A Poirot Quintet is an omnibus edition of Agatha Christie works published by Collins in 1977. It features five Hercule Poirot novels: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Mystery of the Blue Train, Dumb Witness, After the Funeral and Death on the Nile. The book is available in hardcover only. Besides the first edition, there is a second printing with ISBN 9780002446822. Circa 1981 there was a further edition by Book Club Associates.
Besides the omnibus of five novels, the volume also carries, as an introduction, excerpts from Part V Section III of Agatha Christie's An Autobiography in which she describes "How Poirot Came to Be".[1]
Blurb on front flap[]
When Agatha Christie died in 1976 she had held the uncontested title of Queen of Cith rime for over fifty years and had written over eighty books with a staggering world-wide sales of around 400 million copies. She was also the creator of one of the most famous detectives of all time Hercule Poirot.
A POIROT QUINTET consists of five of the most celebrated detective stories featuring M. Poirot.
THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD became an overnight sensation when first published in 1926 and made Agatha Christie famous. The surprise ending of the book is still causing endless debate.
THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN stands first in a long line of tour de force novels. A jewel robbery and murder on the luxury Calais-Nice express provide a splendid opportunity for portraying upper-class travel in the 1920's.
DUMB WITNESS is one of the last books in which Colonel (sic) Hastings appears. The intriguing story begins when Poirot receives a letter from a woman who fears for her life--two months after her death.
In AFTER THE FUNERAL, people and pictures are definitely not what they seem. This causes Poirot no end of vexation and the reader no end of pleasure.
Finally DEATH ON THE NILE, now being filmed. This was Agatha Christie's favourite of her "foreign travel" books resulting from accompanying her archaeologist husband Sir Max Mallowan.
References[]
- ↑ Agatha Christie, An Autobiography (London: HarperCollins, 2010), 227ff, ebook edition.