求Agatha Christie的《七钟面》故事概要（英文版）
主要作品
推理小说（共80部）
1、
长篇33部
1920 《斯泰尔斯庄园奇案》/《斯泰尔斯的神秘案件》 The Mysterious Affair at Styles （阿瑟·黑斯廷斯上尉、詹姆斯·杰普探长）
1923《高尔夫球场命案》/《高尔夫球场的疑云》/《高尔夫球场上的谋杀案》 Murder on the Links （黑斯廷斯上尉）
1926《罗杰疑案》/《罗杰·艾克罗伊德谋杀案》/《罗杰·亚克洛伊命案》/《迷雾》/《谜情记》 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
1927《四魔头》/《四巨头》/《四大魔头》The Big Four （黑斯廷斯上尉）
1928《蓝色列车之谜》/《蓝色特快上的秘密》The Mystery of the Blue Train
1932《悬崖山庄奇案》/《海滨古宅险情》/《古屋疑云》/《悬崖山庄的奇案》 Peril at End House （黑斯廷斯上尉、杰普探长）
1933《人性记录》/《埃奇威尔爵士之死》/《不祥的宴会》 Lord Edgware Dies / Thirteen at Dinner （黑斯廷斯上尉、杰普探长）
1934《东方快车谋杀案》Murder on the Orient Express / Murder in the Calais Coach
1935 《三幕悲剧》 Three-Act Tragedy / Murder in Three Acts
1935《云中命案》/《云中奇案》 Death in the Clouds / Death in the Air （杰普探长）
1936《ABC谋杀案》 The ABC Murders （黑斯廷斯上尉、杰普探长）
1936《古墓之谜》 Murder in Mesopotamia
1936 《底牌》/《牌中牌》Cards on the Table （亚瑞妮·奥利弗太太、强尼·雷斯上校、巴特尔警监）
1937《沉默的证人》/《哑证人》/《无言的证人》 Dumb Witness / Poirot Loses a Client （黑斯廷斯上尉）
1937《尼罗河上的惨案》/ 《尼罗河谋杀案》Death on the Nile （雷斯上校）
1938《死亡约会》 Appointment with Death
1938《波洛圣诞探案记》/《圣诞奇案》Hercule Poirot's Christmas / Murder for Christmas-A Holliday for Murder
1940《柏棺》/《H庄园的一次午餐》Sad Cypress
1940 《牙医谋杀案》 One,Two,Buckle My Shoe / The Patriotic Murders-An Overdose of death （杰普探长）
1941 《阳光下的罪恶》Evil Under the Sun
1943《啤酒谋杀案》 Five Little Pigs / Murder in Retrospect
1946《空谷幽魂》/《空幻之屋》 The Hollow / Murder After Hours
1948《遗产风波》/《涨潮时节》/《致命遗产》Taken at the Flood / There is a Tide （斯彭斯警官）
1952《清洁女工之死》 Mrs. McGinty's Dead （斯彭斯警官、奥利弗太太）
1953《葬礼之后》 After the Funeral / Funerals Are Fatal
1955《外国学生宿舍谋杀案》/《国际学舍谋杀案》/《山核桃大街谋杀案》Hickory Dickory Dock / Hickory Dickory Death （李蒙小姐）
1956《死人的殿堂》/《古宅迷踪》 Dead Man's Folly （奥利弗太太、李蒙小姐）
1959《鸽群中的猫》/《校园疑云》 Cat Among the Pigeons
1963《怪钟疑案》 The Clocks （巴特尔警监的儿子柯林·蓝姆，又作柯林·兰穆Colin Lamb）
1966《公寓女郎》/《第三个女郎》 Third Girl （奥利弗太太、李蒙小姐）
1969《万圣节前夜的谋杀案》 Hallowe'en Party （斯彭斯警官、奥利弗太太）
1972 《旧罪的阴影》/《大象的证词》 Elephants Can Remember （奥利弗太太、李蒙小姐）
1975《帷幕》/《幕后凶手》Curtain - Poirot's Last Case（黑斯廷斯上尉）
小说集 5部
1924《首相绑架案》/《波罗探案集》Poirot Investigates 收录了波洛和黑斯廷斯为主角的11个短篇探案小说。
1937《幽巷谋杀案》 Murder in the Mews / Dead Man's Mirro 收录了波洛的4个中篇探案小说。
1947《赫尔克里的丰功伟绩》/《大侦探十二奇案》The Labours of Hercules 收录了波洛的12大奇案。
1960《雪地上的女尸》 The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding 收录了6个探案故事，5篇波洛的和1篇马普尔的。
1974 《蒙面女人》/《艺术舞会奇案——波洛探案精萃》Poirot's Early Stories 收录了波洛的18个短篇探案小说
2011 《阿加莎克里斯蒂秘密笔记》Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks 由约翰·克伦整理出版的阿加莎的笔记，书里收录了两篇阿加莎身前未发表过的波洛的短篇小说：《制服恶犬克尔柏洛斯》（与《赫尔克里的丰功伟绩》里的那篇同名小说内容完全不同）和《狗球事件》。
2．以简·马普尔小姐为主角 14部
长篇 12部
1930 《寓所谜案》 The Murder at the Vicarage
1942 《藏书室女尸之谜》The Body in the Library
1943《魔手》/《平静小镇里的罪恶》 The Moving Finger
1950《谋杀启事》 A Murder Is Announced （马普尔侄子米德尔郡警督德莫特·克拉多克）
1952《借镜杀人》/《庄园谜案》They Do It with Mirrors / Murder with Mirrors
1953《黑麦奇案》 A Pocket Full of Rye
1957《命案目睹记》 4.50 from Paddington / What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw （德莫特·克拉多克）
1962《破镜谋杀案》/《迟来的报复》 The Mirror Crack'd from Side to side / The Mirror Crack'd（ 德莫特·克拉多克）
1964《加勒比海之谜》 A Caribbean Mystery
1965《伯特伦旅馆之谜》 At Bertram's Hotel
1971《复仇女神》 Nemesis
1976《沉睡的谋杀案》/《神秘的别墅》 Sleeping Murder
小说集 2部
1932《死亡草》The Thirteen Problems / The Tuesday Club Murders 收录了马普尔小姐的13个探案故事集。
1979《马普尔小姐探案》 Miss Marple's Final Cases 收录了马普尔小姐的6个故事和2个灵异故事。
