text:
A Pocket Full of Rye

A Pocket Full of Rye is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 9 November 1953, and in the US by Dodd, Mead & Co. the following year. The UK edition retailed at ten shillings and sixpence (10/6) and the US edition at $2.75. The book features her detective Miss Marple.

Like several of Christie's novels (e.g., Hickory Dickory Dock and One, Two, Buckle My Shoe) the title and substantial parts of the plot reference a nursery rhyme, in this case "Sing a Song of Sixpence". Miss Marple travels to the Fortescue home to offer information on the maid, Gladys Martin. She works with Inspector Neele until the mysteries are revealed.

Two reviewers at the time of publication felt that "the hidden mechanism of the plot is ingenious at the expense of probability" and that the novel was "Not quite so stunning as some of Mrs Christie's criminal assaults upon her readers". Christie's overall high quality in writing detective novels led one to say "they ought to make her a Dame". Writing later, another reviewer felt that the characters included an "exceptionally nasty family of suspects" in what was "Still, a good, sour read."

Plot summary
When London businessman Rex Fortescue dies after drinking his morning tea, Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Neele spearheads the investigation. An autopsy reveals the cause of death was poisoning by taxine, a toxic alkaloid obtained from the yew tree, and that Fortescue ingested it with his breakfast, while a search of his clothing reveals a quantity of rye in his jacket pocket.

Rex's wife Adele is the main suspect in the murder. Son Lancelot and his wife Pat are travelling from Kenya to London, at the invitation of his father, according to Lance; at Paris, he wires that he will be home next day, and police meet him at the airport. The day Lance arrives at Yewtree Lodge, leaving his wife in London, Adele dies of cyanide in her tea, and a few hours later the maid Gladys Martin is found strangled in the yard, with a clothes peg put on her nose.

Inspector Neele is working full-time with the aid of Sergeant Hay on these murders, interviewing all at the office and in the home. The older son, Percival, tells the Inspector that his father was erratic and ruining the business. After the story of the three murders is in the newspapers, Miss Marple arrives at Yewtree Lodge to shed light on Gladys Martin, who learned serving and cleaning at Miss Marple's home. Miss Ramsbottom, Rex's sister-in-law, invites her to stay. Inspector Neele agrees to work with Miss Marple, seeing what she can add. Neele learns that the taxine was ingested in marmalade, with a new jar put out at breakfast used by Rex alone; that jar had been tossed in the yard and found by police. When Miss Marple and Inspector Neele discuss the case, she asks him if he has asked about blackbirds, having seen the pattern of the old children's rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence." When he does ask, he learns of dead blackbirds on Rex's desk at home, a pie whose contents were removed and replaced with dead blackbirds, and from Lance, of the Blackbird Mine in east Africa.

The Blackbird Mine was found by a Mr MacKenzie and suspected of containing gold. Rex Fortescue investigated the land after investing capital in it, then left MacKenzie there to die, returning alone and owning the land that he felt was of no value. Mrs MacKenzie had subsequently blamed Rex for her husband's death, promising to teach her children to avenge their father. Both the Inspector and Miss Marple suspect that the daughter is in the household under another name, as the son died in the war. The Inspector suspects Mary Dove, the housekeeper, and tells her so; later, Jennifer Fortescue, wife of Percy, tells Miss Marple that she was the MacKenzies' daughter, and the Inspector confirms it. Jennifer put out the dead blackbirds near Rex to remind him of his past offence; Miss Marple realizes this gave the theme to the murderer. Dove immediately blackmails Jennifer; Inspector Neele says if Dove pays the money back, he will not charge her.

Miss Marple explains to Inspector Neele who killed Rex Fortescue: Gladys, who put the poison in the marmalade believing it was a truth drug, and the rye in his pocket, at the direction of her boyfriend, Albert Evans. The unattractive Gladys was very easy to persuade to assist him, never questioning his motives and flattered by his attentions. Miss Marple explains that Albert Evans is really Lance Fortescue, who wants the deed to the Blackbird Mine, as uranium has been found there. He arranged the murder of his father to stop the loss of cash and to deal only with his brother. He murdered his stepmother because she would inherit a large amount of money, but only if she lived thirty days after her husband, and he killed Gladys so she would not talk, leaving the clothes pin to match the line in the rhyme.

