Publisher's Synopsis
When Hercule Poirot and his sidekick Arthur Hastings arrive in the French village of Merlinville-sur-Mer to meet their client Paul Renauld they learn from Paris police that he has been found that morning stabbed in the back with a letter opener and left in a newly dug grave adjacent to a local golf course. Among the plausible suspects are Renauld's wife Eloise, his son Jack, an unknown visitor of the previous day, Renauld's immediate neighbor Madame Daubreuil, and the mysterious "Cinderella" of Hasting's recent acquaintance-all of whom Poirot has reason to suspect. Poirot's powers of investigation ultimately triumph over the wiles of an assailant whose misdirection and motives are nearly-but not quite-impossible to spot. Contains a character key, a detailed biography, and an illustrated list of notable Poirot portrayals. Agatha Christie is the "Queen of Mystery" and the world's best-selling mystery writer. Over the course of more than half a century she wrote eighty crime novels and short story collections, nineteen plays, and several poetry collections. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in the English language and another billion in a hundred other languages. Agatha Christie died in 1976.
