Taken at the Flood
Dust-jacket illustration of the US (true first) edition with alternative title. See Publication history (below) for the UK first edition jacket image with original title.
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| Author | Agatha Christie |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Crime novel |
| Publisher | Dodd, Mead and Company |
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Publication date
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March 1948 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 242 pp (first edition, hardcover) |
| Preceded by | The Labours of Hercules |
| Followed by | The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories |
Taken at the Flood is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in March 1948 under the title of There is a Tide... and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in the November of the same year under Christie's original title. The US edition retailed at $2.50 and the UK edition at eight shillings and sixpence (8/6). It features her famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, and is set in 1946.
In a flashback from late Spring to early Spring, Lynn Marchmont, newly demobilised from the Women's Royal Naval Service, finds difficulty settling into the village life of Warmsley Vale. She is engaged to Rowley, one of several members of the Cloade family living nearby. Each of them grew dependent on money from Gordon Cloade, a bachelor who was expected to die and leave his fortune to them. But instead he marries an Irishwoman, Rosaleen Turner, invalidating his previous will, before being killed in an explosion at his home, which his new wife survives. As a result, Rosaleen inherits Gordon's fortune and the entire family now faces financial crisis, augmented by the poor state of the economy in the aftermath of World War II. Rosaleen's fortune is zealously guarded by her brother, David Hunter, and although various family members manage to wheedle small sums out of Rosaleen, David refuses to help Frances Cloade, whose husband Jeremy is on the brink of ruin.
A man calling himself Enoch Arden arrives in the village, and attempts to blackmail David by saying he knows how to find Rosaleen's first husband, Robert. Their conversation in Arden's hotel room is overheard by the landlady, who immediately tells Rowley Cloade. Later, Arden's body is discovered in his room with his head smashed in. Rowley Cloade appeals to a detective, Hercule Poirot, to prove the dead man was Robert Underhay, and Poirot produces Major Porter, who knew Underhay in Africa. At the inquest, despite Rosaleen's protests that the dead man was not Robert, Porter confirms that Arden was indeed her first husband. The estate will revert to the Cloades.
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Wikipedia