Agatha Christie's masterpiece, and the best-selling murder mystery book of all time, celebrates its 80th birthday with this gorgeous hardback Special Edition.
'We're not going to leave the island. None of us will ever leave. It's the end, you see - the end of everything...'
1939. Europe teeters on the brink of war. Ten strangers are invited to Soldier Island, an isolated rock near the Devon coast. Cut off from the mainland, with their generous hosts Mr and Mrs U.N. Owen mysteriously absent, they are each accused of a terrible crime. When one of the party dies suddenly they realise they may be harbouring a murderer among their number.
The 10 strangers include a reckless playboy, a troubled Harley Street doctor, a formidable judge, an uncouth detective, an unscrupulous mercenary, a God-fearing spinster, two restless servants, a highly decorated general and an anxious secretary. One by one they are picked off. Who will survive? And who is the killer? Copies of an ominous nursery rhyme hang in each room, the murders mimicking the awful fates of its 'Ten Little Soldier Boys'.
'We're not going to leave the island. None of us will ever leave. It's the end, you see - the end of everything...'
1939. Europe teeters on the brink of war. Ten strangers are invited to Soldier Island, an isolated rock near the Devon coast. Cut off from the mainland, with their generous hosts Mr and Mrs U.N. Owen mysteriously absent, they are each accused of a terrible crime. When one of the party dies suddenly they realise they may be harbouring a murderer among their number.
The 10 strangers include a reckless playboy, a troubled Harley Street doctor, a formidable judge, an uncouth detective, an unscrupulous mercenary, a God-fearing spinster, two restless servants, a highly decorated general and an anxious secretary. One by one they are picked off. Who will survive? And who is the killer? Copies of an ominous nursery rhyme hang in each room, the murders mimicking the awful fates of its 'Ten Little Soldier Boys'.
Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.
© Angus Mc Bean (National Portrait Gallery, London)
'Agatha Christie's masterpiece.'
Spectator
'One of the very best, most genuinely bewildering Christies.'
Observer
'The most astonishingly impudent, ingenious and altogether successful mystery story since The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.'
Daily Herald
'One of the most ingenious thrillers in many a day.'
Time Magazine
'There is no doubt that this is a highly ingenious jigsaw by a master of puzzling.'
Books
'There is no cheating; the reader is just bamboozled in a straightforward way from first to last... The most colossal achievement of a colossal career. The book must rank with Mrs Christie's previous best - on the top notch of detection.'
New Statesman
'The whole thing is utterly impossible and utterly fascinating. It is the most baffling mystery Agatha Christie has ever written.'
New York Times
Spectator
'One of the very best, most genuinely bewildering Christies.'
Observer
'The most astonishingly impudent, ingenious and altogether successful mystery story since The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.'
Daily Herald
'One of the most ingenious thrillers in many a day.'
Time Magazine
'There is no doubt that this is a highly ingenious jigsaw by a master of puzzling.'
Books
'There is no cheating; the reader is just bamboozled in a straightforward way from first to last... The most colossal achievement of a colossal career. The book must rank with Mrs Christie's previous best - on the top notch of detection.'
New Statesman
'The whole thing is utterly impossible and utterly fascinating. It is the most baffling mystery Agatha Christie has ever written.'
New York Times