Closed Casket

Hercule Poirot, the world's most famous detective, returns in this ingenious, stylish, and altogether delicious mystery from the author of the instant bestseller The Monogram Murders.

What I intend to say to you will come as a shock...

With these words, Lady Athelinda Playford -- one of the world's most beloved children's authors -- springs a surprise on the lawyer entrusted with her will.

As guests arrive for a party at her Irish mansion, Lady Playford has decided to cut off her two children without a penny . . . and leave her vast fortune to someone else: an invalid who has only weeks to live.

Among Lady Playford's visitors are two strangers: the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard.

Neither knows why he has been invited -- until Poirot begins to wonder if Lady Playford expects a murder.

But why does she seem so determined to provoke a killer?

And why -- when the crime is committed despite Poirot's best efforts to stop it -- does the identity of the victim make no sense at all?

Addictive, ferociously clever, and packed with clues, wit, and murder, Closed Casket is a triumph from the author whose work is as tricky as anything written by Agatha Christie.