Customer Reviews

Towards Zero

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Call me dumb, but this is my all-time sentimental favorite that left me gaping the 1st time I read it (waaay back when I was still in mini-skirts & pony-tails). Years - and dozens of Christie - later, it still stands high as the most amazing murder web ever-penned. A touch of romance here & there doesn't hurt either. A stunner woven with magnetic story-telling, glittering characters & a sensational, mind-shattering ending. Pure EVIL !

If Christie's Towards Zero (1944), published after The Moving Finger (1943) and before Death Comes As the End (1945), ranks as a personal favorite, it does so largely because it is one of Christie's novels which I return to repeatedly and find myself quickly engrossed, even though I know its ending.

Christie's power in Towards Zero is her ability to create a sinister air which permeates this novel written at the height of her career. While the absence of Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot may disappoint Christie fans, Superintendent Battle, whose role remains relatively marginal for much of the action of the novel, is the primary detective in the story. Like many of Christie's novels, Towards Zero is an English countryhouse murder mystery in which a limited number of suspects all congregate in one particular location.

Lady Tressilian's home, Gull's Point, overlooks a river which empties into Easterhead Bay. There, Lady Tressilian lives in relative peace with her companion, Mary Aldin, a sheepish young woman who acts as a secretary to Lady Tressilian. As the late summer approaches, Lady Tressilian finds herself hosting a series of guests, particularly her late husband's ward, Nevile Strange, accompanied by his new wife, Kay. Unfortunately, Nevile's first wife, Audrey, has also been invited. Christie, hardly prone to comedy comparable to a Noel Coward play, allows us to see the competing affections between these three characters. Why did Nevile leave his first wife whom everyone loved? Why does Kay find Audrey frightening? And why, after being rejected, does Audrey agree to come and visit Gull's Point at the latter end of the summer?

Eventually, we meet Mr. Treves, a kindly, well-meaning solicitor, whose considerable past experience allows him to speak with some authority on murderers and their victims. Unfortunately, after recounting an incident in which two children playing eventually lead to a fatality, an audience member finds Mr. Treves knowledge far too significant to ignore. Who among the guests at Gull's Point might be responsible for placing an "out of order" sign on an elevator so that an aging Mr. Treves would have to climb, much to his peril, flights of stairs? Christie's novel of suspense allows us briefly into the mind of the killer and while she never reveals anything that might give the end away, she manages to keep readers guessing until the last minute.

Agatha Christie was at the top of her form in the 1940's and this novel first published in 1944 could very well be her very best. Not only do we have an outstanding detective story complete with murder, motives, opportunities, red herrings, and numerous suspects, but we also have Christie probing the mind of a psychopathic killer. She has done this in other works, but never so brilliantly as she does it in "Towards Zero."

The setting is the lovely seaside estate of Lady Tressilian, a widow with no close relatives. However, several distant relations often visit her and our killer has chosen just such an occasion when there will be a houseparty as his "zero hour."

Audrey Strange is an especially memorable character from this novel as is her ex-husband Nevile, a well-known tennis star who is visiting with his current wife Kay. Other characters include: Mary Aldin, companion/secretary to Lady Tressilian ; Thomas Royde, an old friend home on leave; Ted Latimer, a friend of Kay's before her marriage to Nevile, and Superintendent Battle who returns for his finest appearance of all the five Christie novels he is in.

A young girl's trouble at school, a failed suicide attempt, and a tragic automobile accident from the past all figure prominently in this excellent story with an unforgettable and chilling ending.

[from the prologue] "[murder stories] begin in the wrong place! They begin with the murder. But the murder is the end. The story begins long before that-years before sometimes-with all the causes and events that bring certain people to a certain place on a certain day." This book begins with the planning of a murder [by an unknown hand], and keeps you guessing as to the actual victim. If you think that you know, you are probably wrong. It was enjoyable from beginning to end, and with a classic surprise ending.

"Towards Zero," one of Christie's lesser-known works, is a stunner nonetheless. The plot is not constructed in her usual pattern; the murder comes rather late, and Christie's penchant for misdirection is perhaps at its best here. The story begins by pointing in one direction, then reverses itself and points in quite a different direction. The preliminary chapters are also unusual; they set the reader up for several surprises that come at the very end. Read this one carefully!

This 1944 mystery begins with a group of criminologists discussing murder cases, one remarks that murder mysteries are written backwards, beginning with the crime when in fact, the real story begins much earlier.

The action then shifts to other characters as the countdown to zero hour begins. The diverse group includes a would be suicide; an athletic young man and his current and former wives; a planter from the Far East; and a wealthy invalid and her impoverished companion. We see these characters and others take the steps that ultimately lead then to an isolated seacoast estate and murder.

This is a Sgt. Battle mystery (The Seven Dials) and we are treated to some background information on him. Poirot is mentioned but only in passing. Christie, speaking through Battle, makes clear her feelings about the then current fad of psychology and those who attempt to apply it while only half understanding the theories.

The 60 year old story has worn well overall. A 21st century reader would be puzzled only by the stigma that some of the characters applied to divorce and the relatively unsophisicated forensic proceedures. This is, as is typical of Christie's work, well plotted, the clues are all there for the reader to follow through the maze of red herrings but nearly impossible to solve before the detective.

