Colonel Race

In The Man in the Brown Suit Anne Beddingfield's chance witnessing of a man being killed in a subway station leads her to become involved in a world of diamond thieves, murderers, and political intrigue where she and mystery readers meet the incomparable Colonel Race for the first time. A first rate suspenseful mystery thriller. Agatha Christie at her very best!

Anne Beddingfeld observes a deadly accident and believes she has witnessed a murder. Impulsively following a chain of clues, Anne uncovers a sinister collection of plotters with a potentially lethal intolerance for the amateur sleuth. When a man dies in an apparent accident in a London tube station, Anne Beddingfeld notices the suspicious actions of a mysterious man in a brown suit. A second death that is seen as connected to the first by no one other than herself, puts Anne on the trail of the buried truth. Clues will drive her, alone, on a quest for justice that will result in her passage on a cruise ship bound for South Africa, and a chain of confrontations with a merciless band of professional thieves. This stand-alone novel, first published in 1924, shows Agatha Christie experimenting a little by both stepping away from her already established detective hero, Hercule Poirot, and blending stronger elements of the international thriller into her story. Replete with stolen diamonds, undercover agents, an exotic island hideaway and a steadfast heroine desperately trying to survive and make sense of it all, The Man in the Brown Suit remains one of the author's most spellbinding tales.

First published in 1924, "The Man in the Brown Suit" is a thrilling adventure and murder mystery by Agatha Christie. The protagonist is Anne Beddingfield, the orphaned daughter of a famous archaeologist, who goes to live with her father's solicitor and his wife in London. Anne is searching for an adventure and something exciting to occupy her time when she is witness to the sudden death of a man at Hyde Park Corner tube station when the man falls onto the electrified train track and is killed instantly. Anne's suspicions are aroused when a man claiming to be a doctor quickly examines the body, pronounces him dead, and then leaves suddenly. Anne sees that he has dropped a piece of paper on the ground and Anne takes the paper, insistent on investigating the matter further. Anne's detective work takes her on board a ship sailing to South Africa and soon she is caught up in a deadly mystery of stolen diamonds, bloody murders, kidnapping, government secrets, and violence at every turn. Christie's engrossing tale is full of intrigue, a complex mystery, and a surprising romance, in one of the famed author's most entertaining novels. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

In Sparkling Cyanide, Agatha Christie seats six-including a murderer-around a dining table set for seven, one year to the day that a beautiful heiress was poisoned in that very room. Six people sit down to a sumptuous meal at a table laid for seven. In front of the empty place is a sprig of rosemary-"rosemary for remembrance." A strange sentiment considering no one is likely to forget the night, exactly a year ago, that Rosemary Barton died at exactly the same table, her beautiful face unrecognizable, convulsed with pain and horror. But then Rosemary had always been memorable-she had the ability to arouse strong passions in most people she met. In one case, strong enough to kill....