The Complete Early Poirot Omnibus: The Mysterious Affair at Styles; The Murder on the Links; The Man Who Was Number Four; and 25 Other Short Stories

by Agatha Christie, Finn J. D. John

Synopsis

The original saga of the Little Belgian:

Hercule Poirot made his first public appearance in 1920 at the age, one guesses, of about 60. He finally breathed his metaphorical last in 1975 at the age of maybe 75 or 80. And in that short span of time — either 55 years or about 20, depending on how you count it — Poirot became one of England's most profitable and ubiquitous export commodities.

But it's very clear that his creator, Agatha Christie, did not at first intend for it to go that way. She made a very definite attempt to end the Hercule Poirot saga in the mid-1920s, when his story consisted simply of three novels and 25 short stories.

It is that first Hercule Poirot bibliography, the one Christie clearly intended to leave for posterity when she typed up the last few words of “The Crag in the Dolomites” sometime in 1924, that is presented in this collection.

Here is what you will find in it:

• The Mysterious Affair at Styles (the first Hercule Poirot novel);
• The Murder on the Links (the second Hercule Poirot novel);
• “Tales with a Sting” (the first series of 12 Hercule Poirot short stories):
  • The Affair at the Victory Ball
  • The Curious Disappearance of the Opalsen Pearls
  • The Adventure of the King of Clubs
  • The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim
  • The Mystery of the Plymouth Express
  • The Adventure of “The Western Star”
  • The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor
  • The Kidnapped Prime Minister
  • The Million-Dollar Bond Robbery
  • The Adventure of the Cheap Flat
  • The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge
  • The Clue of the Chocolate Box
• “The Grey Cells of Monsieur Poirot” (the second series of Hercule Poirot short stories):
  • The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb
  • The Case of the Veiled Lady
  • The Kidnapping of Johnnie Waverly
  • The Market Basing Mystery
  • The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman
  • The Case of the Missing Will
  • The Submarine Plans
  • The Adventure of the Clapham Cook
  • The Lost Mine
  • The Cornish Mystery
  • The Double Clue
  • The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
  • The Lemesurier Inheritance
• “The Man Who Was Number Four” (the third series of short stories, a serial novel):
  • 1. The Unexpected Guest
  • 2. The Adventure of the Dartmoor Bungalow
  • 3. The Lady on the Stairs
  • 4. The Radium Thieves
  • 5. In the House of the Enemy
  • 6. The Yellow Jasmine Mystery
  • 7. The Chess Problem
  • 8. The Baited Trap
  • 9. The Peroxide Blonde
  • 10. The Terrible Catastrophe
  • 11. The Dying Chinaman
  • 12. The Crag in the Dolomites

The short stories in particular have been updated and changed over the years as they were published in various collections and anthologies. For this volume, we have gone back to the original 1923 source, the original stories, exactly as they were published in The Sketch magazine.

Release date: June 16, 2020

Publisher: Bankshott Books, An Imprint of Pulp-Lit Productions

Print pages: 778