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    The King of Clubs: A Hercule Poirot Short Story
    The King of Clubs: A Hercule Poirot Short Story
    The King of Clubs: A Hercule Poirot Short Story
    Ebook35 pages25 minutes

    The King of Clubs: A Hercule Poirot Short Story

    By Agatha Christie

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A dead heiress on a train, a murdered recluse, a wealthy playboy slain at a costume ball are but a few of the unfortunate victims of confounding crimes committed in the pages of Agatha Christie’s The Under Dog and Other Stories, a superior collection of short mystery fiction all featuring Hercule Poirot as the investigator. 

    A beautiful heiress has been found dead on a train. A playboy has been stabbed through the heart during a costume ball. An elderly woman suspects that she is being slowly poisoned to death. A prince fears for his reputation when his fiancée is embroiled in another man's murder. A forgotten recluse makes headlines after he is shot in the head.

    Who but Agatha Christie could concoct such canny crimes? Who but Belgian detective Hercule Poirot could possibly solve them? It's a challenge to be met—in a triumph of detection.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 8, 2012
    ISBN9780062210951
    Author

    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She died in 1976, after a prolific career spanning six decades.

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    Reviews for The King of Clubs

    3.5/5

    18 ratings1 review

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    • 3/5
      Harry Reedburn has been killed, as witnessed by dancer Valerie Saintclair. Her friend Prince Paul of Maurania approaches Poirot to solve the case.
      Another enjoyable short story

    Book preview

    The King of Clubs - Agatha Christie

    The King of Clubs

    A Hercule Poirot Short Story

    by Agatha Christie

    An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

    Contents

    Cover

    Title Page

    The King of Clubs

    About the Author

    Back Ads

    Copyright

    About the Publisher

    The King of Clubs

    ‘The King of Clubs’ was first published as ‘The Adventure of the King of Clubs’ in The Sketch, 21 March 1923.

    ‘Truth,’ I observed, laying aside the Daily Newsmonger, ‘is stranger than fiction!’

    The remark was not, perhaps, an original one. It appeared to incense my friend. Tilting his egg-shaped head on one side, the little man carefully flicked an imaginary fleck of dust from his carefully creased trousers, and observed: ‘How profound! What a thinker is my friend Hastings!’

    Without displaying any annoyance at this quite uncalled-for gibe, I tapped the sheet I had laid aside.

    ‘You’ve read this morning’s paper?’

    ‘I have. And after reading it, I folded it anew symmetrically. I did not cast it on the floor as you have done, with your so lamentable absence of order and method.’

    (That is the worst of Poirot. Order and Method are his gods. He goes so far as to attribute all his success to them.)

    ‘Then you saw the account of the murder of Henry Reedburn, the impresario? It was that which prompted my remark. Not only is truth stranger than fiction – it is more dramatic. Think of that solid middle-class English family, the Oglanders. Father and mother, son and daughter, typical of thousands of families all over this country. The men of the family go to the city every day; the women look after the house. Their lives are perfectly peaceful, and utterly monotonous. Last

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