注：另外1960年的《雪地上的女尸》收录了6个探案故事，其中有1篇是马普尔的，另外5篇是波洛的。
3．以 汤米和塔彭丝夫妇 为主角 5部
主角简介：
全名：托马斯·贝雷斯福德、普鲁登丝·考利
人称：汤米、塔彭丝（原称杜本丝）
国籍：英国
职业：夫妻同是英国间谍
成就：破获多起间谍案件，多次挽救英国于水深火热之中，确保了英国政府的统治地位，从而保证了英国社会秩序的稳定。
初次登场：1922《暗藏杀机》/《年轻冒险家》/《秘密对手》The Secret Adversary （杰普探长）
再次联手：1929 《犯罪团伙》/《同谋者》 Partners in Crime
已有儿女：1941《密码》/《桑苏西来客》 N or M?
儿孙满堂：1968《煦阳岭的疑云》 By the Pricking of My Thumbs （从此书正文开始第46页可以看到塔彭丝对《犯罪团伙》和《桑苏西来客》时的回忆）
收山之作：1973《命运之门》 Postern of Fate
4．以 巴陀督探长/巴特尔警监（Superintendant Battle）为主角 3部
1925 《名苑猎凶》/《烟囱大厦的秘密》The Secret of Chimneys
1929《七面钟之谜》/《七钟面之谜》 The Seven Dials Mystery
1944《零时》/《走向决定性的时刻》 Towards Zero
注：1936 《底牌》里，巴特尔警监和波洛以及奥利弗太太、雷斯上校一起查案。1939《杀人不难》最后两章，巴特尔作为伦敦警察厅的警监出现过。1963《怪钟疑案》巴特尔的儿子柯林·兰穆与波洛相遇，一起破案。
5.以 雷斯(Colonel Johnny Race） 为主角的 2部
1924 《褐衣男子》The Man in the Brown Suit
1945 《死的怀念》/《闪光的氰化物》/《万灵节之死》Sparkling Cyanide / Remembered Death （巴特尔警督的继任人肯普）
注：1936《底牌》和1937《尼罗河上的惨案》，强尼·雷斯上校和波洛一起破案。
6．以 业余侦探 为主角及一些短篇小说集、悬疑小说 13部
1931 《斯塔福特疑案》/《神秘的西塔福特》 The Sittaford Mystery / Murder at Hazelmoor
1934 《悬崖上的谋杀》 Why Didn't They Ask Evans? / The Boomerang Clue
1939《杀人不难》 Murder Is Easy / Easy to Kill （巴特尔警监）
1939《无人生还》/《十个印第安小人》/《孤岛奇案》/《十个小黑人》 And Then There Were None / Ten Little Indians/Niggers ——首创“孤岛模式”的阿加莎最精彩的悬疑小说
1945《死亡终局》 Death Comes as the End —— 埃及古代悬疑小说
1949《怪屋》/《畸形屋》 Crooked House
1950 《捕鼠器》 舞台剧（另有小说版）
1951《他们来到巴格达》 They Came to Baghdad
1954《地狱之旅》/《目的地不明》 Destination Unknown / So Many Steps to Death
1958《奉命谋杀》/《无妄之灾》 Ordeal by Innocence
1961《白马酒店》 The Pale Horse （奥利弗太太）
1967 《长夜》/《无尽长夜》/《此夜绵绵》Endless Night
1970《天涯过客》 Passenger to Frankfurt
7. 其他5部
1930《神秘的奎恩先生》 The Mysterious Mr. Quin 以哈里·奎恩/Harley Quin为主角华丽探案集
1933《死亡之犬》 The Hound of Death 收录了12个具有神秘、灵异色彩的探案故事。
1934《金色的机遇》The Listerdale Mystery 收录了12个没有名侦探的轻松浪漫故事集。
1934《惊险的浪漫》 Parker Pyne Investigates / Mr. Parker Pyne Detective （奥利弗太太、李蒙小姐）阿加莎笔下另一侦探帕克·派恩的华丽探案集，波洛的老搭档奥利弗太太和秘书李蒙小姐此时都被派恩先生聘用。
1950 《捕鼠器》/《三只瞎老鼠及其他》Three Blind Mice and Other Stories 全球首版为美国Dodd Mead的1950版。英国版及中国贵州版均未收录。中文首版是人民文学出版社的2010 版（2010.09 郑涛，石航 译），译名《捕鼠器》。此书共收录了《三只瞎老鼠》、《软尺谋杀案》、《爱情侦探》等9篇阿加莎的短篇小说集。 其中《三只瞎老鼠》为舞台剧《瞎老鼠》的小说版，其他8篇在其他小说集《马普尔小姐探案》、《蒙面女人》、《雪地上的女尸》、《神秘的第三者》中有收录。
1991 《神秘的第三者》 Problem at Pollensa Bay 阿加莎·克里斯蒂的短篇小说数量众多，其中有一些仅在美国被编入过选集，而始终未在英国出版。为了弥补这个缺憾，英国的出版公司于1991年11月推出了《神秘的第三者》。此书是一部收录了8篇阿加莎的短篇小说集。这本书里不仅有侦探小说（波洛、帕克·派恩、哈里·奎恩各有2篇），还有悬念小说以及情感小说。
1997《灯火阑珊》/《残光夜影》 While the Light Lasts 全球首版为英国Harper Collins的1997.08版。中国大陆贵州版未收录。中文版目前只有由台湾远流出版事业事业股份有限公司出版（2004.04.01 柯翠莲译）的繁体中文版。此书共收录了9篇阿加莎的短篇小说集，其中2篇是波洛的。
以下内容,转自http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/christie.htm
你从上边还可以搜到好多其他人物相关情况.
Agatha Christie (1890-1976) - Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller - wrote also as Mary Westmacott
Very prolific British author of mystery novels and short stories, creator of Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective, and Miss Jane Marple. Christie wrote more than 70 detective novels under the surname of her first husband, Colonel Archibald Christie. She also published a series of romances and a children's book.
