An amateur sleuth aids a Maine town plagued by poison in this mystery by Agatha Christie's favorite American author. With talk of war all over the radio waves, antiquarian book dealer Henry Gamadge is back in Maine, this time by invitation of his friend Detective Mitchell. Mitchell has a real puzzler on his hands: three different children have been poisoned with deadly nightshade, and there is no motive that could possibly link all three poisonings,...

In this mystery novella by Agatha Christie's favorite American author, a 1940s antiquarian book dealer searches for a missing Manhattanite. Alice Dunbar was a very proper Upper East Side woman with a very boring life. There is, in fact, absolutely no reason why she should go missing, and yet that's exactly what she does. One hot summer day, shortly after an elderly aunt's funeral, Alice Dunbar changes into a new outfit, puts on some make-up, and...

An antiquarian book dealer spends his vacation investigating murder in this series opener from Agatha Christie's favorite American author. New York handwriting and rare book expert-and a gentleman sleuth-Henry Gamadge is vacationing in coastal Maine when the police there need his help. It's a strange case involving a seemingly natural death, a large inheritance, a mysterious nighttime rendezvous, and a troupe of summer stock actors who start dying...

From Agatha Christie's favorite American author-a bookish sleuth attempts to solve the murder of a spiritual eccentric at a wealthy estate. Just about any of the guests at Johnny Redfield's party seems to have a good reason to have killed the guest of honor, Johnny's Californian aunt who, with her astral name and vague pretensions of mysticism, does not exactly blend in the elegant New York atmosphere that surrounds her. And what's more, no one has...

A crossword puzzle leads a 1950s antiquarian book dealer to a puzzling family in this mystery by Agatha Christie's favorite author. Amateur detective Henry Gamadge, is summoned to a secluded estate by way of a crossword puzzle, the only means of communication for a widow being held captive by her relatives. They claim she's lost her mind; she thinks they have shut her away to keep her from spilling on her late husband's suspicious suicide. Gamadge...

A strange tome and a terrified wife draw a 1950s antiquarian book dealer into a murder case in this mystery by Agatha Christie's favorite American author. Young Rena Austen, newly wed, is afraid she's made a terrible mistake. Her husband, once a dashingly romantic figure of a wounded war hero, has become a moody lay-about, and they are sharing a gloomy house on the Upper East Side of New York with his unpleasant, always-there family. When her husband...

From Agatha Christie's favorite American author-a 1940s amateur sleuth must save a friend accused of murder in a small New York town. Frazer's Mills, in Westchester County, New York, is a small, isolated village, where everyone knows everyone else and things haven't changed much (and the mills have been closed for quite some time). When murder suddenly intrudes upon this sedate rural backwater, antiquarian book dealer Henry Gamadge arrives to solve...

An amateur sleuth with an eye for fakes is on the lookout for a murderer in this mystery by Agatha Christie's favorite American author. What begins as a courtesy call on his wife's friend, Miss Julia Paxton, turns into another case for Henry Gamadge, antiquarian book dealer, handwriting expert, and amateur detective. Miss Paxton presents Gamadge with a mystery: a framed etching that had always hung in the hallway of the Ashbury mansion has suddenly...