Part of Hercule Poirot, book 0.52
First published 2013
Hercule Poirot arrives in a picturesque English village to participate in what should be harmless entertainment. The locals have organized a mock murder mystery as party games, complete with fake clues and staged drama. Poirot agrees to play detective in this theatrical production. But the pretend crime becomes genuine tragedy when someone dies for real. The Belgian detective must abandon his role as participant and return to his true calling. What began as village amusement transforms into a serious investigation. Poirot faces the challenge of separating manufactured evidence from actual clues. The game's artificial mystery now conceals a real killer among the players. Christie weaves local references throughout this story, originally written for charity in 1954. The novella remained unpublished for six decades while Christie expanded the concept into her full length novel Dead Man's Folly.
Genres: fiction, classic-literature, 20th-century, british-literature, detective, agatha-christie, cozy-mystery, amateur-sleuth
Vibes: atmospheric, cozy, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, fake-dating, found-family
Setting: England, Greenshore
Period: 1954
80 pages · Kindle Edition · William Morrow Paperbacks