'"And now, messieurs et mesdames," said Poirot rapidly, "I will continue with what I was about to say. Understand this, I mean to arrive at the truth. The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seeker after it. I am much aged, my powers may not be what they were." Here he clearly expected a contradiction. "In all probability this is the last case I shall ever investigate. But Hercule Poirot does not end with a failure. Messieurs at mesdames, I tell you, I mean to know. And I shall know - in spite of you all."' (from The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 1926)
Agatha Christie was born in Torquay, in the county of Devon, as the daughter of Frederick Alvah Miller, an American with a moderate private income, and Clarissa Miller. Her father died when she was a child. Christie was educated home, where her mother encouraged her to write from very early age. At sixteen she was sent to school in Paris where she studied singing and piano. Christie was an accomplished pianist but her stage fright and shyness prevented her from pursuing a career in music. In her books Christie seldom referred to music, although her detectives, Poirot and Miss Marple, show interest in opera and Poirot sings in THE A.B.C. MURDERS (1936) a World War I song. When Christie's mother took her to Cairo for a winter, she wrote there a novel. Encouraged by Eden Philpotts, neighbor and friend in Torquay, she devoted herself into writing and had short stories published.
In 1914 Christie married Archibald Christie, an officer in the Flying Royal Corps; their daughter, Rosalind, was born in 1919. During World War I she worked in a Red Cross Hospital in Torquayas a hospital dispenser, which gave her a knowledge of poisons. It was to be useful when she started writing mysteries. Christie's first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introduced Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective, who appeared in more than 40 books, the last of which was CURTAIN (1975). The Christies bought a house and named it 'Styles' after the first novel.
Poirot was an amiably comic character with egg-shaped head, eccentric whose friend Captain Hastings represents the "idiot narrator" - familiar from Sherlock Holmes stories. Poirot draws conclusions from observing people's conduct and from objects around him, creating a chain of facts that finally reveal the murderer. '"He tapped his forehead. "These little gray cells. It is 'up to them' - as you say over here."' Behind the apparently separate details is always a pattern, which only Poirot is able to see.
Miss Marple, an elderly spinster, was a typical English character, but when Poirot used logic and rational methods, Marple relied on her feminine sensitivity and empathy to solve crimes. She was born and lived in the village of St. Mary Mead. Both Poirot and Marple did not have any family life, but Poirot also travelled much. Marple was featured in 17 novels, the first being MURDER AT THE VICARAGE (1930) and the last SLEEPING MURDER (1977). She was reportedly based on the author's own grandmother. Miss Marple made her first screen appearance in 1961 in Murder She Said, starring Margaret Rutherford. It was based on the novel 4:50 FROM PADDINGTON (1957). It was followed by Murder at the Galop (1963), Murder Ahoy (1964), and Murder Most Foul (1964), all directed by George Pollock. The BBC TV series starring Joan Hickson ran 1984-87. Gracie Fields played Miss Marple on television in an adaptation of A Murder Is Announced (1956).
