当豪华的“蓝色列车”到达尼斯的时候，卧车管理员试图叫醒熟睡的鲁丝·凯特林。但她再也无法醒来了——因为她已经被谋杀，并且遭到了毁容，几乎难以辨认。更有甚者，她珍贵的火心宝石不见了。主要的嫌疑对象是鲁丝的丈夫德里克。他与鲁丝已经分居多时，行同陌路。然而波洛却不相信，于是他上演了一场奇怪的再乘蓝色列车之旅，并且还有凶手同行……

With impeccable timing Hercule Poirot, the renowned Belgian detective, makes his dramatic entrance on to the English crime stage. Recently, there had been some strange goings on at Styles St Mary. Evelyn, constant companion to old Mrs Inglethorp, had stormed out of the house muttering something about 'a lot of sharks'. And with her, something indefinable had gone from the atmosphere. Her presence had spelt security; now the air seemed rife with suspicion and impending evil. A shattered coffee cup, a splash of candle grease, a bed of begonias all Poirot required to display his now legendary powers of detection.

A baffler of the first order. -- New York Times A masterwork...stunningly original. -- Julian Symons Agatha Christie at her best. -- New York Herald Tribune Christie is beyond criticism. -- New Statesman and Nation --This text refers to the Paperback edition. Agatha Christie at her best. (New York Herald Tribune) A baffler of the first order. (New York Times) A masterwork...stunningly original. (Julian Symons) Christie is beyond criticism. (New Statesman and Nation) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

A wheelchair-bound Poirot returns to Styles, the venue of his first investigation, where he knows another murder is going to take place...The house guests at Styles seemed perfectly pleasant to Captain Hastings; there was his own daughter Judith, an inoffensive ornithologist called Norton, dashing Mr Allerton, brittle Miss Cole, Doctor Franklin and his fragile wife Barbara , Nurse Craven, Colonel Luttrell and his charming wife, Daisy, and the charismatic Boyd-Carrington. So Hastings was shocked to learn from Hercule Poirot's declaration that one of them was a five-times murderer. True, the ageing detective was crippled with arthritis, but had his deductive instincts finally deserted him?!

The last words of a murdered government agent lead Tommy and Tuppence Beresford to the Sans Souci Hotel, where they're greeted by hostile guests, a mysterious hotelier, and reports of a missing girl. When Tommy himself vanishes, Tuppence has reason to fear that checking out of the Sans Souci comes at a perilous price.

his production suffers in two aspects: The story is weak, and the narration is routine, even listless. Despite a melodious voice and attractive British accent, Jenny Funnell has to struggle with sketchy, unmemorable characters and a heroine with a cutesy nickname, "Bundle," aka Lady Eileen Brent. sleuths are from her earliest works.) When researching the history of this book, I encountered rave reviews, puzzling, until I noticed that they involved the unabridged original. Reviews of abridgments have not been so generous--like this one. The story: Bundle encounters a murder and a secret society. Enough said. D.R.W.