accusation of theft against a schoolgirl and the romantic life of a famous tennis player? To the casual observer, perhaps nothing, but to Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard, these are the only potential clues available to him when he's sent to investigate a murder that takes place during a house party being held at the seaside home of an elderly bedridden lady. I did really enjoy this book. It's actually the second Agatha Christie book that I've ever read and I give it an A!
    • 4/5
      The last time Superintendent Battle made an appearance was in 1939 in MURDER IS EASY (aka EASY TO KILL).TOWARDS ZERO opens with a Prologue which introduces the concept of characters converging towards Zero Hour.The book is broken up into sections, a feature that the reader barely notices.'OPEN THE DOOR AND HERE ARE THE PEOPLE' introduces the cast of characters: Angus MacWhirter in hospital after attempting to throw himself off a cliff and failing; an unknown person plotting a murder; Superintendent Battle called to his daughter's school because she has admitted to pilfering, Nevile Strange, his wife Kay and his ex-wife Audrey; Lady Tressilian and Mary Aldin at Gull's Point which all the Stranges will visit for two weeks in September; Thomas Royde returning home to Gull's Point from Malaya; Mr Treves (whom we met in the Prologue) looking for somewhere to spend his holidays; and Ted Latimer, a friend of the Kay Strange.The novel progresses, bringing the characters together at Salt Creek, closer and closer to Zero Hour.And then two murders take place and Superintendent Battle staying with his nephew Jim Leach is pulled into the investigation.Superintendent Battle comes over as a pretty stodgy sort of policeman who does things by the book. In fact I think Agatha Christie fans may well have been disappointed that the author didn't choose one of her other sleuths for the role. (The Agatha Christie site reveals that it was adapted for TV in 2007 with Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple.)Battle's plodding methods and determination to get irrefutable evidence win the day and eventually the right person is apprehended.For much of the book TOWARDS ZERO feels rather like a romance, with eternal triangles, jealousies, and thwarted desires. And then it gathers pace, with only twenty or so pages to go, and we hear a point made before, by Treves and then by Battle, who makes a statement worthy of Poirot himself: When you read the account of a murder - or say, a fiction story based on murder, you usually begin with the murder itself. That's all wrong. The murder begins a long time beforehand. A murder is the culmination of a lot of different circumstances, all converging into it from different parts of the globe and unforeseen reasons..... The murder itself is the end of the story. It's Zero Hour.And then Battle goes on to nail the murderer and prevent another murder. The plot of the book is quite a clever one, but there were a couple of things that hung: Angus MacWhirter's role for instance: it almost felt as if Christie wanted to include another element of romance. Mr Treves' story of a child who kills another with an bow and arrow is never fully explained which was frustrating. The murder that takes place at Gull's Point has a clumsy explanation depending on the difference in left and right hand swings and I had great difficulty in imagining the murder weapon.This is the last novel in which Superintendent Battle makes an appearance. With Inspector Japp as a foil in many of the Poirot titles Superintendent Battle outlived his usefulness.
    • 3/5
      London, England, ca 1944Neville Strange 33 år og hans nye kone Kay Strange 23 år er på ferie hos Lady Camilla Tressilian, enken efter Nevilles gamle ven Sir Matthew. Nevilles ekskone, Audrey Strange med ungpigenavnet Standish, 32 år er der også. Selvom de blev skilt for tre år, kan man godt fornemme at der stadig er noget i luften mellem de to. Mary Aldin, 36 år, bor hos Lady Tressilian, som er over 70 år. Ted Latimer er en af Kays bekendte og har det med at være i nærheden. Neville er noget af et skvat mht at sætte sig igennem overfor både sin gamle og sin nye kone. Thomas Royde dukker op op. Mr. Treve er en gammel ven af huset og lidt bekymret. En mand, Angus McWhirter, har forsøgt selvmord, men blev reddet og er nu tilbudt et job i Sydafrika. Inden han tager afsted, vil han lige kigge lidt på stedet igen. Mr. Treve snakker om en mistanke til enelleranden, som han ikke nævner navnet på.Samme aften rammes han af et hjerteanfald og dør.Kort tid efter bliver Lady Tressilian myrdet og mistanken falder på Neville. Politikommisær Battle er på ferie i nærheden. I første omgang finder han beviser på Nevilles uskyld og mistanken falder hårdt på Audrey. Angus har et vidneudsagn, der frikender hende og Neville tvinges til at bekende at det er ham, der er morderen. Motivet er hævn over Audrey, der forlod ham.Noget søgt plot og lidt sødsupperomantik hvor de gode finder sammen i par efter de tragiske dødsfald. Men ganske godt skruet sammen og politikommisær Battle er ganske overbevisende beskrevet og ikke nem at narre.
    • 4/5
      I felt like reading this one as it was completely spoiled by 'Sherlock Holmes was Wrong' (Pierre Bayard). How could I turn down such an opportunity to study methods as I went along? Admittedly, it takes some of the fun out, but there was a different level of interest involved by knowing the solution in advance. This story has to rank right up there with the best of Christie that I have read, but it probably would not be very high in any poll of her fans. I could have done without the part at the very end with McWhirter (for anyone familiar,as I wouldn't dare spoil a mystery story by giving out details). Still, I really liked the clarity and depth of description without overdwelling on it. Maybe that has something to do with this particular book being dedicated to Robert Graves, who is a master of the English language.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite Agatha Christie novels. Nevile Strange takes his new wife on vacation at his family home at the same time that his first wife, Audrey is also vacationing there. His elderly guardian, Lady Tressilian is murdered, and suspicion is immediately cast on the housemates.
    • 3/5
      nice one !!! the only flaw on this story is .. there are no poirot here , too bad , because the culprit are just genious , poirot and the culprit will make a great show
    • 4/5
      No Poirot or Miss Marple in this one, but a strong mystery especially as it shows the build up to a murder, with a couple of other murders on the way. Battle and his nephew solve the mystery neatly, with a reference to Poirot and his neatness which provides the final clue to who the murderer is
    • 3/5
      More Aggie - one of her better ones with Supt. Battle. Good reading for relaxation...