Poirot, a former policeman, was forced to flee his country after the German invasion of Belgium in 1914. His assistant Captain Hastings married in the early 1930s and Poirot settled to London's Whitehaven Mansions. Poirot is short - only five feet four inches tall. He has waxed moustache, egg-shaped head and small feet. Poirot first appeared on screen in Alibi (1931). It was based on THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD (1926), which was partly inspired by Anton Chekhov's novel The Shooting Party (1884-1885). "Every murderer is probably somebody's old friend," Christie wrote in it. With these kind of insights in motives and methods of a murder Christie proved that she could have been a competent teacher at police academies. Peter Ustinov played Poirot in Death on the Nile (1978), Evil under the Sun (1982), and Appointment with Death (1988). David Suchet was Poirot in the UK television series (1989-91). In Murder by the Book (1986) Ian Holm's Poirot investigated his own murder. Tony Randall played Poirot in Frank Tashlin's unorthodox adaptation The Alphabet Murders (1965), in which Anita Ekberg galloped on horseback through Kensington Gardens.
In 56 years Christie wrote 66 detective novels, among the best of which are The Murder of Roger Acroyd, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (1934), DEATH ON THE NILE (1937), and TEN LITTLE NIGGERS (1939). The film version of Ten Little Niggers (1945, US title: And Then There Were None) by the French director René Clair, starring Walter Huston and Barry Fitzgerald, is one of the most faithful Christie adaptations. In addition to these mysteries, Christie wrote her autobiography (1977), and several plays, including THE MOUSETRAP, which run more than 30 years continuously in London, and had 8 862 performances at the Ambassadors Theatre in London. The play was based on the short story 'Three Blind Mice', and was produced in 1952 in Nottingham and London. The original company at the Ambassadors Theatre included Richard Attenborough as the detective.
Christie's marriage broke up in 1926. Archie Christie, who worked in the City, announced that he had fallen in love with a younger woman, Nancy Neele. In the same year Christie's beloved mother died. After hearing that her husband had left for Miss Neele's house, Christie disappeared for a time. "I would gladly give £500 if I could only hear where my wife is," said Colonel Christie. The story of her real life (love?) adventure in the 1926, when she lived in a Harrowgate hotel under the name Mrs. Neele, was basis for the film Agatha. It was directed in 1978 by Michael Apted. In title role was Vanessa Redgrave. Christie's divorce was finalized in 1928, and two years later she married the archaeologist Max Mallowan. She had met him on her travels in Near East in 1927, and accompanied him on his excavations of sites in Syria and Iraq. Later Christie used these exotic settings in her novels MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA (1936) and Death on the Nile (1937). Her own archeological adventures were recounted in COME TELL ME HOW YOU LIVE (1946). Mallowan was Catholic and fourteen years her junior; he became one of the most prominent archaeologist of his generation. Of her marriage the writer told reporters: "An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have. The older she gets, the more interested he is in her." Mallowan worked in Iraq in the 1950s but returnmed to England, when Christie's health grew weaker. His most famous book was Nimrud and its Remains.
Christie's most prolific period began in the late 1920s. During the 1930s he published four non-series mystery novels, fourteen Poirot novels, two Marple novels, two Superintendent Battle books, a book of stories featuring Harley Quin and another featuring Mr. Parken Pyne, an additional Maru Westmacott book, and two original plays. In 1936 she published the first of six psychological romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. After visiting Luxor in 1937, where Christie saw Howard Carter, she wrote the play AKHNATON, which was not published until 1973. It dramatized the fate of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhnaton, who tried to replace the old gods with monotheism, and Nefertiti, his wife. Curiously, the Finnish writer Mika Waltari, who gained later international fame with his historical novel The Egyptian (1945), wrote also in the same year a play about the same king, Akhnaton, auringosta syntynyt (1937). Christie's play was prodeced in New York as Akhnaton and Nefertiti in 1979 and next year in London.
During WW II Christie worked in the dispensary of University College Hospital in London. She also produced twelve completed novels. After the war she continued to write prolifically, also gaining success on the stage and in the cinema. Witness for the Prosecution, for example, was chosen the best foreign play of the 1954-55 season by the New York Drama Critics Circle. Play had opened in London in October 1953 and by December 1954, it was on Broadway. With Max Mallowan she traveled in 1947 and 1949 to expeditions to Nimrud, the ancient capital of Assyria, and in the Tigris Valley.
Among the many film adaptations are Murder on the Orient Express (1974), directed by Sidney Lument and with Albert Finney as Poirot, and Death on the Nile (1978), with Peter Ustinov as Poirot. (see list below) Both films were nostalgic costume dramas. Sidney Lumet wrote in Making Movies (1995) that clothes contribute an enormus amount to the style of the picture. "When Betty Bacall makes her first appearance in Murder on the Orient Express, she's wearing a full-length peach-colored bias-cut velvet dress with a matching hat and egret feather. Jacqueline Bisset, for her first appearance, wears a full-length blue silk dress, a matching jacket with a white ermine collar, and a tiny pillbox hat with a feather... The object was to thrust the audience into a world it never knew - to create a feeling of how glamorous things used to be." Even the small parts in Murder on the Orient Express was filled by famous stars. Richard Widmark was the victim, Lauren Bacall the American matron, Vanessa Redgrave the lady with the husband, Ingrid Berman the nurse, and John Gielgud the Jeeves character. Also Sean Connery and Anthony Perkins appeared.
