Towards Zero
Dust-jacket illustration of the US (true first) edition. See Publication history (below) for UK first edition jacket image.
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| Author | Agatha Christie |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Crime fiction |
| Publisher | Dodd, Mead and Company |
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Publication date
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June 1944 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 242 first edition, hardcover |
| ISBN | 1976 UK edition |
| Preceded by | The Moving Finger |
| Followed by | Absent in the Spring |
Towards Zero is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in June 1944, selling for $2.00, and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in July of the same year.
Lady Tressilian invites her ward for his annual visit at Gull's Point. He insists on bringing both his former wife and his present wife, though Lady Tressilian finds this awkward. Her old friend dies, and Superintendent Battle and his nephew are called in. The book is the last to feature her recurring character of Superintendent Battle.
The novel was well received at publication, noted for the well-developed characters. A later review called it superb as to the plot, noting also how well the novel depicted the gentlemanly behaviour expected at the main tennis tournament in 1944.
Lady Tressilian is now confined to her bed, and still invites guests to her seaside home at Gull's Point during the summer. Tennis star Nevile Strange, former ward of Lady Tressilian's deceased husband, incurs her displeasure. He proposes to bring both his new wife, Kay, and his former wife, Audrey, to visit at the same time - a change from past years. Lady Tressilian grudgingly agrees to this set of incompatible guests. Staying in hotels nearby are Kay’s friend, Ted; a long time family friend, Thomas Royde, home after a long stretch working overseas and still faithfully waiting on the sidelines for Audrey; and Mr Treves, an old solicitor and long time friend of the Tressilians.
The dinner party is not so comfortable, as Lady Tressilian had predicted. That night, Mr Treves told a story of an old case, where a child killed another child with an arrow, which was ruled an accident. The child was given a new name and a fresh start, despite a local man having seen the child practising assiduously with a bow and arrow. Mr Treves remembers the case and the child as a result of a distinctive physical feature that he does not describe. Next morning, Treves is found dead in his hotel room, presumed to be heart failure from unnecessary walking up the stairs to his room the previous night, greatly upsetting Lady Tressilian. Thomas and Ted are mystified, as they walked Treves back and saw the note stating that the lift was out of order - they learn from hotel staff that the lift was in working order that night. His death is ruled to be from natural causes.
Lady Tressilian is brutally murdered in her bed, and her maid drugged. Her heirs are Nevile and Audrey. The first evidence points to Nevile Strange as the murderer, including one of his golf clubs with his fingerprints on it. When the maid wakes up, she tells Superintendent Battle that she saw Lady Tressilian alive after Nevile's visit. The evidence then points to Audrey: one of her gloves bloodied and found in the ivy next to her window, and the actual murder weapon. It was fashioned from the handle of a tennis racket and the metal ball from the fireplace fender in Audrey’s room. Then Mary Aldin relates the story narrated by Mr Treves, and his claim that he could recognize that child with certainty; Battle is certain that the lift sign was placed in reaction to that claim.
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