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    Death in the Clouds: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition
    Death in the Clouds: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition
    Death in the Clouds: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition
    Audiobook6 hours

    Death in the Clouds: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition

    Written by Agatha Christie

    Narrated by Hugh Fraser

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Hercule Poirot must solve a perplexing case of midair murder in Death in the Clouds when he discovers that the woman in seat two of the airborne aeroplane he’s traveling on is quite unexpectedly—and unnaturally—deceased.

    From seat No. 9, Hercule Poirot was ideally placed to observe his fellow air passengers on the short flight from Paris to London. Over to his right sat a pretty young woman, clearly infatuated with the man opposite; ahead, in seat No. 13, sat a countess with a poorly concealed cocaine habit; across the gangway in seat No. 8, a writer of detective fiction was being troubled by an aggressive wasp.

    Yes, Poirot is almost ideally placed to take it all in, except what he did not yet realize was that behind him, in seat No. 2, sat the slumped, lifeless body of a woman. Murdered, and likely by someone in Poirot’s immediate proximity. 


    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJul 3, 2012
    ISBN9780062229687
    Author

    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.

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    Reviews for Death in the Clouds

    4.5/5

    257 ratings35 reviews

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    • 4/5
      One of her best; finding the murderer out of this plot gets more complicated progressing through the novel.
    • 5/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed this story. Lots of twists and surprises and the usual collection of interesting characters.
    • 4/5
      I liked this one a lot, but I did catch on to who the murderer was by the end. So either I'm getting better at this, or Christie was weaker - you be the judge! It is definitely classic Poirot and a must read for Christie fans.
    • 5/5
      The Hollow ganha, mas esse também é muito legal! Me perdi um pouco com os personagens, como sempre o povo é muito parecido, mas foi ótimo
    • 5/5
      An impossible crime story, similar to a locked room mystery. All is great fun, which is why I give it 5 stars. Right up to the solution, which is absurd nonsense. Turns out yes, it really was impossible!Many details of the story are jokes. I assume that the ending is sarcastic self-parody, ridiculing her fans for putting up with such silliness.(The boomslang is real. The name is cognate to the words beam schlong. The venom is quite different from what is described in the novel. She just made that up. She became a poisons expert during WWI. That was part of the reason she started writing detective stories.)
    • 4/5
      On a flight from Paris, the close confines lead to murder, and a true challenge for Hercule Poirot.

      The old closed-environment murder is nicely utilised on board an aeroplane from Paris to Croydon. It’s a powerful, intricately-constructed little mystery, and possibly the greatest test of Poirot’s little gray cells in the entire canon. Many elements make this little novel remarkable: Poirot and Japp remain an unbeatable pairing (the David Suchet/Philip Jackson film adaptation plays up this angle to a great degree). The wealth of suspects – as in the best closed-room mysteries – are all fascinating, viable candidates (as in "Murder on the Orient Express"), without coming across as contrived (as in "Death on the Nile"). The solution itself certainly borders on the unlikely, but every element is so skillfully handled that it comes across as, at the very least, possible. Every clue is introduced fairly into the story, but – with a feat of legerdemain she knew so well – Christie seemingly plays her hand several times, while really obfuscating the most important clues, and continuing to up the ante against Poirot, chapter after chapter. It’s a prime example of Christie as compiler of puzzles.

      At the end of the day, this is a read that should leave you satisfied, whether you figure out the killer or – far more likely! – not.

