Death in the Clouds

The Queen of Mystery has come to Harper Collins! Agatha Christie, the acknowledged mistress of suspense�creator of indomitable sleuth Miss Marple, meticulous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and so many other unforgettable characters�brings her entire oeuvre of ingenious whodunits, locked room mysteries, and perplexing puzzles to Harper Paperbacks. Poirot must solve a perplexing case of midair murder in Death in the Clouds when he discovers that the woman in seat two of the airborne aeroplane he�s traveling on is quite unexpectedly�and unnaturally�deceased. Review �As a crime writer I quickly realized that I�d already learned a great deal from Agatha Christie, and even after four decades in the game, I feel I�m still learning.� (Reginald Hill, author of the Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries ) �It will be a very acute reader who does not receive a complete surprise at the end.� (Times Literary Supplement (London) ) �[A] crime puzzle of the first order.� (New York Times ) From the Back Cover From seat No. 9, Hercule Poirot was ideally placed to observe his fellow air passengers. Over to his right sat a pretty young woman, clearly infatuated with the man opposite; ahead, in seat No. 13, sat a countess with a poorly concealed cocaine habit; across the gangway in seat No. 8, a detective writer was being troubled by an aggressive wasp. What Poirot did not yet realize was that behind him, in seat No. 2, sat the slumped, lifeless body of a woman. From seat number nine, Hercule Poirot is almost ideally placed to observe his fellow air travelers on this short flight from Paris to London. Over to his right sits a pretty young woman, clearly infatuated with the man opposite. Ahead, in seat number thirteen, is the Countess of Horbury, horribly addicted to cocaine and not doing too good a job of concealing it. Across the gangway in seat number eight, a writer of detective fiction is being troubled by an aggressive wasp. Yes, Poirot is almost ideally placed to take it all in--except that the passenger in the seat directly behind him has slumped over in the course of the flight ... dead. Murdered. By someone in Poirot's immediate proximity. And Poirot himself must number among the suspects.