Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly

Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly is a novella. Written by Agatha Christie in 1954 to help raise money for her local church at Churston Ferrers, the novella was ultimately never published in its original form. Instead, it became the basis for one of her favourite novels, Dead Man's Folly, and a Miss Marple story (Greenshaw's Folly) was written for the church instead.

In 2014, marking 60 years since it was written, this previously unpublished version of the story was finally published. Its cover and introduction are by Tom Adams, whose paintings graced Agatha Christie's paperback covers throughout the 1960s and 1970s. It also includes a preface by Agatha Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard, and an afterword about the writing of the story by Dr John Curran.

Synopsis
An urgent telephone call summons Poirot to Devonshire on what Miss Lemon declares is a "wild goose chase". The caller is the eccentric detective novelist, Mrs Ariadne Oliver, and the reason for her alarm seems based solely on woman's intuition. Is the fictional murder scenario she has been asked to devise a cover-up for something more sinister? And what is the significance of the Greenshore Folly, an architectural embarrassment in the sweeping grounds of the otherwise impressive Greenshore House?

Characters

 * Hercule Poirot
 * Miss Lemon
 * Ariadne Oliver
 * Sir George Stubbs
 * Lady Stubbs
 * Peggy Legge
 * Warborough
 * Paul Lopez
 * Merdle
 * Mrs Folliat

Publication history

 * 2014, HarperCollins, July 31, 2014, Hardcover, 160 pp, ISBN 9780007546398