N or M_ - Agatha Christie [77]
‘How thrilling,’ said Tuppence.
‘Oh, it is! Of course, it’s not so thrilling as flying–’
She looked enviously at Derek.
She said, ‘He’s going to be recommended for–’
Derek said quickly:
‘Shut up, Deb.’
Tommy said:
‘Hallo, Derek, what have you been up to?’
‘Oh, nothing much–sort of show all of us are doing. Don’t know why they pitched on me,’ murmured the young airman, his face scarlet. He looked as embarrassed as though he had been accused of the most deadly of sins.
He got up and the fair-haired girl got up too.
Derek said:
‘Mustn’t miss any of this–last night of my leave.’
‘Come on, Charles,’ said Deborah.
The two of them floated away with their partners.
Tuppence prayed inwardly:
‘Oh let them be safe–don’t let anything happen to them…’
She looked up to meet Tommy’s eyes. He said, ‘About that child–shall we?’
‘Betty? Oh, Tommy, I’m glad you’ve thought of it, too! I thought it was just me being maternal. You really mean it?’
‘That we should adopt her? Why not? She’s had a raw deal, and it will be fun for us to have something young growing up.’
‘Oh Tommy!’
She stretched out her hand and squeezed his. They looked at each other.
‘We always do want the same things,’ said Tuppence happily.
Deborah, passing Derek on the floor, murmured to him:
‘Just look at those two–actually holding hands! They’re rather sweet, aren’t they? We must do all we can to make up to them for having such a dull time in this war…’
About the Author
Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in 100 foreign countries. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.
Agatha Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was written towards the end of the First World War, in which she served as a VAD. In it she created Hercule Poirot, the little Belgian detective who was destined to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. It was eventually published by The Bodley Head in 1920.
In 1926, after averaging a book a year, Agatha Christie wrote her masterpiece. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was the first of her books to be published by Collins and marked the beginning of an author-publisher relationship which lasted for 50 years and well over 70 books. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was also the first of Agatha Christie’s books to be dramatized–under the name Alibi–and to have a successful run in London’s West End. The Mousetrap, her most famous play of all, opened in 1952 and is the longest-running play in history.
Agatha Christie was made a Dame in 1971. She died in 1976, since when a number of books have been published posthumously: the bestselling novel Sleeping Murder appeared later that year, followed by her autobiography and the short story collections Miss Marple’s Final Cases, Problem at Pollensa Bay and While the Light Lasts. In 1998 Black Coffee was the first of her plays to be novelized by another author, Charles Osborne.
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And Then There Were None
Appointment with Death
At Bertram’s Hotel
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The Body in the Library
By the Pricking of My Thumbs
Cards on the Table
A Caribbean Mystery
Cat Among the Pigeons
The Clocks
Crooked House
Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case
Dead Man’s Folly
Death Comes as the End
Death in the Clouds
Death on the Nile
Destination Unknown
Dumb Witness
Elephants Can Remember
Endless Night
Evil Under the Sun
Five Little Pigs
4.50 from Paddington
Hallowe’en Party
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
Hickory Dickory Dock
The Hollow
The Hound of Death
The Labours of Hercules
The Listerdale Mystery
Lord Edgware Dies
The Man in the Brown