Ordeal By Innocence

Evidence that clears the name of a boy sentenced for killing his adopted mother arrives too late to save his life – so who did kill her?

Evidence that clears the name of a boy sentenced for killing his adopted mother arrives too late to save his life – so who did kill her?

According to the courts, Jacko Argyle bludgeoned his mother to death with a poker. The sentence was life imprisonment

But when Dr Arthur Calgary turns up a year later with the proof that confirms Jacko’s innocence, he is too late – Jacko died behind bars from a bout of pneumonia.

Worse still, the doctor’s revelations re-open old wounds in the family, increasing the likelihood that the real murderer will strike again…

‘Family tensions and suspicions are adroitly handled, and the solution is characteristically surprising’
New York Times

‘Has the particular distinction of presenting a new temporary detective in place of Poirot or Miss Marple.’
New York Herald Tribune Book Review

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.

• A new series of Agatha Christie mass market editions, stylishly repackaged based on new market research, and designed to bring the books to a wider readership.

• Market research shows that two out of three of all fiction readers have read an Agatha Christie book, and more than half want to read her again

• Major marketing campaign behind these new Agatha Christie editions.