Product Description

Sure, actress Jane Wilkinson wants out of a miserable marriage, but is she guilty of stabbing her way out of it? She claims she's innocent. Hercule Poirot wonders if she's giving the performance of a lifetime.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #240466 in Books
• Published on: 1986-10-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 228 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780425099612
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Review
"The whole case is a triumph of Poirot's special qualities." Times Literary Supplement

About the Author
Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100 foreign countries. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.

From AudioFile
When actress Jane Wilkinson asks Hercule Poirot to help her get rid of her husband, he declines. Soon, however, the husband is dead; his widow and a few others are suspects; and Poirot tries to discover the truth. Thus evolves one of Agatha Christie's most thrilling thrillers. As presented by BBC Radio in an adaptation by Michael Bakewell, this dramatization is a perfect melding of book, actor, music and sound effects. The 22 actors, led by John Moffat as Hercule Poirot, use every nuance they can to grab the listener's attention and hold it. Hold it they do. This production is good mystery very well done. M.R. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Shows the Genius of Agatha Christie
Thirteen at dinner is an excellent book that young adults and adults would especially enjoy. I found it hard to put this book down. It is about the famous detective Hercule Poirot (a very popular character in the Agatha Christie series) who helps his friend Detective Japp on a very strange murder case. It seems that the wealthy Lord Edgware of well-known Regent Gate has been murdered and all evidence is apparently pointing to his wife, actress Jane Wilkinson. Poirot sets out to find out what has happened and finds the surprising truth. He asks himself questions (Who suppressed the letter? What induced Lord Edgware to change his mind about divorce? Who rang Jane Wilkinson up while at dinner at Chiswick?), which help him solve this and all of his cases. In the last few pages, Poirot describes step by step what really has happened. The resolution is both surprising and clever. Agatha Christie has done a great job both making the plot interesting and making people love and look up to the amazing Hercule Poirot. His character has obviously been thought out carefully as was the rest of the book. This book really shows the genius on Christie's part, and I have no idea how she came up with this smart and well put together plot. This book has made me want to read all of her books about Hercule Poirot. I also thought it was smart to make Poirot's assistant, Captain Hastings, the main voice. This made Poirot seem much more mysterious since the reader doesn't know what is going on inside his head. I would recommend this book to anybody who even just likes mysteries because it is one of the better books I have ever read.

Outstanding Detective Story Shows the Genius of Christie
Agatha Christie enters the world of the London theater in this novel, making most of the characters actors and actresses. Jane Wilkinson, a beautiful and popular actress, is in private life the wife of Lord Edgware. The marriage has never been happy, and now Jane wants to divorce Edgware and marry another man. She asks Poirot to intercede for her with her husband and get him to agree to the divorce. When Poirot meets with Lord Edgware he finds the baron very agreeable and says he has informed his wife of this previously in a letter. Jane insists she never received the letter, but is thrilled at the news.

A problem arises when Lord Edgware is killed that very evening and several witnesses testify that Jane was present at the home at the time of the murder. Twelve other reliable witnesses can attest to the fact that she was with them at a dinner party that evening and could not possibly have killed her husband.

Add to this plot a visiting American actress who does impersonations, a letter with a torn page, a pair of pince-nez, a chance remark by two strangers, a luncheon conversation about Paris, and Poirot solves the case in brilliant form proving his genius and why Agatha Christie is the undisputed mistress of mystery

Vintage Christie
The epitome of an Agatha Christie mystery and one of her five finest books. Hercule Poirot is at his most brilliant, along with sidekick Arthur "Dr. Watson" Hastings and a colorful assortment of suspects. An excellent choice as a first Christie book -- or as a second, or a third....