Book Preview Foreword It was almost certainly because of her dissatisfaction with Alibi, someone else’s stage adaption in 1928 of her novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, that my grandmother Agatha Christie decided to write a play of her own, which is something she had not previously attempted. Black Coffee, featuring her favourite detective, Hercule … Read more
Book Preview Chapter One In the heart of the West End, there are many quiet pockets, unknown to almost all but taxi drivers who traverse them with expert knowledge, and arrive triumphantly thereby at Park Lane, Berkeley Square or South Audley Street. If you turn off on an unpretentious street from the Park, and turn … Read more
Book Preview Chapter 1 ‘You do see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed?’ The question floated out into the still night air, seemed to hang there a moment and then drift away down into the darkness towards the Dead Sea. Hercule Poirot paused a minute with his hand on the window catch. Frowning, … Read more
Book Preview Author’s Note I had written this book because it was so difficult to do that the idea had fascinated me. Ten people had to die without it becoming ridiculous or the murderer being obvious. I wrote the book after a tremendous amount of planning, and I was pleased with what I had made … Read more
Book Preview PREFACE Agatha Christie began to write this book in April 1950; she finished it some fifteen years later when she was 75 years old. Any book written over so long a period must contain certain repetitions and inconsistencies and these have been tidied up. Nothing of importance has been omitted, however: substantially, this … Read more
Book Preview One I Old Lanscombe moved totteringly from room to room, pulling up the blinds. Now and then he peered with screwed-up rheumy eyes through the windows. Soon they would be coming back from the funeral. He shuffled along a little faster. There were so many windows. Enderby Hall was a vast Victorian house … Read more
Book Preview Joan Scudamore screwed up her eyes as she peered across the dimness of the rest house dining-room. She was slightly short-sighted. Surely that’s – no it isn’t – I believe it is. Blanche Haggard. Extraordinary – right out in the wilds – to come across an old school friend whom she hadn’t seen … Read more
Book Preview Chapter One It was Miss Somers’s turn to make the tea. Miss Somers was the newest and the most inefficient of the typists. She was no longer young and had a mild worried face like a sheep. The kettle was not quite boiling when Miss Somers poured the water onto the tea, but … Read more
Book Preview One A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED I Between 7:30 and 8:30 every morning except Sundays, Johnnie Butt made the round of the village of Chipping Cleghorn on his bicycle, whistling vociferously through his teeth, and alighting at each house or cottage to shove through the letterbox such morning papers as had been ordered by … Read more
Book Preview One MAJOR PALGRAVE TELLS A STORY “Take all this business about Kenya,” said Major Palgrave. “Lots of chaps gabbing away who know nothing about the place! Now I spent fourteen years of my life there. Some of the best years of my life, too—” Old Miss Marple inclined her head. It was a … Read more
Book Preview One Mrs. McGillicuddy panted along the platform in the wake of the porter carrying her suitcase. Mrs. McGillicuddy was short and stout, the porter was tall and free-striding. In addition, Mrs. McGillicuddy was burdened with a large quantity of parcels; the result of a day’s Christmas shopping. The race was, therefore, an uneven … Read more
Book Preview Praise for Widow’s Point “Widow’s Point simmers, bubbles, and boils over in the most seductive, troubling, and finally throat-gripping manner possible, and along the way neatly solves the problem of how to handle the fate of a first-person narrator of a tale remarkable for accelerating dread. Richard and Billy Chizmar have given us … Read more
Book Preview It was December 1988: George Bush had just defeated Michael Dukakis in the Presidential Election. Pitcher Orel Hershiser and the Los Angeles Dodgers had beaten the Oakland A’s in five games to win the World Series. People were waiting in line at movie theaters to watch Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman … Read more
Book Preview Copyright © 2019 by Richard Chizmar All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Cemetery … Read more
Book Preview “Chasing the Boogeyman is genuinely chilling and something brand new and exciting. Compulsive reading and scary… I thought often of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, but never to the story’s detriment. Ray Bradbury’s influence is all over it, but he never could’ve written that ending. Chasing the Boogeyman does what true crime … Read more
Book Preview “Powerful…I love it… Richard Chizmar writes clean, no-nonsense prose…sets his tales in no-nonsense, middle class neighborhoods I can relate to…and writes terrific stories served with a very large slice of Disquiet Pie.” — Stephen King “Chizmar’s stories are hard-hitting, spooky, suspenseful, poignant, harrowing, heartbreaking and most of all very well-written. Excellent work!” … Read more
Book Preview ALSO BY LINCOLN CHILD THE THIRD GATE TERMINAL FREEZE DEEP STORM DEATH MATCH UTOPIA WITH DOUGLAS PRESTON The Pendergast Novels BLUE LABYRINTH WHITE FIRE TWO GRAVES COLD VENGEANCE FEVER DREAM CEMETERY DANCE THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS THE BOOK OF THE DEAD DANCE OF DEATH BRIMSTONE STILL LIFE WITH CROWS THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES … Read more
Book Preview ALSO BY LINCOLN CHILD FULL WOLF MOON THE FORGOTTEN ROOM THE THIRD GATE TERMINAL FREEZE DEEP STORM DEATH MATCH LETHAL VELOCITY (FORMERLY UTOPIA) WITH DOUGLAS PRESTON The Agent Pendergast Novels RELIC RELIQUARY THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES STILL LIFE WITH CROWS BRIMSTONE DANCE OF DEATH THE BOOK OF THE DEAD THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS … Read more