Postmark: Murder is an omnibus edition of Agatha Christie works published in 1986 by Nelson Doubleday by arrangement with Dodd Mead. The omnibus is available in hardcover only and comprises four novels: A Caribbean Mystery, Nemesis, Murder in Mesopotamia, Appointment with Death. Also published at around the same time was a book club edition.
Blurb on front flap[]
AGATHA
CHRISTIE
Postmark: Murder
Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot take to the road in this omnibus of four enticing escapades, each set in a different--and equally murderous--clime.
A Caribbean Mystery finds Miss Marple enjoying a peaceful holiday on the tropical island of St. Honore, the only time she ventures out of Eingland. As she basks in the sun and politely listens to the droning reminiscenses of old Major Palgrave, Miss Marple can't help wishing that somethinginteresting would happen--but she never suspects it will be murder! Only hours after the old man shows her a favorite keepsake--a snapshot he claims is of a murderer--the Major himself is found dead. A sinister jar of cold cream soon leads Miss Marple to fear another murder is planned! Taking irascible, crippled, and very rich old Jason Rafiel into her confidence, the shrewd old lady once again proves more than a match for a murderer!
When you're getting on in years, it's important to keep up with current events particularly the obituary columns.In Nemesis, Miss Marple learns of Mr Rafiel's death through The Times and remembers the brilliant, difficult old man fondly. Therefore she is quite surprised, a few weeks later, to receive a communication from the deceased financier himself! His solicitors inform Miss Marple that Mr. Rafiel left her a legacy of £20,000, on condition that she investigate and solve an unspecified crime within a year. Mr. Rafiel provided no clues or information--only a ticket for a tour of the Famous Houses and Gardens of Great Britain. Never one to refuse a challenge, Miss Marple sets off for the north of England ... and a visit to three genteel sisters with a surprisingly passionate past.
In Murder in Mesopotamia, Louise Leidner, the stunning wife of a distinguished archacologist, is suffering from nervous ""fancies." She expects to be killed at any moment, and her worried husband engages nurse Amy Leatheran to be her companion while he supervises the excavation of a nearby ancient Mesopotamian city. Once in camp, Nurse Leatheran soon finds herself immersed in an unnerving world of nocturnal noises, faces at the window, jealousy ... and fear. When Louise is found bludgeoned to death in her bedroom, it appears that her "fancies" were well founded--but things are seldom what they seem. Hercule Poirot suspects--each with a powerful hidden motive--and decipher a killer's curse.
In Appointment with Death, Poirot is vacationing in Jerusalem when he overhears a curious conversation floating on the still night air. "You see, don't you, that she's got to be killed?" These words return to haunt him when murder interrupts his tour of the Holy Land. The victim, obese, evil old Mrs Boynton, has been visiting the famed "rose red city of Petra, half as old as time," when she is discovered dead. The grotesque matriarch took such sadistic delight in manipulating her miserable family that all of them had reason to hate and fear her. A lost hypodermic and a pair of dirty puttees are all the dapper detective has to go on!
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