When Miss Marple returns home, a letter from Gladys waylaid in the post awaits her. She explains all she did and begs Miss Marple's help, as she does not know what to do, and encloses a photo of her and her Albert – clearly Lance Fortescue. Inspector Neele's case will be very strong.

Characters

 * Miss Marple: trained Gladys in the duties of service in a home or at a restaurant, and feels responsible when she reads of the murders where Gladys works.
 * Miss Griffith: head typist at the offices of Rex Fortescue. She calls his doctor.
 * Miss Irene Grosvenor: competent, beautiful blonde secretary in the offices of Rex Fortescue, his personal secretary.
 * Miss Somers: newest secretary in the office of Rex Fortescue, never able to know when water is boiling for tea.
 * Inspector Neele: Detective Inspector of the CID (Criminal Investigation Division) who handles the death of Rex Fortescue and the following two deaths at the Fortescue home. He is quick-thinking, making sure of the cause of death rapidly, so it is known to be murder.
 * Professor Bernsdorff: Pathologist at St Jude's hospital who discerns the cause of death for Rex.
 * Sergeant Hay: assists Inspector Neele. He finds the discarded jar of marmalade in the yard.
 * Rex Fortescue: Wealthy, unscrupulous businessman in London who dies at his office. He is over 60 years old, and suspected by his sons of a serious disease which impairs his functions in the business, Consolidated Investments.
 * Percival Fortescue: eldest son of Rex, working with him in the business. He is more conservative in his investments than his father is. He is called either Percy or Val and is about 30 years old. He seems to get what he wants, and has the most to gain from the deaths of his father and stepmother, but could not have killed the latter.
 * Jennifer Fortescue: wife of Percival for the last three years. They met when she nursed him back to health from pneumonia. She is bored by her life as a wife, without the focus of professional nursing. She was Ruby MacKenzie before she married.
 * Lancelot Fortescue: Rex's second son, nicknamed Lance. The two argued eleven years earlier, causing a breach, but he retains a role in Consolidated Investments as a junior partner. He lives in Kenya, coming home apparently to reconcile with his father because he is very happy with Pat, and wants to settle down. He is handsome, attractive, clever and completely unscrupulous.
 * Pat Fortescue: Lance's wife, recently married. They met in Kenya, where she went to start life afresh after losing two husbands, first one to the war, second one to suicide (Lord Frederick Anstice). She loves Lance and he loves her. She is unaware of Lance's crimes, believing the stories he tells of his father sending for him. Miss Marple advises her to return to her childhood home, if troubles should find her in her life again.
 * Elaine Fortescue: Rex's daughter, and youngest child, in her twenties. She is in love and wants to marry, but her father forbids the marriage. Once he dies, she tells her brother she will marry in a month, and start a school with her husband. She is the only person to shed a tear for her father's death.
 * Gerald Wright: schoolmaster loved by Elaine. He comes to the area when Elaine calls him after her father dies.
 * Miss Ramsbottom: Aunt Effie, older sister of Rex's first wife Elvira, the mother of their children. She has stern views regarding moral behaviour, yet does not call out Lance's lie as to the time he was with her on the day of his arrival. She spends time with visiting missionaries, and is over 70 years old.
 * Adele Fortescue: Rex's second wife, about thirty years younger than he is, about the age of his sons. They have been married two years. She is a beautiful woman who loves expensive things, described by Mary Dove as "a sexy piece".
 * Vivien Edward Dubois: golf and tennis partner, and lover of Mrs Fortescue. He is the sole heir in her will.
 * Mary Dove: housekeeper of Yewtree Lodge. She is competent and calm in the face of murder.
 * Mrs Crump: cook at the Fortescue household, who takes umbrage at the Inspector's suggestion that food she prepared would poison anyone.
 * Mr Crump: serves as butler, not very well, but he is a package deal with Mrs Crump.
 * Gladys Martin: parlour maid at Yewtree Lodge, the family mansion of the Fortescue family, for about two months.
 * Albert Evans: Gladys's boyfriend, whom she discusses with Mrs Crump. He is a false identity used by Lance Fortescue.
 * Ellen Curtis: housemaid at Yewtree Lodge for several years.
 * Mrs MacKenzie: Mr MacKenzie's widow, who found a potential gold mining field in East Africa and sought capital from Rex, twenty years before the story opens. Rex left him there to die. Rex still owns the land, and claimed that it was worthless, as to gold. She is living in Pinewood private sanatorium. She no longer speaks with her daughter as she only argues with her daughter.
 * Donald and Ruby MacKenzie: the MacKenzies' two children, aged 9 and 7 when their father died. Their mother raised them to avenge their father's death. Donald was killed early in the Second World War.

