By the Pricking of My Thumbs : A Tommy and Tuppence Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, Agatha Christie’s delightful sleuthing duo, investigate the strange and troubling doings behind the scenes at a gothic British nursing home in By the Pricking of My Thumbs When Tommy and Tuppence visit an elderly aunt in her gothic nursing home, they think nothing of her mistrust of the doctors; after all, Ada is a very difficult old lady. But when Mrs. Lockett mentions a poisoned mushroom stew and Mrs. Lancaster talks about "something behind the fireplace," Tommy and Tuppence find themselves caught up in a spine-chilling adventure that could spell death for either of them. "By the pricking of my thumbs,Something wicked this way comes."William Shakespeare – Macbeth (Act IV, Scene 1)When visiting Tommy's Aunt Ada in her nursing home, Tuppence encounters some odd residents, Mrs Lancaster, being the strangest of them all. Her incessant reference to 'something behind the fireplace' and a 'poor child' seems at first the incoherent ramblings of an elderly woman, though when Aunt Ada sadly passes away, a painting left to Tommy in her will leads the duo on a dangerous adventure where they finally discover exactly what Mrs Lancaster was talking about.Published in 1968, the title is taken from a line in Shakespeare's Macbeth. The novel marks the return of Tommy and Tuppence after nearly three decades of silence. Unlike Christie's other recurring characters, the detectives have aged in accordance with time. Tommy is now over seventy, and Tuppence is sixty-six. Although not in the original novel Geraldine McEwan appears as Miss Marple in ITV's 2006 episode. When Tommy and Tuppence visit an elderly aunt in her gothic nursing home, they think nothing of her mistrust of the doctors; after all, Ada is a very difficult old lady. But when Mrs. Lockett mentions a poisoned mushroom stew and Mrs. Lancaster talks about "something behind the fireplace," Tommy and Tuppence find themselves caught up in a spine-chilling adventure that could spell death for either of them ..