Beautiful young Elinor Carlisle stood serenely in court, accused of double murder in an effort to hold the affections of her fiancé, Roderick Welman. The evidence was damning: only Elinor had the motive, the opportunity, and the means to administer the fatal poison. Inside the hostile courtroom, only one man still presumed Elinor was innocent until proven guilty. Hercule Poirot was all that stood between Elinor and the gallows. This is one of Christie's least known but most effective novels, a work that deserves to be ranked with Murder on the Orient Express. The characters are among her most vivid, the story has an unpretentious atmosphere, and the solution is both reasonable, and unexpected.