From the Queen of Crime, a Golden Age detective mystery featuring friends sharing a country house and the practical joke that becomes a heinous crime.
During a weekend party at The Chimneys, a historic English country house, a group of friends decide to play a prank on a friend infamous for oversleeping. Only the eight alarm clocks they set up in his room don’t wake him up and, in the morning, they discover Gerald isn’t just dead asleep. He’s dead. Was it an overdose of the sleeping draught beside his bed? Or is there a murderer afoot? Led by Lady Eileen Brent, the houseguests investigate. But their efforts have them stumbling on a spy plot. What sort of killer are they after? And will they find him before he strikes again?
Agatha Christie (1890–1976) is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the bestselling novelist of all time. The first recipient of the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, she published eighty mystery novels and many short story collections and created such iconic fictional detectives as Hercule Poirot, Miss Jane Marple, and Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. She is known around the world as the Queen of Crime.