Literary significance and reception
Philip John Stead in The Times Literary Supplement, 4 December 1953 wrote that "Miss Christie's novel belongs to the comfortable branch of detective fiction; it never harrows its readers by realistic presentation of violence or emotion or by making exorbitant demands on their interest in the characters. Crime is a convention, pursuit an intellectual exercise, and it is as if the murderer of the odious financier did but poison in jest. The characters are lightly and deftly sketched and an antiseptic breeze of humour prevails. It is a pleasure to read an author so nicely conscious of the limitations of what she is attempting." He concluded, "Miss Christie has a reputation for playing fair with the reader who likes to assume detective responsibility, and also for being one too many for him. In the present case it may be felt that the hidden mechanism of the plot is ingenious at the expense of probability, but the tale is told with such confidence that (like murder itself, in this pastoral atmosphere) it does not matter very much."

Maurice Richardson in The Observer (15 November 1953) posited, "Not quite so stunning as some of Mrs Christie's criminal assaults upon her readers; the soufflé rises all right, but the red herrings aren't quite nifty enough. But how well she nearly always writes, the dear decadent old death-trafficker; they ought to make her a Dame or a D. Litt."

Robert Barnard said of the characters that "Super-stockbrokerbelt setting, and quite exceptionally nasty family of suspects. (Christie usually prefers to keep most of her characters at least potentially sympathetic as well as potential murderers, but here they are only the latter)." He felt that the plot was "Something of a re-run of Hercule Poirot's Christmas (loathsome father, goody-goody son, ne'er-do-well son, gold-digger wife, etc.), but without its tight construction and ingenuity. And the rhyme is an irrelevancy." His bottom line on this novel was that "Still, a good, sour read."

The poison
The aril, the fleshy part of the berry, is the only part of the yew that is non-toxic. The seeds inside the berry contain a high concentration of taxine and are poisonous if chewed. Pets that chew on yew branches or leaves have become ill. One of the characters in the novel remarks that taxine has "no medical uses," which was correct at the time. In 1963, Taxol, which is a member of the taxine family, was found to be one of the most potent and effective chemotherapy drugs for the treatment of solid tumours.

Film, TV, radio or theatrical adaptations
A Pocket Full of Rye was the fourth transmitted story in the BBC series of Miss Marple adaptations, which starred Joan Hickson as the elderly sleuth. It was first broadcast in two parts on 7 & 8 March 1985. Despite remaining faithful to the novel, apart from giving the title as "A Pocketful of Rye", the characters of Mrs MacKenzie, Gerald Wright and Elaine Fortescue did not make an appearance. In the end, the murderer dies in a car crash, while there is no such thing in the novel.

Michael Bakewell's 90-minute adaptation for BBC radio was first broadcast in 1995; it starred June Whitfield as Miss Marple.

The novel was adapted for the fourth series of the British television series Agatha Christie's Marple broadcast on ITV on 6 September 2009, starring Julia McKenzie as the title character. In comparison with the other episodes, this adaptation was surprisingly faithful, having only minor changes.

