To distract himself from his fear of flying, Hercule Poirot observes his fellow passengers on the noon flight from Le Bourget to Croydon. On his right sits a pretty young woman, clearly very aware of the handsome man opposite her; ahead of him is a nervous aristocrat and her maid; and across the aisle is a writer of detective novels, troubled by an aggressive wasp. Lulled into drowsiness by a sedative he has taken, Poirot abruptly awakens when the woman behind him is found dead. A reaction to a wasp-sting is suggested, but Poirot discovers that a poisoned dart is the real cause - and a blow pipe is discovered stuffed down the back of his own seat. The murderer can only be one of the eleven passengers in the rear of the plane, or one of the stewards. The dead woman was a moneylender to the upper classes, so the Countess, addicted to cocaine and gambling, is an obvious suspect. Or could it be the detective writer, trying out a plot for his new book? No-one is above suspicion: not even Poirot himself. He must unravel this baffling mystery - if only to clear his own name... John Moffatt stars as the great Belgian detective, with Philip Jackson as Inspector Japp.
2 CDs. 1 hr 25 mins.
Auflage
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
BBC Audio, A Division Of Random House
Editions-Typ
Produkt-Hinweis
Maße
Höhe: 142 mm
Breite: 125 mm
Dicke: 11 mm
Spieldauer
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-563-53043-5 (9780563530435)
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Agatha Christie, the acknowledged 'Queen of Crime' (The Observer) was born in Torquay in 1890. During the First World War she worked as a hospital dispenser, and it was here that she gleaned the working knowledge of various poisons that was to prove so useful in her detective stories.
Her first novel was The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which introduced Hercule Poirot to the world. This was published in 1920 (although in fact she had written it during the war) and was followed over the next six years by four more detective novels and a short story collection. However, it was not until the publication of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd that Agatha Christie's reputation was firmly established. This novel, with its complex plot and genuinely shocking conclusion, attracted considerable public attention and has since been acknowledged by many experts as a masterpiece. In 1930 the sharp-witted spinster sleuth Miss Marple made her first appearance in The Murder at the Vicarage. In all, Agatha Christie published over 80 novels and short story collections.
The brilliance of Christie's plots, and her enduring appeal, have led to several dramatisations of her work on radio, television and film. In 1930 she was one of a number of crime writers asked to contribute a chapter to a mystery, Behind the Screen, that was broadcast on BBC radio on 21st June that year. More recently, June Whitfield portrayed Miss Marple on BBC Radio 4, whilst John Moffat starred as Hercule Poirot. On screen, Peter Ustinov, David Suchet, Margaret Rutherford, Joan Hickson, Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie have all memorably played Agatha Christie's famous sleuths.
As her play The Mousetrap (the longest-running play in the history of theatre) testifies, Agatha Christie's detective stories are likely to appeal for a long time to come.
Agatha Christie was awarded a CBE in 1956 and was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1971. She died in 1976.
