Elephants Can Remember (The Agatha Christie Mystery Collection)

Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot Murder Mystery. From the Jacket Cover Flap: Agatha Christie is at her superb best in this story of a cause celebre, a strange crime of the past that casts a shadow on another generation. At the time, the double suicide of General and Lady Ravenscroft had caused a flurry of headlines, but the case had been satisfactorily dealt with by the police and forgotten by the public. Fifteen years later, to her complete surprise, Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, the novelist, was asked to answer a startling question: had the husband killed the wife or the wife killed the husband? Because the answer concerned her goddaughter Celia Ravenscroft, Mrs. Oliver brought her problem to Hercule Poirot. What should she do? Against his better judgement, the astute little Belgian detective agreed to find the facts of the case. He did not suspect that he himself would become involved in the crime because of his interest in two young people who loved each other and wanted to marry. He did not foresee the places he would go, the questions he would ask, the activities in which he would engage, or the depths of tragedy he would plumb...And the Ravenscroft affair would take Mrs. Oliver on a quest of her own. Hers would be for "elephants," or rather for those remarkable people who, like elephants, could remember things that had happened long ago. The memories she was to collect-the bizarre, the sad, the wryly humorous-even the false ones, would give Poirot a clue to long guarded secrets and to the passions that had played such havoc with the destinies of the innocent as well as the guilty. Agatha Christie's admirers the world over look forward each fall to a new book from the international queen of crime writers. In 1970 Dame Agatha celebrated her eightieth birthday by offering her fans her eightieth novel, "Passenger to Frankfurt", a spellbinding spy story. In 1971 her mystery novel "Nemesis" was also on every best-seller list for many months. E-book exclusive extras:1) Christie biographer Charles Osborne's essay on Elephants Can Remember;2) "The Poirots": the complete guide to all the cases of the great Belgian detective."The Ravenscrofts didn’t seem that kind of person. They seemed well balanced and placid..." And yet, twelve years earlier, the husband had shot the wife, and then himself — or perhaps it was the other way around, since sets of both of their fingerprints were on the gun, and the gun had fallen between them. The case haunts Ariadne Oliver, who had been a friend of the couple. The famous mystery novelist desires this real-life mystery solved, and calls upon Hercule Poirot to help her do so. Poirot is now a very old man, but his mind is as nimble and as sharp as ever and can still penetrate deep into the shadows. But as Poirot and Mrs Oliver and Superintendent Spence reopen the long-closed case, a startling discovery awaits them. And if memory serves Poirot (and it does!), crime — like history — has a tendency to repeat itself. EDITORIAL REVIEW: Hercule Poirot is determined to solve an old husband and wife double murder that is still an open verdict...Hercule Poirot stood on the cliff-top. For here, many years earlier, there had been a tragic accident -- the broken body of a woman was discovered on the rocks at the foot of the cliff. This was followed by the grisly discovery of two more bodies -- a husband and wife -- shot dead. But who had killed whom? Was it a suicide pact? A crime of passion? Or cold-blooded murder? Poirot delves back into a crime committed 15 years earlier and discovers that, when there is a distinct lack of physical evidence, it's just as well that 'old sins leave long shadows'! Private investigators,Poirot; Hercule (Fictitious character) Hercule Poirot investigates the double suicide deaths of Lord and Lady Ravenscroft that occurred twelve years ago. There are hints that it was not suicide after all With the help of Detective Poirot, mystery writer Ariadne Oliver must solve a murder from her past--before the tragic piece of history repeats itself