Hercule Poirot et l'inspecteur Catchpool se demandent bien pourquoi ils ont été invités à la réception organisée par Athelina Playford, qu'ils n'ont jamais rencontrée.
Mais quand au cours de la soirée celle-ci annonce qu'elle a décidé de déshériter ses enfants en faveur de son secrétaire - qui n'a plus guère de temps à vivre -, Poirot et Catchpool comprennent que leur invitation n'était pas le fruit du hasard : lady Playford craint de voir un meurtre se perpétuer sous son toit. Dans ce cas, pour quelles raisons provoquer ainsi son assemblée ?
Rien de surprenant, donc, à ce qu'un crime soit effectivement commis. Mais la mort a ses raisons qu'Hercule Poirot ignore. Pour le moment...
Après le succès mondial de Meurtres en majuscules, Sophie Hannah rend une nouvelle fois un bel hommage à la « Reine du crime » avec une nouvelle enquête du célèbre détective. Lire la suite Fermer

Competition: hercule poirot''s christmas;midwinter murder;troubled blood;the;thursday murder club;killings at kingfisher hill. by;robert galbraith;val mcdermid;ian rankin;richard osman;lucy foley;agatha christie;anthony horowitz;elly griffiths;martin edwards;tony medawar;mark aldridge

The world''s greatest detective, Hercule Poirot-legendary star of Agatha Christie''s Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile -returns to solve a fiendish new mystery. Hercule Poirot is travelling by luxury passenger coach from London to the exclusive Kingfisher Hill estate, where Richard Devonport has summoned him to prove that his fiancee, Helen, is innocent of the murder of his brother, Frank.But there is a strange condition attached to this request: Poirot must conceal his true reason for being there. The coach is forced to stop when a distressed woman demands to get off, insisting that if she stays in her seat, she will be murdered. Although the rest of the journey passes without anyone being harmed, Poirot''s curiosity is aroused, and his fears are later confirmed when a body is discovered with a macabre note attached... Could this new murder and the peculiar incident on the coach be clues to solving the mystery of who killed Frank Devonport? And if Helen is innocent, can Poirot find the true culprit in time to save her from the gallows?
Lire la suite Fermer

The world''s most beloved detective, Hercule Poirot - the legendary star of Agatha Christie''s Murder on the Orient Express and most recently The Monogram Murders and Closed Casket-returns in a stylish, diabolically clever mystery set in 1930''s London.Returning home after lunch one day, Hercule Poirot finds an angry woman waiting outside his front door. She demands to know why Poirot has sent her a letter accusing her of the murder of Barnabas Pandy, a man she has neither heard of nor ever met.Poirot has also never heard of a Barnabas Pandy, and has accused nobody of murder. Shaken, he goes inside, only to find that he has a visitor waiting for him - a man who also claims also to have received a letter from Poirot that morning, accusing him of the murder of Barnabas Pandy...Poirot wonders how many more letters of this sort have been sent in his name. Who sent them, and why? More importantly, who is Barnabas Pandy, is he dead, and, if so, was he murdered? And can Poirot find out the answers without putting more lives in danger? Lire la suite Fermer

The world''s most beloved detective, Hercule Poirot - the legendary star of Agatha Christie''s Murder on the Orient Express and most recently The Monogram Murders and Closed Casket -returns in a stylish, diabolically clever mystery set in 1930''s London. Returning home after lunch one day, Hercule Poirot finds an angry woman waiting outside his front door. She demands to know why Poirot has sent her a letter accusing her of the murder of Barnabas Pandy, a man she has neither heard of nor ever met. Poirot has also never heard of a Barnabas Pandy, and has accused nobody of murder. Shaken, he goes inside, only to find that he has a visitor waiting for him - a man who also claims also to have received a letter from Poirot that morning, accusing him of the murder of Barnabas Pandy... Poirot wonders how many more letters of this sort have been sent in his name. Who sent them, and why? More importantly, who is Barnabas Pandy, is he dead, and, if so, was he murdered? And can Poirot find out the answers without putting more lives in danger?
Lire la suite Fermer

Competition: hercule poirot''s christmas;midwinter murder;troubled blood;the;thursday murder club;killings at kingfisher hill. by;robert galbraith;val mcdermid;ian rankin;richard osman;lucy foley;agatha christie;anthony horowitz;elly griffiths;martin edwards;tony medawar;mark aldridge

@00000400@Happiness is one of life's greatest mysteries. But what even @00000373@is @00000155@happiness? Why does it mean so many different things to different people? And how can we actually @00000373@be @00000155@happier? @00000341@@00000341@Drawing on decades of experience in crime writing, self-help and intensely curious observation of other people, Sophie Hannah sets out to solve the mystery. She lines up her cast of suspects and expert witnesses from ancient philosophers to modern self-help gurus, scientists to ordinary people from all walks of life. Leaving no stone unturned, she scrutinises the clues, evidence, and even the red herrings that unexpectedly lead to happiness. And she uncovers answers - from the secrets of a fulfilling relationship to the joys of boredom, or of the bliss of a cancelled meeting. @00000341@@00000341@Weaving in much-loved poems and hilarious observations from Sophie's own life, this is the ultimate guide to happiness - and the clues that can lead us there.@00000163@
Lire la suite Fermer

Alors qu'Hercule Poirot rentre chez lui après un déjeuner fort agréable, il découvre une femme très en colère devant sa porte. Elle s'appelle Sylvia Rule et demande à savoir pourquoi Poirot l'a accusée du meurtre de Barnaby Pandy, un homme qu'elle ne connaît pas et qu'elle n'a jamais rencontré. Elle est furieuse et sous le choc, tout comme Poirot, d'ailleurs, qui ne connaît pas non plus le monsieur en question. Une deuxième surprise attend Poirot dans son bureau où il retrouve John McCrodden, qui lui annonce avoir, lui aussi, reçu une lettre ce matin-là, signée par Poirot et l'accusant du meurtre de Barnaby Pandy...
Poirot s'interroge alors sur l'identité de ce mystérieux expéditeur. Combien de lettres ont ainsi été envoyées de sa part ? Et, plus important encore, qui est ce Barnaby Randy et a-t-il bien été victime d'un meurtre ?

