Book Description

Reclusive tycoon Sir Oswald Coote and his melancholy wife, Lady Coote, have hit upon the ideal plan to spice up their quiet lives. They'll host a lavish weekend party at Chimneys. their isolated estate, and invite only "bright young things." But the festive mood is clouded by doom. A practical joke involving seven clocks and a sleeping guest has ended in accidental death--and cause for alarm. For the guests may not be all that they appear. And as whispers of a strange club called Seven Dials echo through the halls of Chimneys, all hands will be pointing to murder...

From AudioFile

This production suffers in two aspects: The story is weak, and the narration is routine, even listless. Despite a melodious voice and attractive British accent, Jenny Funnell has to struggle with sketchy, unmemorable characters and a heroine with a cutesy nickname, "Bundle," aka Lady Eileen Brent. (Remember Christie's Tuppence? Both female sleuths are from her earliest works.) When researching the history of this book, I encountered rave reviews, puzzling, until I noticed that they involved the unabridged original. Reviews of abridgments have not been so generous--like this one. The story: Bundle encounters a murder and a secret society. Enough said. D.R.W.

Book Dimension

length: (cm)17.1 　　　 　　　　　 　　　　　 width:(cm)10.8

無可爭議的偵探小說女王，偵探文學史上最偉大的作傢之一。

阿加莎·剋裏斯蒂原名為阿加莎·瑪麗·剋拉麗莎·米勒，一八九○年九月十五日生於英國德文郡托基的阿什菲爾德宅邸。她幾乎沒有接受過正規的教育，但酷愛閱讀，尤其癡迷於歇洛剋·福爾摩斯的故事。

第一次世界大戰期間，阿加莎·剋裏斯蒂成瞭一名誌願者。戰爭結束後，她創作瞭自己的第一部偵探小說《斯泰爾斯莊園奇案》。幾經周摺，作品於一九二○正式齣版，由此開啓瞭剋裏斯蒂輝煌的創作生涯。一九二六年，《羅傑疑案》由哈珀柯林斯齣版公司齣版。這部作品一舉奠定瞭阿加莎·剋裏斯蒂在偵探文學領域不可撼動的地位。之後，她又陸續齣版瞭《東方快車謀殺案》、《ABC 謀殺案》、《尼羅河上的慘案》、《無人生還》、《陽光下的罪惡》等膾炙人口的作品。時至今日，這些作品依然是世界偵探文學寶庫裏最寶貴的財富。根據她的小說改編而成的舞颱劇《捕鼠器》，已經成為世界上公演場次最多的劇目；而在影視改編方麵，《東方快車謀殺案》為英格麗·褒曼斬獲奧斯卡大奬，《尼羅河上的慘案》更是成為瞭幾代人心目中的經典。

阿加莎·剋裏斯蒂的創作生涯持續瞭五十餘年，總共創作瞭八十餘部偵探小說。她的作品暢銷全世界一百多個國傢和地區，纍計銷量已經突破二十億冊。她創造的小鬍子偵探波洛和老處女偵探馬普爾小姐為讀者津津樂道。阿加莎·剋裏斯蒂是柯南·道爾之後最偉大的偵探小說作傢，是偵探文學黃金時代的開創者和集大成者。一九七一年，英國女王授予剋裏斯蒂爵士稱號，以錶彰其不朽的貢獻。

一九七六年一月十二日，阿加莎·剋裏斯蒂