      Poirot ranking: 3rd of 38.
    • 5/5
      This book is a great and clever mystery with a colorful story and detailed characters...especially Mr.poirit
    • 4/5
      London, Paris, ca 1935.Hercule Poirot er ombord på en flyvning Paris - London. Madame Giselle, med det rigtige navn Marie Angélique Morisot - en berømt pengeudlåner - dør ombord og Poirot opdager en lille pusterørspil med gift på spidsen. Pusterøret bliver fundet bag hans eget sæde og ved ligsynet er nævningene mistænksomme overfor Poirot.De øvrige passagerer er James Ryder, Monsieur Armand Dupont, Monsieur Jean Dupont, Daniel Clancy, Doctor Bryant, Norman Gale, Hertuginden af Horbury, Jane Grey og Venetia Kerr.Poirot, inspektør Japp og den franske politimand Fournier (som har hørt om Poirot gennem M. Giraud) efterforsker Madame Giselle's forskellige kunder. Giselle havde altid en klemme på sine kunder og brugte den, hvis de ikke ville betale.Madame Giselle's datter Anne Morisot dukker op, blot for kort efter at blive dræbt af sin mand James Richards alias Norman Gale. Poirot afslører dette og har hele tiden mistænkt Norman fordi han havde en lille æske med på flyet.Oveni opklaringen spiller Poirot giftekniv for Jane Grey og Jean Dupont, og for lord Horbury og Venetia Kerr.Glimrende Poirot mysterie.
    • 3/5
      Death... FROM ABOVE!
    • 4/5
      Probably one of the more famous Poirot books by Agatha Christie. I consider this to be a good solid one of the mysteries. If one compares them closely with newer Murder Mysteries it will seem a little quaint and Poirot a little to self indulgent but that is part of the charm.Poirot is flying back from Paris when a woman is murdered on the same plane just a few seats away. Due to motion sickness Poirot was trying to sleep through the flight and didn't see anything but was none-the-less upset about this deed happening right under his nose.
    • 4/5
      This is classic Christie - a murder in an enclosed space with a limited number of suspects. Poirot tracks down the murderer, of course, ably assisted by two suspects in the murder who can't have done it - or could they? Fantastic.
    • 4/5
      Dame Agatha scores again with this high-altitude locked-room mystery, wherein Hercule Poirot is present but sleeping when a woman is murdered aboard an airplane flying from France to England. I enjoyed all the twists and turns, even though (unusually for me) I actually sussed out the killer quite early on, thanks to the author playing fair with the clues. But even though I was pretty sure I knew WHOdunit, I was foggy on both the HOWdunit and WHYdunit, and in both cases was not disappointed by the reveal.
    • 5/5
      Death In The Air (1935) (Poirot #12) by Agatha Christie. This is a classic locked room murder mystery with an inversion: all the suspects are in the room when the individual is murdered. In fact, Poirot is the main suspect from among the very small number of passengers aboard the plane. During a flight from Paris to Croydon, England, Madame Giselle, a well respected Parisian blackmailer is murdered in her seat. There are ten passengers left alive at the end of the flight, including Poirot, as well as two stewards and a maid, so one of these must be the killer.No one was seen attacking the victim, no one could have done it, the weapon, is so exotic that it points to only two people, and the entire thing is a total mystery. Except to Poirot.There is flirtation, there is drama, red herrings to fill a fish market, a romance sparks and a cold blooded killer sits amount the innocent. Is it the dentist, the crime writer, the archeologists, the countess, or one of the others? All are shown to have the possibility of a motive, but only one could have struck the deadly blow. An intriguing puzzle set in an impossible situation, but fortunately Poirot is on the case. It is imperative that he solve as, after all, Is was the one best suited and situated to actually have done the deed. Who better to save him from the gallows than himself.
    • 4/5
      It always amazes how Mrs. Christie was able to concoct so many crimes in her mind. Another very good book, with a surprising, yet, quite simple ending. Highly recommend.
    • 5/5
      A passenger is murdered on a flight from Paris to London. Unfortunately for the murderer, Hercule Poirot is also a passenger on the flight. Both French and British authorities are involved with the investigation, but neither are a match for the little grey cells of Hercule Poirot.Agatha Christie must have had fun writing this one, as the passengers include a mystery novelist and a pair of archaeologists. (Christie's second husband was an archaeologist.) If you haven't yet read any of Christie's novels, this would be a great place to start!
    • 3/5
      Great period piece. A murder is committed right under Poirot's airsick nose on a cross channel plane. Many on board prove to have had a motive, can Poirot see his way to itdentifying the real killer? Good fun early Poirot with a nice flavour of early air travel glamour.
    • 5/5
      Published in 1935, this "locked room" mystery takes place in a commercial plane flying between Paris and Croydon airport. A French woman is found poisoned, and an incongruous blowpipe and dart smeared with snake venom is found stuffed down the side of Hercule Poirot's seat. Needless to say, all is not as it seems, and where does the wasp fit in? The usual varied cast of Christie archetypes are present: the objectionable aristocrat; the earnest young man; the plucky young lady he is in love with; and so on. Also present are two French archaeologists - this was in the early years of Christie's marriage to her second husband, middle East archaeologist Max Mallowan. A Christie tour de force this, very intricately and tightly plotted, almost an exercise in analysis as much as a novel - it should be as well known as some of her others such as Murder on the Orient Express or Death on the Nile, but has only ever been adapted for the screen once, as part of the David Suchet Poirot series.
    • 5/5
      This is a fascinating novel from a number of points of view.To start with, because of its setting, it is very obviously a "locked room" mystery. If Mme Giselle's death is murder then the murderer has to have been on the plane. Hercule Poirot, that inveterate sufferer from mal-de-mer, is concentrating on not being a victim of mal-de-air, and feels a great deal of chagrin that murder has taken place under his very nose, or to be more precise, under his closed eyes.For air travellers amongst us, travel on this plane was very different, and much more in keeping with travelling by train or by steamer. To start with luggage, rugs and other paraphernalia are heaped rather untidily at the end of the cabin, which Agatha Christie keeps calling a "car".At the front of the book is a diagram of the rear "car" of the plane Prometheus, which clearly shows that some of the seats are arranged in "facing" sets of 4.And just a final point about this setting - the windows of the plane have little air vents, big enough to have passed a blow pipe through. They obviously didn't fly at 37,000 feet.The investigation of the murder is jointly conducted by Poirot, the French detective Fournier and Inspector Japp from Scotland Yard, and each brings a different quality to its conduct. Poirot and Fournier are both interested in the psychology of crime.In the following Poirot, Fournier and Japp are talking about perception, and how we interpret what happens in the light of other observations (or perhaps what we don't notice)Fournier says .... when a lady dies suddenly of heart failure, if a man is to drop his handkerchief and stoop to pick it up, who will notice the action or think twice about it?I really enjoyed the interaction between these 3.Finally we see a further development of the romantic side of Hercule Poirot's character, when he lets a society lady off lightly and gives a young orphan a gentle push towards love.
    • 2/5
      Not a good enough mystery to make up for the appalling casual racism.

