The Rose and the Yew Tree

Bereft of the three people she has held most dear - her mother, her husband and her daughter - Celia is on the verge of suicide. Then one night on an exotic island she meets Larraby, a successful portrait painter, and through a long night of talk reveals how she is afraid to commit herself to a second chance of happiness with another person, yet is not brave enough to face life alone. Can Larraby help Celia come to terms with the past or will they part, her outcome still uncertain?

A newly reissued edition of an Agatha Christie - writing as Mary Westmacott - 'Crime of the Heart' novel about the destructive bond between two jealous sisters. Laura Franklin bitterly resented the arrival of her younger sister Shirley, an enchanting baby loved by all the family. But Laura's emotions towards her sister changed dramatically one night, when she vowed to protect her with all her strength and love.

'The one book that has satisfied me completely – the book I always wanted to write.' Agatha Christie. Returning from a visit to her daughter in Iraq, Joan Scudamore finds herself unexpectedly alone and stranded in an isolated rest house by flooding of the railway tracks. Looking back over the years, Joan painfully re-examines her attitudes, relationships and actions and becomes increasingly uneasy about the person who is revealed to her….

This is the very first Poirot/Hastings story. Set in 1916, we meet Captain Hastings as he is invalided out of the Great War and goes to convalesce at Styles Court, the family home of his great friend, John Cavendish. By an extraordinary coincidence, billeted in the village is a brilliant little retired detective with an egg-shaped head, who made a considerable impression on the Captain when he was in Belgium. Styles is not a happy household and in the blistering summer heat, tensions mount.

Agatha Christie wrote The Mysterious Affair at Styles during the midst of World War I. The book was published in 1920 and became extremely popular because of the well-grounded plot and interesting characters. The novel is set at Styles Court, a wealthy estate in England during the war. The estate's owner, Mrs. Cavendish, had inherited the estate as well as vast sums of money from her late husband.