At the prologue, veteran lawyer Mr Treves remarked that investigations at a murder oft looked at the murder as the starting point when oft murder was the end and that the real story began long before.

And so Agatha Christie introduced many disparate threads in the beginning that appeared to have absolutely no relationship whatsoever with each other - Inspector Battle's daughter getting into trouble in school, a failed suicide of a man let down by the world when all he did was to be honest, a young man getting his wife and ex-wife down to his adopted country seat home at Gull's Point.

The deaths did not come in until about half the book, the first person to make the exit being Mr Treve himself. Next was the elderly widow Lady Tressilian, matron of Gull's Point.

Rounding up the usual suspects, we have Neville Strange, young, rich, semi-pro sportsman; his second wife Kay, a glamorous hothead from the Riviera; his divorced first wife Audrey, a complete contrast in character to Kay, stately, willowy and dignified; Thomas Royde, family friend on home visit from Malaya, devoted to Audrey for years; Edward Latimer, friend to and similarly devoted to Kay; Mary Adlin, Lady Tressilian's companion and manager of the household; plus an assortment of domestic help.

Did Kay kill Lady Tresslian, thinking she would be the beneficiary to the legacy as wife of Neville Strange? Especially when Neville declared he intended to divorce her to get Audrey back.

Was Audrey the culprit, knowing she was the actual beneficiacry, being the wife of Neville when the will was drawn up, mentioned in name specifically?

Or was it Neville, to thwart Lady Tresillian's objections to his divorcing Kay to get Audrey? Much as Lady Tresillian disliked his first divorce and his second wife and as much as she liked Audrey, she disapproved of his irresponsible behaviour.

Or perhaps it was Edward, confidante to Kay, who thought of doing her a favour by securing her an inheritance.

Or even Mary, who could be a repressed woman.

Slowly, possible motives and opportunities emerged for the suspects. Inspector Battle who had to cut short his trip found himself applying the lessons he learned from his daughter and from Hercule Poirot to detect the fiendishly cunning traps set by the murderer.

It was one of the more difficult puzzles created by Christie. While readers may be justified in feeling upset when characters narration were purposely withheld from them, enough clues and hints and omens were given in the book to point them to the culprit.

It would take a patient and careful reader to pick up all the clues and be able to see the final light when the last piece of the puzzle was revealed.

"Towards Zero" is an engaging and mystifying Agatha Christie mystery. It features neither Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, centering around the intellectual talents of Scotland Yard's Superintendent Battle (who appears in several other works). While on vacation, Battle finds himself called in to assist his nephew in a grisly murder with very clear-cut evidence as to the guilty party. But these clues are a little too clear-cut for Battle who knows that the real murderer cannot be the ones all signs point towards.

The story centers around the odd love-triangle of sorts between Nevile Strange, his ex-wife Audrey and his current wife Kay. The three are all visiting Gull's Point, Lady Tressilian's waterfront manse. Lady Tressilian is a wealthy widow whose husband was extremely fond of Nevile who, along with his wife, will inherit Lord Matthew's money when his wife passes. No one in the household approves of the three visiting together, for Kay is jealous of Audrey and Nevile seems to be deserting his second wife in favor of his first. Mixed into this tense situation is Thomas, Audrey's adopted brother of sorts, who has returned to England to ask Audrey to marry him, and Lady Tresillian's companion, Mary Aldin, a more than competent companion who senses the tension in the house and knows that something bad is going to happen. When it does, no one is prepared for who all of the clues point towards.

What makes "Towards Zero" so intriguing is Christie's storytelling. There are a variety of characters and experiences that have seemingly nothing to do with the central mystery which she manages to weave back into the story. Superintendent Battle's experience at his daughter's boarding school helps him solve the mystery, just as the knowledge of Mr. Treves' heart condition lets readers know that his death was not accidental and that the strange story he told at dinner one night led to the killer's undoing in the end. The solution to the mystery is sound, with many possible suspects floating about, but the end of the story itself seems rather rushed although fitting to the derring-do attitude of two of the characters.

Many authors do not hold Agatha Christie in particular high esteem, but she has always been a favorite of mine. This novel is one of her best. She was at her peak when "Towards Zero" was written and the book displays all of her cunning and style. It's a fascinating mystery. Characters were often a bit thin in Christie books but not in this novel. The people seem very real to the reader.So does the evil in the novel.
Christie was a master and this is one of her finest novels. Enough said.

I'm really glad that Amazon delivered as promised (on time and in a very good state) the Agatha Christie "Towards Zero" - one of my most wanted and appreciated books. In addition to that I am really grateful that you were able to deliver it as a "Large print" edition.

I really believe you deserve your slogan "Earth's biggest collection". And the book itself is exceptional. It reveals how the crime is being born, a long before the murder is committed. You will see a large collection of characters, emotions and coincidence. Agatha - the queen of written crime - will lead you by the hand from the very beginning till the very end. And after reading this book you will be tempted to taste another story and another and another.

Didn't you read it? Go ahead, it's high time to do it.