The tyrannical, detestable matriarch Mrs. Boynton dies of heart failure and friends and family are only too happy to pass it off as natural. When Poirot sees a tiny puncture mark on her wrist, however, he only has 24 hours to solve the case before the suspects are released.

Sir George and Lady Stubbs, the hosts of a village fete, hit upon the novel idea of staging a mock murder mystery. In good faith, Ariadne Oliver, the well-known crime writer, agrees to organize their murder hunt. At the last minute Ariadne calls her friend Hercule Poirot for his expert assistance. She senses something sinister is about to happen...

Detective Poirot is thrown into a baffling mystery when a young London girl announces that she may have committed a murder. Norma Restarick seeks help from Poirot, believing she may have committed murder. When she sees him in person, she flees, saying he is too old. Ariadne Oliver sent Norma to him and the two visit Norma's parents' home and her apartment building. Mrs Oliver finds her in a café by chance with her boyfriend David. Norma describes...

"Beautiful Caroline Crale was convicted of poisoning her husband, but just like the nursery rhyme, there were five other 'little pigs' who could have done it ... Sixteen years later, Caroline's daughter is determined to prove her mother's innocence, and Poirot just can't get that nursery rhyme out of his mind ..."--Page 4 of cover.

They are formidable enemies in their own rights: a French scientist, an American millionaire, a brilliant Chinese gentleman, and a master of disguise. But together they are the Big Four, a partnership with one simple goal, murder. Hercule Poirot has never come up against an opponent so vicious, or so deadly.

"As instructed, stenographer Shelia Webb let herself into the house at 19 Wilbraham Cresent. It was then that she made a grisly discovery: the body of a dead man sprawled across the living room floor. What intrigued Poirot about the case was the time factor. Although in a state of shock, Shelia clearly remembered having heard a cuckoo clock strike three o'clock. Yet, the four other clocks in the living room all showed the time as 4:13. Even more strangely,...

From seat #9 on a flight from London to Paris, Hercule Poirot was perfectly positioned to observe his fellow passengers -- yet even he had no idea a murder had taken place during the serving of lunch. The victim, a woman known to the passengers as Mme. Giselle, is discovered to have been a notorious blackmailer. And the weapon is a poisoned dart containing a deadly South African snake venom and a blowpipe like the ones used by South American Indian...