Traduit de l'anglais par Valérie Rosier Lire la suite Fermer

What if the only way you could prevent a murder was by confessing to it?
5.05pm. A terrified Jemma Stelling walks into a police station and says she is about to commit a murder.
She knows that the person she hates most in the world, Marianne Cass, might soon be killed. She knows this because she is the one in danger of killing Marianne, and the urge to do so is growing stronger.
The only way to stop the struggle in her mind is to inform the authorities that Marianne is at risk - from Jemma herself. Desperate to be free of her frightening obsession, she seeks out police officer Simon Waterford and makes what she thinks of as a ''preventative confession''.
5.05pm. Marianne Cass is murdered in her home.
But while Jemma is talking to the police, Marianne is brutally murdered. The time of death window means Jemma is unequivocally eliminated as a suspect.
The problem for Simon is that he''s now positive that Jemma Stelling is a ruthless, cold-blooded killer, and possibly the most ingenious one he''s ever encountered... Lire la suite Fermer

'Outstandingly brilliant' Clare Mackintosh Did she really see Melody? The stunning new pageturner from the Queen of Psychological Suspense. Pushed to breaking point , Cara Burrows abandons her home and family and escapes to a five-star spa resort she can't afford. Late at night, exhausted and desperate , she lets herself into her hotel room and is shocked to find it already occupied - by a man and a teenage girl . A simple mistake on the part of the hotel receptionist - but Cara's fear intensifies when she works out that the girl she saw alive and well in the hotel room is someone she can't possibly have seen: the most famous murder victim in the country , Melody Chapa, whose parents are serving life sentences for her murder. Cara doesn't know what to trust: everything she's read and heard about the case, or the evidence of her own eyes. Did she really see Melody? And is she prepared to ask herself that question and answer it honestly if it means risking her own life? What people are saying about DID YOU SEE MELODY? ' I was hooked !...there was a cracking ending!' GoodReads reviewer 'Really good reading that moved at a fast pace and kept me engaged throughout. Highly recommended .' GoodReads reviewer ' Oh superb. Excellent. All the other expletives. Ms Hannah still showing us how twisting a plot is done properly.' GoodReads reviewer
Lire la suite Fermer

Sally Thorning n'aurait jamais pensé entendre à nouveau le nom de Mark Bretherick. Un an auparavant, profitant de l'annulation inopinée d'un voyage d'affaires, elle s'était offert une escapade secrète, loin de toute attache. Fatiguée de jongler entre son travail, sa vie de couple et ses obligations de jeune maman, elle avait besoin de se retrouver. Mais les choses n'ont pas tourné comme prévu : Sally a eu une aventure avec Mark, un inconnu croisé dans les couloirs de l'hôtel.
Un soir, devant le JT, elle entend prononcer son nom. Presque tous les détails sont identiques : son âge, sa ville, son métier, sa famille. Excepté le visage à l'écran, qui n'est pas celui de l'homme qu'elle a rencontré... Lorsqu'elle comprend que la femme et la fille de Mark viennent de connaître une fin tragique, Sally commence à s'inquiéter pour la sécurité de sa propre famille : le matin même, on a proféré des menaces contre elle.
Mais comment alerter la police sans perdre tout ce qui lui est cher ? Lire la suite Fermer

The Poetry of Sex - a raucous, highly enjoyable anthology by acclaimed poet Sophie Hannah

We've been at it all summer, from the Canadian border to the edge of Mexico . . .Romance and poetry seem to go hand in hand but - implicit, explicit, nuanced or starkly frank - sex itself has long been a staple subject for poets. In fact a great deal of erotic poetry rejects the distinction.
It's hard to imagine a more fruitful subject for poets than sex, in all its glorious manifestations: from desire and hope, through disappointment and confusion, to conclusion and consequence. And little has changed over the centuries, as Sophie Hannah's anthology vividly demonstrates, from Catullus pleading with Lesbos to Walt Whitman singing the body electric. Moods and attitudes may vary but the drive persists as does the desire to write about it.Sophie Hannah's selection ranges from ancient Rome to modern New York, from gay to straight, but her principle has been to go low on the sugar and high on the excitement. The result is a raucous, highly enjoyable anthology.From Shakespeare to Carol Ann Duffy, this book is essential reading for poetry lovers and romantics everywhere. It is a perfect counterpart to the The New Penguin Book of Love Poetry and a wonderful companion to Sophie Hannah's own Selected Poems.'Sophie Hannah is among the best at comprehending in rhyming verse the indignity of having a body and the nobility of having a heart' Guardian'A shrewd and accurate observer of the world around her, and of her own life, she is often very funny' The Oldie'The brightest young star in British poetry' IndependentSophie Hannah has published five collections of poetry. Her fifth Pessimism for Beginners was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Award in 2007. Her Selected Poems is published by Penguin (revised edition, 2013). She is also the writer of bestselling psychological crime fiction, most recently The Carrier. Her novels have been translated into 24 languages. Born in Manchester, she now lives in Cambridge with her husband and children, and is a Fellow Commoner of Lucy Cavendish College. Lire la suite Fermer