Books

London: Published for The Crime Club by Collins, 1935. [Mystery novel] LEATHER-BOUND FIRST EDITION, first impression. Octavo (18 x 12cm), pp.252; [4], advertisements. Elegantly hand-bound in half navy blue calf, spine gilt-lettered in six compartments with raised bands, matching cloth sides, edges trimmed. Bound without adverts or half-title. Some reading marks/tea drops to pp.26 and 45 else contents mostly clean, binding as new. A very good copy in an attractive recent leather binding. A scarce title in first edition. Hercule Poirot is a passenger on board a flight from Paris to Croydon. Some time before landing, one of the passengers, a moneylender named Madame Giselle, is found dead. Initially, a reaction to a wasp sting is postulated, but Poirot spies the true cause of death: a poison-tipped dart, apparently fired from a blowpipe. It becomes apparent that the victim has been murdered.

Death in the Clouds, also known as 'Murder in the Air' in the US, is a detective novel by British writer Agatha Christie. The book features the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, who finds himself amidst a baffling murder investigation on board a commercial passenger flight. The narrative unfolds as Poirot, with his keen observational skills and methodical approach, attempts to solve the murder where anyone on the flight could be a suspect.