Publication history

 * 1953, Collins Crime Club (London), 9 November, hardcover, 192 pp.
 * 1954, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), hardcover, 211 pp.
 * 1955, Pocket Books (New York), paperback, 186 pp.
 * 1958, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), paperback, 191 pp.
 * 1964, Ulverscroft Large-print ed., hardcover, 191 pp.
 * 1981, Greenway ed. of collected works (William Collins), hardcover, ISBN 0-00-231681-1.
 * 2006, Marple facsimile ed. (of 1953 UK 1st ed.), 3 January 2006, hardcover, ISBN 0-00-720852-9.

The novel was first serialised, heavily abridged, in the UK in the Daily Express starting on Monday 28 September, running for fourteen instalments until Tuesday 13 October 1953.

The novel was first serialised in the US in the Chicago Tribune in forty-two parts from Monday, 11 January to Saturday, 27 February 1954.

title: A Pocket Full of Rye


text:
Lakeside MRT station

Lakeside MRT station is an above-ground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station on the East–West line in Jurong West, Singapore. This station is built on the northwestern bank of the Jurong Lake, hence its name.

Lakeside station provides MRT access to residents living in Taman Jurong and Hong Kah. It is currently one of the three stations that serve Jurong West New Town; the other two being Boon Lay MRT station and Pioneer MRT station.

History
The station was opened on 5 November 1988 and served as the western terminal station for the East West line until Boon Lay station opened on 6 July 1990. When westbound train terminates at Platform B before it turnaround utilised nearby crossover to Platform A headed back to the East, before Boon Lay was fully opened on 6 July 1990.

Design
The station was designed with a curved Chinese roof, similar to those at the nearby Chinese Garden.

As with most of the above-ground stations built in the past along the East–West line, it was built without platform screen doors. After several successful tests at Jurong East, Yishun and Pasir Ris and eventually, installation of the half-height screen doors started on 9 June 2010 and operations commenced on 31 August that year along with Bukit Batok.

High-volume low-speed fans were installed and commenced operation on 30 November 2012. Privacy screens were installed from Lakeside MRT station to Corporation Road, excluding Lakeside crossover to minimise noise generated from their residents.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Lakeside MRT station


text:
Pioneer MRT station

Pioneer MRT station is a Mass Rapid Transit station in Singapore. It is part of the MRT East West Line and serves the residential estate of Pioneer. The station is located along Jurong West Street 63 and provides a convenient mode of transportation for residents and visitors to the area.

Despite its name, Pioneer station is not physically located within the Pioneer planning area. Rather, its name was derived from Pioneer Road North, a major road to the west of the station that travels in the north–south direction. Pioneer station is currently the nearest MRT station to the Nanyang Technological University until 2029 when Nanyang Gateway and Nanyang Crescent stations along the Jurong Region MRT line opens.

It is one of two above-ground stations on the MRT network with a privacy screen built along the track of the eastbound platform to ensure the privacy of nearby residents; the other station is Marsiling MRT station.

History
Built along with Joo Koon, it was part of the Boon Lay Extension (BLE) project announced by the Land Transport Authority in December 2004 to help people working in the Jurong Industrial Area travel faster.

The station opened on 28 February 2009 and following the opening, SBS Transit introduced a new feeder bus service 241 to provide bridging services for the N9 residents and the Land Transport Authority carried out amendments and additions (A&A) works on Pioneer Road North, such as expanding the road and constructing an overhead pedestrian ramp bridge, as complements to the station to serve the residents of Nanyang and Pioneer.

As with most above-ground stations built in the past along the East West line, it was initially built without platform screen doors that prevent commuters from falling onto the train tracks. Installation of the half-height screen doors eventually started on 21 June 2011. By 24 August that year, all of the screen doors were installed and began operations.

