Closed Casket: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery

Closed Casket: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery
Agatha Christie

Sophie Hannah

Hercule Poirot returns in another brilliant murder mystery that can only be solved by the eponymous Belgian detective and his ‘little grey cells’.‘What I intend to say to you will come as a shock . . .’Lady Athelinda Playford has planned a house party at her mansion in Clonakilty, County Cork, but it is no ordinary gathering. As guests arrive, Lady Playford summons her lawyer to make an urgent change to her will – one she intends to announce at dinner that night. She has decided to cut off her two children without a penny and leave her fortune to someone who has only weeks to live . . .Among Lady Playford’s guests are two men she has never met – the famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard. Neither knows why he has been invited . . . until Poirot starts to wonder if Lady Playford expects a murderer to strike. But why does she seem so determined to provoke, in the presence of a possible killer?When the crime is committed in spite of Poirot’s best efforts to stop it, and the victim is not who he expected it to be, will he be able to find the culprit and solve the mystery?Following the phenomenal global success of The Monogram Murders, which was published to critical acclaim following a co-ordinated international launch in September 2014, international best-selling crime writer Sophie Hannah has been commissioned by Agatha Christie Limited to pen a second fully-authorised Poirot novel. The new book marks the centenary of the creation of Christie’s world-famous detective Hercule Poirot, introduced in her first book The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

Closed Casket

THE NEW HERCULE POIROT MYSTERY

SOPHIE HANNAH

Copyright (#u439a14ff-fe15-578c-80e7-9122b2d28e5f)

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins 2016

Closed Casket™ is a trade mark of Agatha Christie Limited

and Agatha Christie®, Poirot® and the Agatha Christie Signature

are registered trade marks of Agatha Christie Limited in the UK

and elsewhere.

Copyright © Agatha Christie Limited 2016

All rights reserved.

www.agathachristie.com (http://www.agathachristie.com)

Jacket design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016

Sophie Hannah asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008134099

Ebook Edition © September 2016 ISBN: 9780008134112

Version: 2018-10-02

Dedication (#u439a14ff-fe15-578c-80e7-9122b2d28e5f)

For Mathew and James Prichard and family,

with love

Table of Contents

Cover (#uf4016184-2bb1-5e65-84e4-87cb4937a07a)

Title Page (#uab1d6f97-fce0-58ea-ac48-3d23efe729c2)

Copyright (#u434b2bc9-9080-585b-9827-c9ab40738737)

Dedication (#ua6f1dc59-2b7a-5dfb-b78f-b5d157acd862)

Part One (#u2f9668da-98ea-5e58-8c4c-6e11d00906cb)

Chapter 1: A New Will (#u56154e13-c5e2-524d-8669-2bc585190545)

Chapter 2: A Surprise Reunion (#uda954b47-1eda-5a8e-9463-82c1a375ef90)

Chapter 3: A Particular Interest in Death (#u1e20ece7-5157-56de-873e-5634d6756f26)

Chapter 4: An Unexpected Admirer (#u0de728de-16d3-5bfb-ad51-99be01fbc8b5)

Chapter 5: Tears Before Dinner (#ud182c865-2991-5af5-9b2c-af77e79487df)

Chapter 6: The Announcement (#u5395e9ac-18c0-5b1d-8707-43a46a5a4236)

Chapter 7: The Reaction (#u104a8e4b-352d-5a87-98b1-69cf5bb957f3)

Chapter 8: A Stroll in the Gardens (#uf8efa0de-9930-59a7-b68f-4ecda679d3d2)

Chapter 9: King John (#u50593b85-fa2a-5495-894a-a39affb99648)

Chapter 10: Open Casket (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11: Overheard Voices (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12: Sophie Points a Finger (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Two (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13: Enter the Gardaí (#litres_trial_promo)