"What I intend to say to you will come as a shock . . ."
With these words, Lady Athelinda Playford--one of the world's most
beloved children's authors--springs a surprise on the lawyer entrusted
with her will. As guests arrive for a party at her Irish mansion, Lady
Playford has decided to cut off her two children without a penny . . .
and leave her vast fortune to someone else: an invalid who has only
weeks to live.
Among Lady Playford's visitors are two strangers: the famous Belgian
detective Hercule Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland
Yard. Neither knows why he has been invited--until Poirot begins to
wonder if Lady Playford expects a murder. But why does she seem so
determined to provoke a killer? And why--when the crime is committed,
despite Poirot's best efforts to stop it--does the identity of the
victim make no sense at all?
Addictive, ferociously clever, and packed with clues, wit, and murder,
Closed Casket is a triumph from an author whose work is "as tricky as
anything written by Agatha Christie" (Alexander McCall Smith, New York
Times Book Review, on The Monogram Murders)