The station was installed with high-volume low-speed fans, which commenced operations on 10 June 2012. It was the second station, after Tampines to have them installed.

title: Pioneer MRT station


text:
Talk:The Plateau

Name of article
Although the expression The Plateau may be acceptable in English in speaking about this area of Montreal in a general sense, the official name of the borough per se (arrondissement) is Plateau Mont-Royal (see ). Either we need two articles: a general The Plateau article about what a cool and trendy place the neighbourhood is and another Plateau Mont-Royal article on the official borough of Montreal, or this article should be renamed. Grstain 10:58, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

 * Agreement. - Montréalais 04:08, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

 * I completely agree. The "Plateau-Mont-Royal" should have limited use in articles talking about mailing, political divisions, etc.., and "The Plateau" should be used to describe the Plateau that is part of Montreal culture. --Larineso 00:54, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Actually, I should have said I agree with the second of Grstain's ideas: I would prefer that the article be entitled Plateau-Mont-Royal and contain both information on the borough and on its cultural value. However, I suppose the first proposition would also be acceptable. - Montréalais 07:15, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

 * I understand. I am not averse to the first idea, I just think that "The Plateau" as an idea warrants its own article (ex. about the cultural aspects of the area), and the Plateau Mont-Royal could also (for example, demographics, history, yada yada..). Larineso 23:46, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

I've created the Plateau-Mont-Royal article containing information on the borough (which incidentally includes not only the Plateau, but also Mile End and the McGill Ghetto). - Montréalais 07:28, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

 * I think there should be one article. To most people "The Plateau" and "Plateau Mont-Royal" mean the same thing. The Mile End and the McGill Ghetto are neighbourhoods within the Plateau district, in the same way that Snowdon is a neighbourhood within the Côte des Neiges district. - Farquard 16:49, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

 * I think most people would consider "The Plateau" to be only one neighborhood of Plateau-Mont-Royal, along with the McGill ghetto and Mile End. --Larineso 16:08, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Sorry, perhaps that wasn't too clear. What I ment was that "Plateau Mont-Royal" usually refers to the Plateau neighbourhood rather than the borough as a whole, and since there's no deffined district of "The Plateau" seperate from the borough, it would make sense to discuss the neighbourhood and the borough in the same article. I'm not opposed to having two articles, but the way it is now it gives the impression that "The Plateau" means the neighbourhood whereas "Plateau Mont-Royal" means the borough when this is not the case. I'll fix it up a bit, but I think "Plateau Mont-Royal" should be a disambig page with the article moved to "Plateau-Mont-Royal (borough)". - Farquard 18:07, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

The official website of the borough

Staircases
I'm looking for sources that discuss the unique exterior staircases typical of the Plateau and other sections of Montreal. I've googled a lot of different combinations but I've mostly found "montreal has a lot of these staircases" but almost nothing about their origins or history. To me, they're distinctive enough one could make a case for their "notability" for a wiki article - if only there were some sources!

Has anyone else seen any source material on this? French or English would be welcome.Birdbrainscan 02:11, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

There was an aritcle in The Gazette a few months ago about montreal tri and duplexes. Maybe you could look for it. I know this sin't a source, but it mentioned that they were originally hybrids of Scottish and french buildings. But Im not even sure of that). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bob bobato (talk • contribs) 22:13, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

title: Talk:The Plateau


text:
Talk:The Divine Comedy (Milla Jovovich album)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on The Divine Comedy (Milla Jovovich album). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130720152907/http://thecelebritycafe.com/interviews/milla.html to http://thecelebritycafe.com/interviews/milla.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 09:09, 25 December 2017 (UTC)


text:
Joo Koon MRT station

Joo Koon MRT station is an above-ground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station along the East West Line in Pioneer planning area, Singapore.

Joo Koon station is named after Joo Koon Village, a rural Chinese settlement that once stood in the area before it was turned into an industrial estate in the 1960s. It was the western terminus of the East West line from 28 February 2009 to 18 June 2017, until Tuas Link station was built. Alternate trains terminate at this station during peak hours.

History
Joo Koon station was built together with Pioneer station; they were part of the Boon Lay extension (BLE) project announced by the Land Transport Authority in December 2004 to serve the Jurong Industrial Estate.

The station opened on 28 February 2009. Installations of half-height platform screen doors began on 16 May 2011 and began operations in July 2012. The station platform was further retrofitted with high-volume low-speed fans, which began operations on 19 August 2012.

Tuas West Extension
On 18 June 2017, Tuas Link station superseded Joo Koon as the western terminus of the East West Line. During the initial opening stage, westbound trains alternated between terminating at both stations.