According to Billy Wilder, Christie herself considered his Witness for the Prosecution the best film adaptation of her work. Wilder rewrote with Harry Kurnitz Christie's dialogue but did not change the clever plot with a surprise ending. In the film Charles Laughton was Sir Wilfrid, a barrister, who defends Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power), an inventor, accused of murdering a middle-aged widowed woman. Marlene Dietrich was his German wife Christie, an actress, eager to testify against her husband. Wilfrid has just recovered from a severe heart attack. The role of his dominating nurse, Miss Plimsoll, was played by Laughton's wife, Elsa Lanchester. In one scene she threatens to resign, if Wilfried doesn't go to sleep. "Splendid," he replies. "Give her a month's pay and kick her down the stairs." Dietrich's performance had everything - she sang, kissed passionately Tyrone Power, said "I never use smelling salts because they puff up the eyes," and had a double role as a hard Cockney woman and a coldly articulating German woman. She was very disappointed when she did not even earn an Oscar nomination.
Christie's characters are usually well-to-do people. Often the comfortable lifestyle of his characters is undermined by financial problems, which lead to murder. Although her villains use very complicated plans, they are not impossible, but are firmly grounded on the everyday reality: "Miss Lyall's hobby in life, as has been said, was the study of human beings. Unlike most English people, she was capable of speaking to strangers on sight instead of allowing four days to a week to elapse before making the first cautious advance as is the customary British habit." (from 'Trinagle at Rhodes' in Murder in the Mews, 1937) In many stories the reader is fooled to suspect an innocent character, but most innovative Christie was when she revealed the guilty party: it has been the narrator, a group of people, a serial killer who tries to hide an obvious motive for his killing one of the victims, and so forth. Christie's world view was conservative and rational, but there is always a place for accidents: "'...Does it not strike you that the easiest way of removing someone you want to remove from your path is to take advantage of accident? Accidents are happening all the time. And sometimes - Hastings - they can be helped to happen!'" (from Dumb Witness, 1937). Christie gives always a logical explanation for crimes, but society is not blamed. Murder is not a sign of degeneration of middle-class values. After the crime is solved, life continues happily. Although Christie's writing career spanned over six decades, she was conscious of social change without fixating on the period between the two World Wars. "When I reread those first books," she said in 1966, "I'm amazed at the number of servants drifting around. And nobody is really doing any work, they're always having tea on the lawn." However, she did not like editing her own text and was even reluctant to change the spelling unless a word has actually been misspelt.
By 1955 Christie had become a limited company, Agatha Christie Ltd, which was acquired in the late 1960s by Booker Books. It had already acquired Ian Fleming. In 1967 Christie became president of the British Detection Club, and in 1971 she was made a Dame of the British Empire. Christie died on January 12, 1976 in Wallingford, Oxforshire. Mallowan died two years later, but he had married after Christie's death an old family friend. With over one hundred novels and over one hundred translations into foreign languages, Christie was by the time of her death the best-selling English novelist of all time. As Margery Allingham said: Christie has "entertained more people for more hours at time that any other writer of her generation." (New York Times Book Review, 1950)
For further reading: F. Behre: STUDIES IN AGATHA CHRISTIE'S WRITING (1967); G.C. Ramsey: AGATHA CHRISTIE (1967); J.Feinman: THE MYSTERIOUS WORLD OF AGATHA CHRISTIE (1975); D. Murdoch: THE AGATHA CHRISTIE MYSTERY (1976); N.B. Wynne: AN AGATHA CHRISTIE CHRONOLOGY (1976); Agatha Christie: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY (1977); H.R.F. Keating (ed.): AGATHA CHRISTIE (1977); M. Mallowan: MALLOWAN'S MEMOIRS (1977); G. Robyns: THE MYSTERY OF AGATHA CHRISTIE (1979); D. Riley and P. McAllister (eds.): THE BEDSIDE, BATHTUB AND ARMCHAIR COMPANION TO AGATHA CHRISTIE (1979); R. Toye: THE AGATHA CHRISTIE'S WHO IS WHO (1980); J. Mann: DEADLIER THAN MALE (1981); R.A. Barnard: A TALENT TO DEVEIVE (1981); J. Symons: AGATHA CHRISTIE (1981); H. Gregg: AGATHA CHRISTIE AND ALL THAT MOUSETRAP (1981); E.F. Bargainnier: THE GENTLE ART OF MURDER (1981); P.D. Maida and N.B. Spornick: A STUDY OF AGATHA CHRISTIE'S DETEDTIVE FICTION (1982); Charles Osborne: THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF AGATHA CHRISTIE (1982); N.B. Spornick: MURDER SHE WROTE (1982) Jane Morgan: AGATHA CHRISTIE (1984); A. Hart: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MISS MARPLE (1985); D. Sanders and L. Lovallo: THE AGATHA CHRISTIE COMPANION (1984); B. Morselt: AN A TO Z OF THE NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES OF AGATHA CHRISTIE (1986); M. Wagoner: AGATHA CHRISTIE (1986); G. Gill: AGATHA CHRISTIE (1990); A. Hart: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HERCULE POIROT (1990); G. Larsen: DOROTHY AND AGATHA (1990); R.T. Ryan: AGATHA CHRISTIE TRIVIA (1990); M. Shaw and S. Vanecker: REFLECTING ON MISS MARPLE (1991); Carol Dommermuth-Costa: AGATHA CHRISTIE (1997); Dawn B. Sova, et al.: AGATHA CHRISTIE A TO Z (1997); Charlotte Trümpler (ed.): AGATHA CHRISTIE AND ARCHAEOLOGY (2001) - See also: "Great Ladies" of the English mystery's golden age; Margery Allingham, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh - Latest posthumously published novel: Black Coffee (1998) - originally play, which was produced in 1930 and lated filmed. Adapted from the play by Charles Osborne. Hercule Poirot solves the theft of an explosive, which was invented by sir Clad Amory. - "I don't think necessity is the mother of invention - invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble." (from An Autobiography, 1977)
The next morning, all the clocks having rung at the prescribed times but Wade not having stirred from his bed, it is discovered that the young man is dead in his bed, having drunk an overdose of chloral during the night. The group is shocked and Jimmy and Ronny agree to drive over to Deane Priory where Loraine Wade, Gerry’s half-sister, lives and break the news to her. On the way, Ronny hints at something about Gerry but stops full at confiding in Jimmy. Returning back to Chimneys and going to Gerry’s room, Jimmy points out to Ronny that the alarm clocks have been arranged on the mantelpiece but there are only seven of them – one is missing.
