List $39.95

Written by Agatha Christie - Audio book performed by Anna Massey - Unabridged Fiction - 6 COMPACT DISCS

Publisher, Audio Partners (August 2001)

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"Christie keeps her readers enthralled and guessing to the end." --Times Literary Supplement

"Smooth, highly original, and completely absorbing." --The New York Times (reviewing the book, Murder in Mesopotamia)

"Agatha Christie's claim to supremacy among the classical detective story writers of her time rests on her originality in constructing puzzles. This was her supreme skill... She was the supreme mistress of a magical skill that is a permanent, although often secret, concern of humanity: the construction and the solution of puzzles." --Julian Symons, in Agatha Christie : First Lady of Crime

"I strongly suspect that future scholars of the simon-pure detective novel will hold that its greatest practitioner... has been Agatha Christie." --Anthony Boucher, The New York Times (and himself considered the foremost mystery reviewer of the 20th century)

"Dame Agatha's forté was supremely adroit plotting and sharp, believable characterization… The reader would turn the pages mesmerized as unexpected twist piled on unexpected twist until, in the end, he was taken by surprise. There was simply no outguessing Poirot or Miss Marple - or Agatha Christie." --Max Lowenthal, The New York Times, upon Christie's death in 1976

This intriguing mystery that stars the eccentric and fastidious Inspector Hercule Poirot takes place amidst a scientific excavation probing secrets from the dawn of history in the fabled land of Babylon (now known as Iraq). Everyone who visits the site comes away with the same impression --- an eerie tension, a sense that something is "not right." Louise Leidner, bride of the expedition leader, is afraid of something. Is she simply having "nervous terrors and fancies"? Nurse Amy Leatheran, brought in to help Mrs. Leidner, finds that she is terribly frightened by a man she claims has stalked her across the globe. No one at the excavation believes her until she turns up bludgeoned to death.

Poirot, nearby on another mission, gets involved and conducts an investigation into Louise's murder. He concludes that the killer must be part of the archeological dig --- but who? And then the plot thickens as another female member of the expedition is killed in a most gruesome way! Poirot unravels the crimes with all the genius that his reputation has led us to expect. Pure delight.

About the Author: Agatha Christie (1890-1976) became the Queen of the Golden Age of British fiction. In all, she wrote 95 novels, 21 plays, numerous short stories and screenplays, poetry, and a series of novels using the pen name Mary Westmacott. Her play, The Mousetrap, has run continuously in London's theater district since its premiere in 1952, breaking all records. She is the most widely published novelist of all time in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. The Mystery Writers of America named her Grand Master in 1955, based on the high quality of the body of her work and her contributions to the genre. She was the first writer ever to be so designated. She was voted Best Mystery Writer of the 20th Century in September 2000 at the Bouchercon Mystery Convention, the largest mystery convention in the world.

About the Performer: Anna Massey, a British actress, made her debut at The Cambridge Theater in The Reluctant Debutante. Her stage and screen credits include Rebecca, Hotel du Lac, and Angels and Insects. She also reads several other unabridged audiobooks that are published by The Audio Partners and available from Audiobooks Online: Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and Jane Austen's Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.