Ariena Marshall's appearance on the beach had all the importance of a stage entrance.
She wore a simple backless white bathing suit and every inch of her exposed body was tanned a beautiful even shade of bronze. Her hair was a rich flaming auburn. The whole effect was of superb and triumphant vitality.
Ariena's face had a Chinese immobility and there was an upward slant to the dark blue eyes. There was something about her which made every other woman on the beach seem faded. And which drew the eye of every male.
The Reverend Stephen Lane turned to Hercule Poirot and said: "That woman is evil through and through. Don't you feel the presence of Evil all around you?"
Slowly, Hercule Poirot nodded his head.
Two days later that beautiful body was a corpse, sprawled on a hidden and deserted beach--strangled!
Editorial Reviews
"Christie springs her secret like a land mine." --Time Literary Supplement
"A surprise conclusion of high voltage. You can't go wrong with this one." --New York Herald Tribune
"Considered by many to be one of the very best Agatha Christie mysteries, this macabre tale has lost none of its crisp intrigue since it was first published in 1940. Using a plot formula that has since become a mystery standard, Christie conveniently gathers all the characters in one hard-to-leave location, in this case, the Jolly Roger, a vacation hotel on the southern coast of England. One of the guests, a gorgeous, dramatic flirt, is strangled to death, and the famous detective Hercule Poirot who happens to be vacationing at the Jolly Roger, too sets out to solve the case. Each of the well-developed characters is suspect, and listeners will constantly be changing their bets as to whodunit. British stage actor Suchet, who many know as the definitive Poirot from the Public Television Mystery! series was an obvious choice for the reader of this production, having won an Audie award for reading Christie's Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1997. Suchet gives an outstanding and highly entertaining performance, obviously taking great zeal in the task of fleshing out Christie's colorful lot of characters." --Publishers Weekly
"Hercule Poirot will live on forever because, like Chaplin’s Little Tramp (that other immortal in mustache and bowler hat) he has the ability to solve the problems of the world." --Alan Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of the Flavia de Luce novels.
About the Author
Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She died in 1976, after a prolific career spanning six decades.