      "They disliked loud voices, noisy restaurants and negroes ... It seemed almost miraculous that two people should have so many points of agreement."
    • 4/5
      In this installment of Dame Christie's fantastic mystery novels featuring private investigator Hercule Poirot, we find ourselves with M. Poirot on a flight across the English Channel where a murder occurs mid flight. Only problem is - nobody has seen anything, neither the passengers or the stewards. It is up to Poirot, and the less competent French and English police, to solve the case. Another of Christie's mysteries that doesn't disappoint, you'll be kicking yourself for not picking the murderer in the end!
    • 5/5
      A fun little ride. Engaging and interesting set of suspects for this close door style murder.
    • 4/5
      Another of Ms Christie's classic tales featuring her 'anti-Holmes', Hercule Poirot. This time the suspects are all passengers on a trans-channel flight on a newfangled air contraption. The clues confuse even the great Poirot. Will he be able to get the evidence in order to allow his "little grey cells" to do their work?
      Mr. Fraser does a wonderful job in his performance, bringing the characters to life with an enlivened reading. Quite enjoyable.
    • 3/5
      Hercule Poirot is flying back to London from Paris along with ten other passengers. From his seat (No. 9), he should have a clear view of all that’s happening, except that he sleeps through most of the flight. When he’s disturbed it’s to discover that a woman has died, apparently from a wasp sting. Or was it murder?Christie’s Belgian detective has become my go-to comfort read. I never tire of watching Poirot exercise his “little gray cells” to the amusement and astonishment of fellow investigators, suspects, innocent bystanders, and, of course, the culprit. I was startled by several racist terms and condescending statements regarding women, but I recognize this work is a product of the times in which it was written, and prevailing attitudes in that era. This is number twelve in the series, but readers do NOT really need to consume them in any specific order; they are more like stand-alone novels, featuring the same detective.
    • 4/5
      Another winner from Christie. Bizarrely seems to have been written in a rush as I found the characters to be less memorable than some others. Still tremendously good puzzle. I sure didn't guess the murderer before Poirot but I'm getting better.
    • 5/5
      So good! The way she writes you're usually surprised at the end of each book! Love it!
    • 5/5
      Since 2008 I have been trying to make my way through all the Agatha Christie mysteries. After spending several years reading here and there I am now trying to read the missing ones in order. The next one on my list was DEATH IN THE CLOUDS.DEATH IN THE CLOUDS sees the infamous Hercule Poirot spending a plane ride, with passengers unknown, and witnesses a murder. As he goes about using his "little grey cells" and collecting clues, he tries to figure out just who killed the poor woman.For me, there is no greater crime writer than Agatha Christie. All of her mysteries keep me glued to every page. I'm always wanting to read "just one more page!" DEATH IN THE CLOUDS is no exception to this. I was completely glued to the story, as Hercule Poirot, with the assistance of Inspector Japp and another passenger, Jane Grey, tried to find out the answer to this crime.I have a love/hate relationship with Hercules Poirot. I do favour Miss Marple, and find that sometimes Poirot's ego gets the better of him. However, DEATH IN THE CLOUDS might be the exception to that. Poirot's ego didn't hardly make much of an appearance, and it was all in all a reading experience, alongside Poirot. For fan's of Poirot, there is were definitely many Poirot-ism's, but without the ultra ego trip he usually plays.I highly recommend DEATH IN THE CLOUDS to mystery/crime fans. It will definitely keep you guessing to the last page. Even though I did guess the murderer close to the end, I was hanging onto the very last sentence to see how it all intertwined together. As I said no-one writes a complex, interesting mystery like Agatha Christie does.
    • 4/5
      I would give this book a 3.5, but since we can't do half stars, I'm upping it to a 4 for enjoyment value. This is not my favorite of Christie's mystery plots. Parts of it are a bit strained for my taste. However, her descriptions of characters and situations ("dull as drain water" comes to mind) were quite comical. I would recommend for a hardcore Christie fan, but if you are just starting out, you may want to select another title.
    • 3/5
      I think I experience reader's block. Reading this book proved to be one too many. As I've been reading a lot of Agatha Christie books for the past months, fatigue has set in. This is compounded by the lower quality that this book exudes. It's just that Agatha Christie makes the reading experience fluid and cool and soothing...hence the 3 stars. It's a book that I've read in the distant past and it left no impression on me then and it doesn't do much now. Mind you, I'd rather read books like this than some of the bestsellers that pass for thrillers these days.Reading through mediocre(which this book isn't quite) books generally sets the bar low, and bam, there you have your acquired taste.
    • 4/5
      Also titled: Death in the Air