Several days later, Lord Caterham retakes possession of Chimneys at the end of its two-year lease from the Cootes. The inquest has taken place with a verdict of ‘Death by Misadventure’ but no explanation has been reached for the rearrangement of the clocks. Bundle is a friend of Bill Eversleigh's and puzzling over the matter she decides to write to him. Gerry Wade died in her room and pulling out a part of her writing desk she finds an unfinished letter from Gerry to Loraine dated the day before he died. In it he speaks of being "awfully fit" but “so sleepy I can’t keep my eyes open.” Most strangely, he asks her to “forget what I said about that Seven Dials business.” More puzzled than ever, she decides to go to London to see Bill. On the way there, a man steps out of a hedge and into the road. Bundle misses him but he collapses anyway, muttering about “Seven Dials…” and “Tell...Jimmy Thesiger.” The man dies. Bundle manages to get the body into the car and to a doctor where she is told that the car didn’t hit the man – he was shot.
A card on the body identifies the man as being Ronny Devereux and Bundle recalls that he also was one of the Cootes’ house party. She returns to Chimneys and tells her father all that has happened and he tells her in turn that during his absence he received a visit from George Lomax, the Under-Secretary for State for Foreign Affairs who received a strange warning letter written from the Seven Dials district of London. The next day Bundle finally makes it to London and gets Jimmy’s address from Bill. Going there, she meets Loraine Wade who has also called in to see Jimmy and breaks the news of Ronnie’s death to Jimmy. Shocked, he recounts Ronny’s behaviour in the car on the way to see Loraine for the first time and she, in turn, tells the two of them that the incident that Gerry referred to in his last letter to her was a list of names and dates she found with an address in Seven Dials on it when she accidentally opened one of her late half-brothers letters. He had then hinted to her of some secret society with reference to the Mafia. The three wonder if Gerry’s death was murder and the removal of one of the alarm clocks, leaving seven dials, was a warning signal. Jimmy knows that Gerry was connected in some way with the Foreign Office and security services. Bundle tells the other two of the warning letter that George Lomax received and that he is holding a house party the next week at his house at Wyvern Abbey and Jimmy and Bundle decide to get themselves an invitation and join in.
Bundle decides to go and see Superintendent Battle at Scotland Yard about the matter, but he proves unhelpful, aside hinting that Bill Eversleigh knows something about Seven Dials. The next evening, Bundle meets Bill for a night out and asks him what he knows. He tells her that Seven Dials is a seedy nightclub and gambling den and Bundle insists he takes her there. In the club, Bundle recognises the doorman as being Alfred, a former footman from Chimneys. The next day, after making arrangements through family connections to get into George Lomax’s party, Bundle returns to the Seven Dials club and questions Alfred as to why he left Chimneys. He tells her that the Cootes had as a guest a Russian gentleman called Mosgorovsky who offered him three times his footman’s salary to leave his previous employment and work at the club. Bundle forces the scared man to show her round and he eventually takes her into a secret room in which there is a table and seven chairs. She forces Alfred to hide her in a cupboard in the room and several hours later is able to witness from her place of concealment a strange meeting as five people gather. They wear hoods over their evening wear with eye slits and clock faces on the hoods, each clock showing a different time between one o’clock and six o’clock and their accents reveal their different nationalities. One of the sinister group is a woman with a mole on her exposed shoulder blade. They talk of the absent number two and one of figures complains about the always-missing number seven. They also talk of Lomax’s party at Wyvern Abbey where a German called Eberhard will be present with a valuable invention. They also talk of plans to divert suspicion from the inquest on Ronny Devereux and mention Bauer, the footman at Chimneys as being in their pay. The meeting over, the group leaves and Alfred frees Bundle from her watching place.
The next day Bundle tells Jimmy of the meeting. They suspect Bauer of murdering Gerry and Jimmy tells Bundle that Eberhard has invented a formula which could make wire as strong as steel, revolutionising airplane manufacturing. The German government turned the invention down and the meeting at Wyvern Abbey is for a possible sale to the British, represented by Sir Stanley Digby, the Air Minister.
