Agatha Christie's Detectives: Five Complete Novels (The Murder at the Vicarage / Dead Man's Folly / Sad Cypress / Towards Zero / N or M?) [Hardcover]

Agatha Christie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 16, 1995

A low-priced collection of five unabridged mysteries includes Miss Marple's first case, The Murder at the Vicarage, along with Sad Cypress; N or M?; Towards Zero; and Dead Man's Folly.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 714 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (November 16, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399140794
• ISBN-13: 978-0399140792
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,085,145 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Agatha Christie was born in 1890 and created the detective Hercule Poirot in her debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920). She achieved wide popularity with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) and produced a total of eighty novels and short-story collections over six decades.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sampler of a wonderful banquet., June 11, 1998

By 

Lisa McDowell ([e-mail]) (Derry, Pa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Agatha Christie's Detectives: Five Complete Novels (The Murder at the Vicarage / Dead Man's Folly / Sad Cypress / Towards Zero / N or M?) (Hardcover)

If you are a Christie fan or someone looking to try Aggie, this compliation of 5 novels is the way to go. The hardest part is puting the book down after you read one story! Start this on a weekend when you don't have anything planned for the day. No wonder she is the Queen of Mysteries!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Christie is the unchallenged master., April 9, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Polson, Montana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Agatha Christie's Detectives: Five Complete Novels (The Murder at the Vicarage / Dead Man's Folly / Sad Cypress / Towards Zero / N or M?) (Hardcover)

Although I am not fond of Jane Marple, she makes a good showing in the Christie classic MURDER AT THE VICARIGE. And that unsurpassed, portly little man with the egg-shaped head cannot be beat. The intrigue of N OR M? held me breathless, and the classic novels TOWARDS ZERO and DEAD MAN"S FOLLY are definately keepers. Everyone loves the Queen of mystery; check out this book today!!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Familiarity breeds love, April 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Agatha Christie's Detectives: Five Complete Novels (The Murder at the Vicarage / Dead Man's Folly / Sad Cypress / Towards Zero / N or M?) (Hardcover)

Watch out when Miss Marple, part way through an Agatha Christie novel, muses over her breakfast newspaper and notes, randomly, three headlines. One of those headlines will become a clue. Bless Dame Agatha's heart! We can depend on her.

"The Murder at the Vicarage" lacks this trademark, for Jane Marple was making her first appearance and she, like Dame Agatha, had not yet got the hang of it. She makes her entry spouting gossip; later she knew better and kept such things to herself, only pursing her lips when all others, including the police, were exclaiming over a red herring.

Dame Agatha writes to a pattern. (Let's not say "formula" which lacks charm, a quality she oozes, even if somewhat mustily .

In the canon of mystery writers she takes a place well below Ruth Rendell, whose every book is different. But do we tire of "Cinderella?" of "Romeo and Juliet"? Should we chastise our little children when they insist at bedtime on every syllable in the story?

Once a man listed the books he would select for a shipwreck on a desert island. One was "Anything by Agatha Christie" because as soon as he finished the last page he would forget "whodunit" and be able to start all over. A form of immortality.