By the Pricking of My Thumbs (Tommy and Tuppence Mysteries, #4)

when Dotty Mrs. Lancaster Disappears Without A Trace, Tommy And Tuppence Beresford Discover That Something Wicked Has Come To The Sunny Ridge Rest Home. "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. While visiting Tommy's Aunt Ada 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. Tommy and Tuppence Beresford visit the Sunny Ridge Rest Home, where an old rambling woman insists that something is buried in the fireplace in the sitting room, and that a painting of a secluded house is strangely familiar. When the woman disappears without a trace, the sleuths discover something wicked at Sunny Ridge While visiting Sunny Ridge Rest Home, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford decide to investigate the ramblings of an old woman about a body hidden behind the fireplace. Reissue. Tommy and Tuppence find mystery and danger when they look into the departure of Mrs. Lancaster from the Sunny Ridge establishment for elderly ladies Mr. and Mrs. Beresford were sitting at the breakfast table.