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As the trains ran parallel, Mrs McGillicuddy could see into the lighted carriage only a few feet away. A man, standing with his back to her, was strangling the life out of a woman, her eyes starting from their sockets, her face purple. The end came as Mrs McGillicuddy watched - then the train accelerated rapidly and vanished from her sight... -
Miss Marple's nephew, Raymond West, has given his favourite aunt a vacation at a beautiful resort in the Caribbean.There's an interesting crowd of guests - a South American lady with gigolo attendants; an English tycoon, his strangely silent secretary and a sinister masseuse who seems capable of anything...as well as an old wind-bag who tells Miss Marple the story of the time he met a murderer - and he has a photo. Suddenly he hesitates, and excuses himself. By the next morning he is dead, seemingly of natural causes. Miss Marple has doubts. And well she should... -
The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn, including Jane Marple who is staying nearby, are agog with curiosity over an advertisement in the local gazette which reads: A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m. A childish practical joke? Or a hoax intended to scare poor Letitia Blacklock? Unable to resist the mysterious invitation, a crowd gathers at Little Paddocks at the appointed time when, without warning, the lights go out…This edition also contains colour photographs from the television episode and interviews with the cast. Cover shows Geraldine McEwan in her iconic role as Miss Marple. -
Miss Marple VI. A handful of grain, found in the pocket of a murdered businessman? Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his 'counting house' office when he suffered a sudden and agonising death. On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain rye grain. What is that all about? It was a second incident, this time in the parlour at his home, which confirmed Jane Marple's suspicion that here she was looking at a case of crime - by rhyme. -
Cora Lansquenet had always been tactless - and her well bred family chose to ignore the remark she made after her brother Richard's funeral: "He was murdered, wasn't he?" They remembered it the next day, when Cora was found murdered with a hatchet - and several days later, when Cora's companion was sent a sliver of wedding cake steeped in arsenic...But by then, the family solicitor had called in Hercule Poirot. Cover art by Tom Adams. -
Ordeal By Innocence: While serving a life sentence for killing his mother, Jacko Argyle dies. Two years later, a stranger shatters the peace of the Argyle household. Does Arthur Calgary hold the missing link in Jacko's defence? Was Jacko sentenced for a murder he didn't commit? And if Jacko didn't murder his mother - who did? One, Two, Buckle My Shoe: What reason would amiable dentist Dr. Morely have for committing suicide? He didn't have emotional difficulties, money problems or love trouble. What he did have was an appointment with Hercule Poirot, who is not persuaded by the suicide story and has therefore taken it upon himself to question the good doctor's patients, partners, and friends. All he's come up with is the numbing fear that Dr. Morely wasn't an unlikely victim at all... The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding: An English country house at Christmas time should be the perfect place to get away from it all - but nothing is ever simple for Hercule Poirot, as he finds not one but five baffling cases to solve. First comes a sinister warning on his pillow to avoid the plum pudding...then the discovery of a corpse in a chest...next, an overheard quarrel that leads to murder...the strange case of a dead man's eating habits...and the puzzle of a victim who dreams of his own suicide. -
Tommy and Tuppence IV. When Tommy and Tuppence Beresford visit Aunt Ada - an unpleasant old bat - at Sunny Ridge Nursing Home, Tuppence encounters some odd residents including Mrs. Lancaster who mystifies her with talk about "your poor child" and "something behind the fireplace". When Aunt Ada dies a few weeks later, she leaves Tommy and Tuppence a painting featuring a house, which Tuppence is sure she has seen before. This realization leads her on a dangerous adventure involving a missing tombstone, diamond smuggling - and a horrible discovery of what Mrs. Lancaster was talking about. -
Crime Collection: Cards On The Table: Mr. Shaitana collects snuff-boxes, Egyptian antiquities and murderers. Not caught murderers ('necessarily second rate') but the ones who got away with it. He invites Hercule Poiret around to meet his collection. Before the evening is over, the collector is a corpse - stabbed to death by one of his own exhibits...N Or M? Tommy and Tuppence become involved in a case during the tense days of WWII - Hitler's most trusted agents are in England. N is a man - M is a woman. Both are masters of cunning, deception and murder. Set in a seaside boarding house inhabited by innocent-seeming boarders, Tommy and Tuppence are on the trail of a ruthless scheme of kidnapping, espionage and murder. A Murder Is Announced: '...and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m. Friends, please accept this, the only intimation.' A joke, of course, in bad taste. But none of Miss Blacklock's friends can resist calling on her at the appointed hour. At 6.30 precisely, the lights go out...
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Dear Mummy: We had a murder last night. Miss Springer, the gym mistress. It happened in the middle of the night and the police came and this morning they're asking everyone questions. Miss Chadwick told us not to talk to anybody about it, but I thought you'd like to know. With Love, Jennifer. Getting a letter like that would have given any respectable parent the palpitations. But unpleasant things like murder are going on in an exclusive school for girls. Late one night, two teachers investigate a mysterious flashing light in the sports pavilion, while the rest of the school sleeps. There, among the lacrosse sticks, they stumble upon the body of the unpopular games mistress – shot through the heart from point blank range. The school is thrown into chaos when the ‘cat’ strikes again. Unfortunately, schoolgirl Julia Upjohn knows too much and she knows that without Hercule Poirot’s help, she will be the next victim…Cover art by Tom Adams.
