HERCULE POIROT'S CASEBOOK
Agatha Christie is known throughout the world
as the Queen of Crime. Her seventy-six detective
novels and books of stories have been translated
into every major language, and her sales are
calculated
in tens of millions.
She began writing at the end of the First
World War, when she created Hercule Poirot,
the little Belgian detective with the egg-shaped
head and the passion for order - the most
popular sleuth in fiction since Sherlock Holmes.
Poirot, Miss Marple and her other detectives
have appeared in films, radio programmes,
television films and stage plays based on her
books.
Agatha Christie also wrote six romantic novels
under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, several
plays and a book of poems; as well, she assisted
her archaeologist.husband Sir Max Mallowan on
many expeditions to the Middle East. She was
awarded the DBE in 1971.
Postern of Fate was the last book she wrote
before her death in 1976, but since its
publication two books Agatha Christie wrote in
the 1940s have appeared: Curtain: Poirot's Last
Case and Sleeping Murder, the last Miss Marple
book.
Agatha Christie's Autobiography was
published by Fontana in 1978.
Available in Fontana by the same author
The ABC Murders
At Bertram's Hotel
The Body in the Library
By the Pricking of My Thumbs
The Clocks
Dead Man's Folly
Death Comes as the End
Destination Unknown
Elephants Can Remember
Endless Night
Evil Under the Sun
Hallowe'en Party
Hickory Dickory Dock
The Hollow
The Labours of Hercules
Lord Edgware Dies
The Moving Finger
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Murder in Mesopotamia
Murder is Easy
The Mysterious Mr Quin
The Mystery of the Blue Train
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
Parker Pyne Investigates
Partners in Crime
A Pocket Full of Rye
Postern of Fate
Sad Cypress
Sleeping Murder
Taken at the Flood
And Then There Were None
The Thirteen Problems
Three Act Tragedy
and many others
AGATHA CHRISTIE
Hercule Poirot's
Casebook
FONTANA/CoIIins
This collection first published by Fontana Paperbacks 1989
This collection © Agatha Christie 1989
'The Incredible Theft', 'Murder in the Mews' and 'Triangle at Rhodes'
were first published in Murder in the Mews, 1937; 'The Dream' and 'Four
and Twenty Blackbirds' were first published in The Adventures of the
Christmas Pudding, 1960; and 'Problem at Sea', 'The Third-floor Flat',
'The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly', 'The King of Clubs' and 'The
Adventure of the Clapham Cook' were first published in Poirot's Early
Cases, 1947.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd, Glasgow
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall
not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired
out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior
consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without a similar condition
including this condition being imposed on the subsequent
purchaser.
CONTENTS
The Incredible Theft
Murder in the Mews
Triangle at Rhodes
The Dream
Four and Twenty Blackbirds
Problem at Sea
The Third-floor Flat
The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly
The King of Clubs
The Adventure of the Clapham Cook
THE
INCREDIBLE THEFT
CHAPTERI
As the butler handed round the souffle, Lord Mayfield leaned
confidentially towards his neighbour on the right, Lady Julia
Carrington. Known as a perfect host, Lord Mayfield took
trouble to live up to his reputation. Although unmarried, he
was always charming to women.
Lady Julia Carrington was a woman of forty, tall, dark and
vivacious. She was very thin, but still beautiful. Her hands and
feet in particular were exquisite. Her manner was abrupt and
restless, that of a woman who lived on her nerves.
About opposite to her at the round table sat her husband, Air
Marshal Sir George Carrington. His career had begun in the
Navy, and he still retained the bluff breeziness of the ex-Naval
man. He was laughing and chaffing the beautiful Mrs
Vanderlyn, who was sitting on the other side of her host.
Mrs Vanderlyn was an extremely good-looking blonde. Her
voice held a soupcon of American accent, just enough to be
pleasant without undue exaggeration.
On the other side of Sir George Carrington sat Mrs Macatta,
M.P. Mrs Macatta was a great authority on Housing and
Infant Welfare. She barked out short sentences .rather than
spoke them, and was generally of somewhat alarming aspect. It
was perhaps natural that the Air Marshal would fred his right-hand
neighbour the pleasanter to talk to.
Mrs Macatta, who always talked shop wherever she was,
barked out short spates of information on her special subjects
to her left-hand neighbour, yomag Reggie Carrington.
Reggie Carrington was twenty-one, and completely uninter-ested
in Housing, Infant Welfare, and indeed any political
7
subject. He said at intervals, 'How frightful!' and 'I absolutely
agree with you,' and his mind was clearly elsewhere. Mr
Carlile, Lord Mayfield's private secretary, sat between young
Reggie and his mother. A pale young man with pince-nez and
an air of intelligent reserve, he talked little, but was always
ready to fling himself into any conversational breach. Noticing