15 November train collision and delay
On 15 November 2017 at approximately 8.18am, 2 C151A trains collided at Joo Koon MRT station. A train fault caused the first train heading in the direction of Tuas Link to stall at the station. A minute later, a second train stopped behind the first and then "moved forward unexpectedly", resulting in the collision. 36 passengers and 2 SMRT staff sustained light to moderate injuries, and were conveyed to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and National University Hospital. This is the second of such incidents after 5 August 1993, with the first being when 2 C151 trains collided at Clementi.

As a result, train services between Tuas Link and Boon Lay stations were temporarily suspended on both directions for 2 hours on the day itself and for the entire day on 16 November, resulting in westbound trains terminating at Boon Lay station.

An update by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) & SMRT on 16 November stated that LTA and SMRT had decided to isolate for up to one month the operations of the Tuas West Extension, which ran on the new signalling system, from the rest of the East–West line, which ran on the old signalling system, in order to enable LTA and Thales engineers to carry out further assurance checks.

Train service on the Tuas West Extension between Gul Circle and Tuas Link resumed operations on 20 November that year, using the new signalling system. The rest of the East West line continued to run on the old signalling system between Pasir Ris and Joo Koon. However, train services between Joo Koon and Gul Circle were suspended until 27 May 2018, though free bridging bus service was available between the two stations. Continuous service to Tuas Link resumed in stages.

title: Joo Koon MRT station


text:
User:DNicholls

I will be out until September, about. '''Please leave comments on my talk page. Cheers.'''

Frequently Used Guidelines (FUG)

My WP to-do list.

title: User:DNicholls


text:
Hastingleigh

Hastingleigh is a small civil parish centred on an escarpment of the Kent Downs.

The parish is three miles east of Wye and ten miles south of Canterbury, extending to the hill-scape of the Devil's Kneading Trough, on the North Downs Way with views towards Ashford, Romney Marsh and the patchy remnant forest of The Weald (between the Greensand Ridge and South Downs).

Amenities
Common amenities are a garage and a public house.

History
Hastingleigh gets its name from the Haestingas, a Jutish tribe that lived in the area.

The village was in existence before the Domesday Book of 1086, and originally lay in the valley by the Church of England church (St. Mary the Virgin) but following the plague, the main settlement was relocated to its current position. The church is made of stone, in the Early English style, and has a tower containing one bell: there is a brass to John Halke, d.1604, and Amia his wife, d.1596: The maternal grandparents of Dr William Harvey, who discovered the Circulation of the blood, had links to the village; his mother Joane was born at South Hill, Hastingleigh and married Thomas Harvie of Folkestone, in Hastingleigh Church. The nave and aisle were restored in 1880 and the chancel in 1886: the church affords 200 sittings. 12th-century murals were partially uncovered on the north wall, and south east corner of the church in 1966.

Hastingleigh was late in receiving a broadband service, in late 2006. It held most requests status for six months before conversion.

Transport
The village is reached from west or east. The main route (Churchfield Way) through more populated but larger Wye in the west connects, after a short section then a steep descent outside of the civil parish borders, to Elmsted and then to Canterbury.

Bus 620 runs between Canterbury, Hastingleigh and Waltham.

title: Hastingleigh


text:
The Showroom

The Showroom is a not-for-profit art gallery in Marylebone, London, which displays site-specific works by emerging artists. The gallery presents four shows each year, a schedule that allows artists the time to develop and realise their work on site.

Established in 1983, the gallery was based at a site in Bethnal Green, East London. In 2008, the gallery relocated to a building in Marylebone, London, on Penfold Street, which was converted by Berlin-based architects ifau + Jesko Fezer.

Solo shows at The Showroom in the former East End space included Mona Hatoum, Sam Taylor-Wood, Simon Starling, Christina Mackie, Jim Lambie, Claire Barclay, and Eva Rothschild.