The next Friday, Bundle and Jimmy arrive at Wyvern Abbey and are introduced to the other guests including the Cootes, Sir Stanley Digby, Terence O’Rourke and the beautiful Hungarian Countess Radzky. Bundle is further surprised to see Superintendent Battle there. He tells her that he is at Wyvern to “keep an eye on things”. Bill Eversleigh also turns up. Jimmy has told Bill what Bundle told him of the meeting of the Seven Dials. Realising that Sir Stanley is only going to be staying one night at Wyvern, they work out that any theft of the formula is going to be attempted that night and Jimmy and Bill agree to keep two separate watches, changing over at 3.00am, them both using a pistol that Jimmy has brought with him.
At 2.00am Jimmy, on the first watch in an alcove in the hallway, thinks he hears a noise coming from the library, a room that leads on to the terrace. He finds nothing in the room and continues his watch from there.
Bundle, previously told by Jimmy and Bill that there was no part in their plans for her, had meekly acquiesced but instead had changed her clothes into something more suitable, climbed down the ivy outside her room and had promptly run into Superintendent Battle, also on his own watch outside the house. He persuades her to go back. She does so but goes to check on Jimmy in his alcove. Finding that he has gone, and not knowing that he has moved to the library, she goes to Bill’s bedroom but finds that she has made a mistake and it is the Countess’s room but the Hungarian lady is also missing. Her puzzlement is interrupted by the noises of a tremendous struggle coming from the library and two gunshots.
This noise also attracts the attention of Loraine Wade who has arrived at Wyvern at the dead of night. A few moments before the commotion, a paper packet lands at her feet as she walks along the darkened terrace. She picks it up and sees s man climbing down the ivy from above her. She turns and runs – almost straight into Battle whose questions are interrupted by the fight in the library. Running there, they find Jimmy unconscious and shot through his right arm. The household is woken by the noise and pours into the room. Jimmy comes round and tells how he fought the man who climbed down the ivy. They were both armed and each fired a shot. Sir Stanley rushes back to check his room but finds that the formula has gone. Battle is not perturbed as Loraine still holds the dropped packet and is able to return its precious contents. Sir Oswald Coote raises suspicions when he comes in from the terrace, having supposedly been on a late-night walk and having seen no one suspicious but having found the pistol of the escaped man on the lawn. The Countess is also found in the room, unconscious behind a screen. She tells a story of coming down for a book to read, being unable to sleep, and hearing what turned out to be Jimmy’s approach, hid from fear of him being a burglar. She passed out when the fight happened. Bill gallantly offers to help her to her room and Bundle suddenly spots a mole on the Countess’s shoulder through her negligee – she is a member of the Seven Dials! She tells Battle the whole story of her spying on the association and the role the Countess plays and is told to leave matters alone.
The next morning, Battle searches the scenes of the crime and finds the place where the assailant’s pistol landed when it was thrown onto the lawn, only one set of footprints leading to this point – Sir Oswald’s – and a charred, left-handed glove with marks of teeth in the fireplace. He theorises that the thief threw the gun onto the lawn from the terrace and then climbed back into the house via the ivy. Bundle hears news from Chimneys that the footman Bauer is missing and Sir Oswald leaps to the conclusion that he is their man.
Before the house party breaks up, Jimmy asks Loraine to keep an eye on Bundle and make sure she doesn’t get herself into danger by investigating on her own any more while he integrates himself with Lady Coote and gets an invitation to their new house in Letherbury, wanting to investigate Sir Oswald further, suspecting him of being the missing number seven from the Seven Dials.
At Letherbury, Jimmy looks through Sir Oswald’s study in the dead of night, is almost caught by Rupert Bateman but manages to talk his way out of the situation. The next day Loraine and Bundle arrive, their car having ‘broken down’ a short distance away and Jimmy is able to tell them that he has found no evidence that Sir Oswald is number seven.
Several days later, Bill turns up at Jimmy’s London flat. Ronny Devereux’s executors have sent him a letter that Ronny left for Bill, should anything happen to him, and he finds its contents incredible. A short time later, Jimmy rings up Bundle and Loraine who are at Chimneys and tells the girls to meet him and Bill at the Seven Dials club, Bill’s story being “the biggest scoop of the century.” The two girls get their first and Bundle frightens Alfred away by telling him the police are after him. Jimmy arrives, having left Bill outside in the car and upon his request, Bundle shows him the secret room where the Seven Dials meet. Loraine interrupts them – something is wrong with Bill. In the car, they find him unconscious and take him into the club. Jimmy runs off to get a doctor and Bundle goes round the club looking for brandy for Bill but someone knocks her unconscious.
She comes round in Bill’s arms and Bundle is pleasantly surprised to hear words of love from him. They are interrupted by Mr Mosgorovsky who then takes them into an emergency meeting of the Seven Dials. Number seven is there and reveals himself – it is Superintendent Battle. He tells Bundle that the Seven Dials is not an association of criminals but instead is a group of criminal-catchers and people who do secret service work for their country. Among the group, Mr Mosgorovsky is a member, Gerry Wade and Ronny Devereux were, the Countess having now taken Gerry’s place but her real identity is the American actress, Babe St Maur. To Bundle’s shock, another member of the association is Bill Eversleigh but that shock is increased when Battle tells her that the association has at last succeeded in getting their main target, an international criminal who stock trade is the theft of secret formulae – Jimmy Thesiger who was arrested this afternoon together with his accomplice, Loraine Wade.