      Imaging Hercule sleeping through a murder! Suffering from air-sickness, indeed he did....

      Upon landing in London on a trip back from France, Madame Giselle, a famous & highly reputable Parisienne money lender is found to be dead in her seat of an apparent wasp sting, but what M. Poirot finds is a poisoned thorn w/ wasp colored fluff on the end.....

      There were less than a dozen people on the flight, several of whom had dealings with Mdme. Giselle, and with that group a few who did not want to pay her back. Mdme Giselle had her ways, as collateral she collected "information" on her clients, information that they would loathe to be known.

      Unfortunately upon her death, Le Surete was loathe to find that Mdme. Giselle's maid (per previous instructions) burned all of Mdme. Giselle's moneylending records and was not able to provide any information regarding possible enemies. However, left behind (quite by accident) was Mdme. Giselle's daily black book which contained appointments in code, this the maid handed over to M. Poirot....

      I was not able to decipher the clues, so I was unable to figure out who murdered Mdme. Giselle. But there were many with motive and few if any had opportunity.... Afterall it was in a small enclosed space, with the weapon of choice a blowpipe thorn.

      Yes, there was one mention of prejudice, a few Red Herrings, an overlooked passenger, and even a romance (that M. Poirot helped along). But what I found unbelievable was the type of poison used.... Boomslang venom, really? That particular venom is not only very uncommon, but up until the very end, not one of the suspects seemed to have had access to it.
    • 5/5
      Agatha Christie has done it again! What a great author.