A few weeks after marrying an attractive young widow, Gordon Cloade is tragically killed by a bomb blast in the London blitz. Overnight, the former Mrs Underhay finds herself in sole possession of the Cloade family fortune. Shortly afterwards, Hercule Poirot receives a visit from the dead man’s sister-in-law who claims she has been warned by ‘spirits’ that Mrs Underhay’s first husband is still alive. Poirot has his suspicions when he is asked to find a missing person guided only by the spirit world. Yet what mystifies Poirot most is the woman’s true motive for approaching him…

A mysterious woman, a legendary cursed jewel, and a night train to the French riviera — ingredients for the perfect romance or the perfect crime? When the train stops, the jewel is missing, and the woman is found dead in her compartment. It’s the perfect mystery, filled with passion, greed, deceit. And Hercule Poirot is the perfect detective to solve it…

4.50 from Paddington

Mrs McGillicuddy catches the 4.50 from Paddington station. At a certain point in her journey, Mrs McGillicuddy’s train begins to travel parallel to another train heading in the same direction. As she observes the passengers in the adjacent wagons, she sees a woman being brutally strangled. The look of terror on the woman’s face is etched into Mrs McGillicuddy’s mind’s eye as the trains break apart and head off in different directions. She must do something to help the poor woman – but what exactly can she do?

She reports the crime to the conductor and also to the guard at the next station. They are both quite skeptical, however they follow up on her report with all possible trains. To Mrs McGillicuddy’s chagrin, the woman is not found aboard any of them – dead or alive.

Enter Miss Marple. It just so happens, that Mrs McGillicuddy is on her way to see her old friend, Miss Jane Marple. She recounts what happened and Miss Marple sets to work. She retraces the steps of her friend the following day – catching the same train – she studies railway topography maps and comes to the conclusion, that the strangled woman must’ve been thrown from the train at a particular bend, whose embankment enters the property of an eccentric family – the Crackenthorpes.

Being old and frail, she cannot search for the body herself and so she enlists the help of one Lucy Eyelesbarrow – a young, intelligent and successful entrepreneur who she has encountered in the past. Together they begin to unravel the mysteries surrounding the

Whilst organising a mock murder hunt for the village fete hosted by Sir George and Lady Stubbs, a feeling of dread settles on the famous crime novelist Adriane Oliver. Call it instinct, but it’s a feeling she just can’t explain…or get away from.

In desperation she summons her old friend, Hercule Poirot — and her instincts are soon proved correct when the ‘pretend’ murder victim is discovered playing the scene for real, a rope wrapped tightly around her neck.

But it’s the great detective who first discovers that in murder hunts, whether mock or real, everyone is playing a part.

A priest’s death leads to sinister goings-on in an old country pub…

To understand the strange goings on at The Pale Horse Inn, Mark Easterbrook knew he had to begin at the beginning. But where exactly was the beginning?

Was it the savage blow to the back of Father Gorman’s head? Or was it when the priest’s assailant searched him so roughly he tore the clergyman’s cassock? Or could it have been the priest’s visit, just minutes before, to a woman on her death bed?

Or was there a deeper significance to the violent squabble which Mark Easterbrook had himself witnessed earlier?

Wherever the beginning lies, Mark and his sidekick, Ginger Corrigan, may soon have cause to wish they’d never found it…

Was it a misstep that sent a handsome stranger plummeting to his death from a cliff? Or something more sinister? Fun-loving adventurers Bobby Jones and Frances Derwent’s suspicions are certainly roused–espeically since the man’s dying words were so peculiar: Why didn’t they ask Evans? Bobby and Frances would love to know. Unfortunately, asking the wrong people has sent the amateur sleuths running for their lives–on a wild and deadly pursuit to discover who Evans is, what it was he wasn’t asked, and why the mysterious inquiry has put their own lives in mortal danger…

In a remote house in the middle of Dartmoor, six shadowy figures huddle around a table for a seance. Tension rises as the spirits spell out a chilling message: “Captain Trevelyan . . . dead . . . murder.”

Is this black magic or simply a macabre joke? The only way to be certain is to locate Captain Trevelyan. Unfortunately, his home is six miles away and, with snowdrifts blocking the roads, someone will have to make the journey on foot…

حسناً .. ليسَ هذا ماكنت أود أن أفعله ، لقد فعلته الحياة فيني
هيَ من جعلت مني طفلاً يشيخ ، هي التي تكبر و تعكس عُمرها
الكبير علي، حتّى نبت على حزني تجاعيد!
قالت لي أمي في طفولة لا أذكرها: ” حذار يا ولدي أن تُصبح كبيراً
فأول ماينتجه عمركَ الأخّاذ في طريقة ليكبر هو: فقدُك!”
و أخذت تحدثني عن الأصدقاء الغائبين، أولئك الذين كبروا
ثم تركونا وحيدين، أولئك الذين لا يتذكرون حتى ملامح طفولتنا…
حذارِ أن تكون مثلهم!

و لأني فارغ جداً، ألوكُ الانتظار بأصابعي، و أتسكعُ وحيداً على
قارعة الطريق..
وجدُتني هكذا، أنمو دون علمي لأصبح كبيراً، أمارس الكتابة كى
أستردّ طفولتي، و أردد الأسماء التي حفظتها مُذ كنت اتمتم، و أُحاول
أن أقطع بسكين غيابهم طرف ذاكرتي.