Battle explains that Jimmy killed Gerry Wade when he got onto Jimmy’s track. Jimmy took the eighth clock from the dead man’s room in an attempt to see if anyone reacted to there being ‘seven dials’. Bauer was put into Chimneys by the Seven Dials to keep an eye on things but Jimmy was too clever for him.
Ronny Devereux died when he started to get too close to the truth and the latter’s last words were not a warning to Jimmy about the Seven Dials but the other way round. At Wyvern Abbey, there was no second man stealing the formula. Jimmy climbed up the ivy to Sir Stanley Digby’s room, threw the formula down to Loraine, climbed back down the ivy and into the library where he staged the fight, shot himself in his right arm and threw the second pistol onto the lawn. As his right arm was disabled and he was right armed he had to dispose of his left-handed glove, using his teeth hence the marks, in the fire.
Bill’s story of the papers Ronny left him were a fabrication to get Jimmy into the open. Jimmy gave Bill a drugged drink in his flat but it was not drunk. Bill feigned unconsciousness in the car outside the Seven Dials club. Jimmy never went for a doctor but hid himself in the club and it was him who knocked Bundle unconscious. His plan was to leave Bill and Bundle there as a “shock” to the then-unknown number seven.
Bundle is offered the empty place in the Seven Dials and Bill also proposes to her. Lord Caterham is delighted – Bill is a golfer and he now has someone else to play with!
诸莲优思： 阿加莎·克里斯蒂(Agatha Christie 1890~1976) 英国著名女侦探小说家、剧作家,三大推理文学宗师之一. 阿加莎·克里斯蒂是一名高产的作家,她的作品不仅局限于侦探小说,全部作品包括66部长篇推理小说,21部短篇或中篇小说选集...
丰县15840194531： 阿加莎·克里斯蒂 的英文名 - ？
诸莲优思： 阿加莎·克里斯蒂,英文名字是Agatha Christie (1890~1976) 英国著名女侦探小说家、剧作家,三大推理文学宗师之一.代表作品有《东方快车谋杀案》和《尼罗河谋杀案》等.
丰县15840194531： 阿加莎克里斯蒂简介翻译(英译中或中译英) - ？
诸莲优思： Agatha Christie(1890--1976),a famous woman detective novelist,playwright and one of three great masters of reasoning literature.Her representative works,A Murder on the Eastern Express,A Murder by the Nile,are both welcomed warmly...
丰县15840194531： 阿加莎克里斯蒂 英文简介求一片关于她生平的英语简介 一分钟就可以 - ？
诸莲优思：[答案] She is the “Queen of detective novels” British writer Agatha Christie.Agatha Christie was born in Devon County in 1890.When she was five she had already read a lot of books and tried to write novels...
丰县15840194531： 求阿加莎·克里斯蒂全集 - ？
诸莲优思： http://sj.bbs.91.com/thread/26/74/20091202/4b15b4c7db761f613-1.html 阿加莎·克里斯蒂(Agatha Christie 1890~1976),英国著名女侦探小说家、剧作家,三大推理文学宗师之一.很多人喜欢读侦探故事,因为它们都是些难解之谜.侦探在...
丰县15840194531： 阿加沙.克里斯蒂(Agatha Christie)小说的 ＂英文原著＂ 哪里能下载?电影英文字幕也行! - ？
诸莲优思： http://www.ywhc.net/article/Soft_Show.asp?SoftID=116 http://www.77txt.com/txt_7430/ http://www.gougou.com/search?search=东方快车谋杀案%20英文原著&id=7600 http://soft.tompda.com/c/softs/2005630/s_9968.html
丰县15840194531： 阿加莎克里斯蒂的代表作是什么? ？
诸莲优思： ＂And then there Were None＂, Agatha Christie. 《无人生还》 【英】阿加莎·克里斯蒂 贵州出版社 我心中本格推理的第一作品.在克里斯蒂的作品中,这本书真称得上是一个异类了.从头到尾都紧张刺激,让读者欲罢不能.前所未有的情节布置当真可说是“异想天开”,从中可看出本格推理的真正魅力.看了此书后我给朋友说故事,总是把《无人生还》当成招牌菜,也屡屡让听众沉浸其中,拍手称绝.Amazon网上有关此书的评论近五百则,几乎人人都给出了五星级的高分,可见此书魅力之大,不分国界.
丰县15840194531： 在哪里能买到阿加莎·克里斯蒂(Agatha Christie )的侦探小说(英文原版的) - ？
诸莲优思： 新华书店(比较贵),网上书店,DD卓、越99什么的都有,稍微便宜一些...但是书不全,很难买到全套一系列,除非你上外网的亚马逊...
丰县15840194531： 尼罗河上的惨案作者 - ？
诸莲优思： 阿加莎·克里斯蒂作品集 作者简介 阿嘉莎.克莉丝蒂(Agatha Christie,1890-1976)生於英格兰的Devonshire.克莉丝蒂早年丧父,小时候并未受过正规教育,多靠母亲的指导与自修来充实自己.24岁(1914)时,本名阿嘉莎.玛丽.克那丽莎.米...
