Death in the Clouds
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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| Translator | Pravin |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Crime novel |
| Publisher | Dodd, Mead and Company |
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Publication date
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10 March 1935 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 304 pp (first edition, hardcover) |
| Preceded by | Three Act Tragedy |
| Followed by | The A.B.C. Murders |
Death in the Clouds is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company on 10 March 1935 under the title of Death in the Air and in UK by the Collins Crime Club in the July of the same year under Christie's original title. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6). The book features the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and Chief Inspector Japp.
In the book, Poirot is a passenger on board a flight from Paris to Croydon. Some time before landing, one of the passengers, Madame Giselle – a wealthy French moneylender – is found dead. Initially, a reaction to a wasp sting is postulated, but Poirot spies found the true cause of death: a poison-tipped dart, apparently fired from a blowgun. It becomes apparent that the victim has been murdered.
Frustrated with the evident artificiality of the blowpipe, an item that could hardly have been used without being seen by another passenger, Poirot suggests that the means of delivering the dart may have been something else. Is it the flute of one passenger, or perhaps one of the ancient tubes carried by one of the two French archaeologists (father and son) on board? Or maybe Lady Horbury's long cigarette holder? Why were there two coffee spoons in the victim's saucer?
Poirot's focus is upon a wasp that has been seen in the compartment and which provided evidence for the original theory of the cause of death. Without explaining himself, he asks for a detailed list of the items in the possession of the passengers, and finds an incriminating clue, but does not specify to which passenger the clue pertains, although he expresses considerable surprise. Madame Giselle is suspected of using blackmail to ensure her clients paid up, so any of the passengers could either have owed her money or feared exposure. Equally, Madame Giselle had an estranged daughter who will inherit her considerable estate: could one of the female passengers be this heiress? Much of the novel focuses on the pursuit of this line of inquiry, with the passengers all coming under suspicion in turn. Special attention is given to Mr Clancy, a detective novelist who enables Christie to include the same sort of parodies of her craft achieved in other novels through the character of Ariadne Oliver.
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Wikipedia