Monday, March 3, 2003

Book Description:
In a sprawling, half-timbered mansion in the affluent suburb of Swinley Dean, Aristide Leonides lies dead from barbiturate poisoning. An accident? Not likely. In fact, suspicion has already fallen on his luscious widow, a cunning beauty fifty years his junior, set to inherit a sizeable fortune, and rumored to be carrying on with a strapping young tutor comfortably ensconced in the family estate. But criminologist Charles Hayward is casting his own doubts on the innocence of the entire Leonides brood. He knows them intimately. And he's certain that in a crooked house such as Three Gables, no one's on the level...

Book Description:
Nearly a quarter-century after her death, Agatha Christie remains the most popular mystery writer of all time. Now, in a celebrated publishing event, fans and newcomers alike are treated to another Christie novel. Created in 1930 as a stage play and faithfully adapted by Charles Osborne, Black Coffee brings back beloved detective Hercule Poirot to exercise his "little grey cells" one more deliciously deductive time...

An urgent call from physicist Sir Claud Amory sends famed detective Hercule Poirot rushing from London to a sprawling country estate. Sir Claud fears a member of his own household wants to steal a secret formula destined for the Ministry of Defense. But Poirot arrives too late. The formula is missing. Worse, Sir Claud has been poisoned by his after-dinner coffee. Poirot soon identifies a potent brew of despair, treachery, and deception amid the mansion's occupants. Now he must find the formula and the killer...while letting no poison slip 'twix his low lips.

Book Description:
Agatha Christie is more than the most popular mystery writer of all time. In a career that spans over half a century, her name is synonymous with brilliant deception, ingenious puzzles, and the surprise denouement. By virtually inventing the modern mystery novel she has earned her title as the Queen of Crime. Curious? Then you're invited to read...TOWARDS ZERO"I love a good detective story, but they begin in the wrong place! They begin with the murder. But the murder is the end. The story begins long before that." So remarks esteemed criminologist Mr. Treves. Truer words have never been spoken, for a psychopathic killer has insinuated himself, with cunning manipulation, into a quiet village on the river Tern. But who is his intended victim? What are his unfathomable motives? And how and when will he reach the point of murder...the zero point?In this ingenious and noteworthy departure for Agatha Christie, it's the intricate workings of a pathological mind that become the stuff of startling mystery as a group of friends at a seaside resort remain blithely unaware that their weekend will be the death of them all...AUTHORBIO: AGATHA CHRISTIE is the world's best known mystery writer. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in 44 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her writing career spanned more than half a century, during which she wrote 80 novels and short story collections, as well as 14 plays, one of which, The Mousetrap, is the longest-running play in history. Two of the characters she created, the brilliant little Belgian Hercule Poirot and the irrepressible and relentless Miss Marple, went on to become world-famous detectives. Both have been widely dramatized in feature films and made-for-TV movies.Agatha Christie also wrote under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. As well, she wrote four non-fiction books including an autobiography and an entertaining account of the many expeditions she shared with her archaeologist husband, Sir Max Mallowan. Agatha Christie died in 1976.

Book Description:
A grand treasure for fans of the grande dame of mystery, this collection brings together nine rare and brilliant Christie tales of murder and detection that span nearly half a century of storytelling genius.

Book Description:
As a condemned murderess stands before the court, her eyes meet those of the only man who believes in her innocence. But Hercule Poirot must prove it before it's too late.

Book Description:
A collection of classic stories featuring multiple victims, multiple mysteries, multiple suspects, and a multitude of talent to solve it all: Hercule Poirot, Miss Jane Marple, and Mr. Parker Pyne.

Book Description:
A cocktail party ends in murder, but who did it? Why? And for that matter, how? No real cause of death has been established. It's a real baffler and it's prompting Hercule Poirot to ask another question...who's next?

Book Description:
On the verge of retirement, Hercule Poirot can't resist the lure of a seemingly unsolvable series of recent crimes--from a lost Pekinese to a man driven mad by love to a gentleman poisoned by gossip.

Book Description:
In this "crime puzzle of the first order" (New York Times), an ordinary flight to London turns extraordinary when a female passenger is shot to death with a venom-tipped dart. Even more bizarre is that the murder went unnoticed by everyone on board-- including the brilliant Hercule Poirot.

;;