Author:Agatha Christie,John Moffatt,Full Cast
Carla Lemarchant was a child of five when her mother was accused and convicted of poisoning her father, the famous painter Amyas Crale. After Caroline Crale dies in prison, Carla is sent to live with her uncle and aunt in Canada. Only on her twenty-first birthday does Carla learn of her family history when she reads a letter written by Caroline before her death, in which she denies murdering her husband. But if her mother didn't kill Amyas Crale, who did? Carla needs to know, because she is planning to get married and wishes to start her new life without this terrible shadow hanging over her. Desperate to find out the truth, she consults the best detective money can buy. With nothing to go on except five suspects who fit strangely into the pattern of a child's nursery rhyme, Hercule Poirot is faced with a formidable challenge to find the real killer...
A gripping tale, crafted with passion, and intelligence, and an honourable addendum to the golden age of the English novel
—— Simon Baker , New StatesmanA genuinely fascinating reading experience... A pageturner of the highest order. It is a genuine mystery - not a simple whodunnit but a constant revelation of a complex and tight-knit plot
—— Philippa Gregory , The TimesHe has a faultless ear for the varied nuances of mid-Victorian English... [and] takes a wicked pleasure in creating a dense underlay of references, a blend of historical fact and other authors' fiction which lies beneath his narrative and occasionally erupts into it... Clever and hugely readable
—— Andrew Taylor , IndependentTaylor's skill ensures the book never loses its grip... Hugely enjoyable...Conan Doyle, Dickens and Wilkie Collins knew how to do it, and Taylor has learned his lesson well... A great read. It intrigues, diverts and delights. It is clever and intricate and huge fun
—— Susan Hill , GuardianTaylor is marking out a territory as distinct and disturbing as Greenland, with the same imperative towards moral inquisition and a flatlands melancholy that is all his own
—— Hilary Mantel , Sunday TimesIntricate and vividly realised
—— Daily TelegraphTaylor is utterly enthralling
—— Bob Monkhouse , GuardianIntricate and vividly realised...a pin-sharp recreation of 19th-century life
—— Robert Douglas-Fairhurst , Daily TelegraphTaylor has a lot of fun with his premise, and readers should too
—— Suzi Feay , Independent on SundayTaylor] creates a vivid, kaleidoscopic world that constantly shifts before the reader's eyes
—— Judith Flanders , Sunday TelegraphRobert Harris's bullet-paced thriller... [It's] impossible to put this book down
—— Literary ReviewAn elegant and highly readable thriller
—— Douglas Hurd , SpectatorHarris's feel for political manoeuvring is buttressed by a strong sense of place and good fast pacing which the craftsman sustains to the final page
—— Times Literary SupplementIntelligent, perceptive and enormous fun
—— GuardianThe most fun I've had with a novel in ages
—— Nicholas Blincoe , Books of the Year, New StatesmanKnee-deep in intrigue and bristling with incident... An edgy journey through the dark corridors of power, a witty portrait of political and literary falsehoods, and a masterclass in gripping storytelling, Harris's dynamic novel is a page-turner of the old school.
—— Sunday Times CultureA contender for top thriller of 2010
—— Sun (Best books of 2010)A turbo-charged page-flipper: you're on page 300 before you take a breath...Child is a master of distances, spaces and the physics of opposing forces
—— The Scotsman