Three Act Tragedy
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
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First published in Great Britain by Collins 1935
Agatha Christie® Poirot® Three Act Tragedy™
Copyright © 1935 Agatha Christie Limited (a Chorion company). All rights reserved.
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016
Title lettering by Ghost Design
Cover photograph © Ray Spence/Arcangel Images
Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007120901
Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2016 ISBN: 9780007422883
Version: 2019-01-08
Dedicated to
My Friends, Geoffrey and Violet Shipston
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
First Act: Suspicion
1. Crow’s Nest
2. Incident Before Dinner
3. Sir Charles Wonders
4. A Modern Elaine
5. Flight From a Lady
Second Act: Certainty
1. Sir Charles Receives a Letter
2. The Missing Butler
3. Which of Them?
4. The Evidence of the Servants
5. In the Butler’s Room
6. Concerning an Ink-Stain
7. Plan of Campaign
Third Act: Discovery
1. Mrs Babbington
2. Lady Mary
3. Re-enter Hercule Poirot
4. A Watching Brief
5. Division of Labour
6. Cynthia Dacres
7. Captain Dacres
8. Angela Sutcliffe
9. Muriel Wills
10. Oliver Manders
11. Poirot Gives a Sherry Party
12. Day at Gilling
13. Mrs de Rushbridger
14. Miss Milray
15. Curtain
Also by Agatha Christie
About the Publisher
Directed by
Sir Charles Cartwright
Assistant Directors
Mr Satterthwaite
Miss Hermione Lytton Gore
Clothes by
Ambrosine Ltd
Illumination by
Hercule Poirot
Mr Satterthwaite sat on the terrace of ‘Crow’s Nest’ and watched his host, Sir Charles Cartwright, climbing up the path from the sea.
Crow’s Nest was a modern bungalow of the better type. It had no half timbering, no gables, no excrescences dear to a third-class builder’s heart. It was a plain white solid building—deceptive as to size, since it was a good deal bigger than it looked. It owed its name to its position, high up, overlooking the harbour of Loomouth. Indeed from one corner of the terrace, protected by a strong balustrade, there was a sheer drop to the sea below. By road Crow’s Nest was a mile from the town. The road ran inland and then zigzagged high up above the sea. On foot it was accessible in seven minutes by the steep fisherman’s path that Sir Charles Cartwright was ascending at this minute.
Sir Charles was a well-built, sunburnt man of middle age. He wore old grey flannel trousers and a white sweater. He had a slight rolling gait, and carried his hands half closed as he walked. Nine people out of ten would say, ‘Retired Naval man—can’t mistake the type.’ The tenth, and more discerning, would have