The Showroom receives fixed-term funding from Arts Council of England and other organisations and individuals. The director Gabriela Salgado was appointed in July 2022, when Elvira Dyangani Ose left to become director of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA). Previous directors were Emily Pethick, Kirsty Ogg, Kim Sweet and David Thorp.

title: The Showroom


text:
Hickory Dickory Dock (novel)

Hickory Dickory Dock is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 31 October 1955 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in November of the same year under the title of Hickory Dickory Death. The UK edition retailed at ten shillings and sixpence (10/6) and the US edition at $3.00. It features her Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The novel is notable for featuring Poirot's efficient secretary, Miss Felicity Lemon, who had previously appeared only in the Poirot short stories.

This novel is set at a student hostel. Poirot is initially asked to investigate petty thefts and vandalism in the hostel, and easily discovers that most of these acts were committed by resident Celia Austin. Then Celia is murdered.

Plot summary
An outbreak of apparent kleptomania at a student hostel arouses Hercule Poirot's interest when he sees the bizarre list of stolen and vandalised items. These include a stethoscope, some lightbulbs, some old flannel trousers, a box of chocolates, a slashed rucksack, some boracic powder and a diamond ring later found in a bowl of soup – he congratulates the warden, Mrs Hubbard, on a 'unique and beautiful problem'. Poirot's solution of the petty thefts is unsubtle but effective: once he has threatened to call in the police, Celia Austin quickly confesses to the pettier incidents. She denies, however, the following: stealing Nigel Chapman's green ink and using it to deface Elizabeth Johnston's work; taking the stethoscope, the light bulbs and boracic powder; and cutting up and concealing a rucksack. She committed the lesser thefts to attract the attention of Colin McNabb, a psychology student who then becomes engaged to her. She makes restitution for the crimes and reconciles with her victims. The more important incidents remain unsolved. Celia is discovered dead the following morning from an overdose of morphine. It does not take investigators long to see that her death is murder.

Inspector Sharpe solves the mystery of the stolen stethoscope during his interviews with the inhabitants of the hostel. Nigel Chapman admits to having stolen the stethoscope to pose as a doctor and steal some morphine tartrate from the hospital dispensary as part of a bet to acquire three deadly poisons (the other two being digitalin and hyoscine). He claims the poisons were carefully disposed of, but cannot be sure that the morphine was not stolen from him while it was in his possession. Poirot turns his attention to the reappearance of the diamond ring, and confronts Valerie Hobhouse, in whose soup the ring was found. It seems that the diamond had been replaced with a zircon and that only Valerie could place it in the dish of soup; Poirot accuses her of having stolen the diamond. She admits to having done so, saying that she needed the money to pay off gambling debts. She also admits to having planted in Celia Austin's mind the idea of the thefts.

Mrs Nicoletis is behaving very nervously. She is killed by drinking poisoned brandy. Poirot focuses his attention now on the cutting up of the rucksack. By careful study of the rucksack's design, he identifies an unusual corrugated base, and suggests to the police that the rucksack is part of an international smuggling operation. The rucksacks were sold to innocent students, and then used to transport drugs and gems. Mrs Nicoletis had been bankrolling the organisation, but was not the brain behind it. When the police visited Hickory Road on an unconnected issue, the murderer had cut up the rucksack to avoid its being found and removed light bulbs to avoid being recognised.

Patricia Lane comes to Nigel and admits that she has taken the morphine from the bottle in his drawer and substituted for it bicarbonate of soda. Now the bottle of bicarbonate of soda has been taken from her own drawer. While they are searching for this bottle she mentions that she is intending to write to his father to reconcile the two. Nigel tells her that the reason for his estrangement from his father is that he discovered that his father had poisoned his mother with Medinal, a trade name for barbitone sodium. This is why he changed his name and carries two passports. Nigel goes to Inspector Sharpe and tells him about the missing morphine, but while he is there, Patricia telephones to say that she has discovered something further. By the time that Nigel and Sharpe get to the house, she is dead, killed by a blow to the head. Akibombo comes to Sharpe and says that he had taken Patricia's bicarbonate to ease a stomach complaint; when he took a teaspoonful of the bicarbonate, however, he had stomach pains and later discovered that the white powder was in fact the boracic powder. By the time Patricia had substituted the bicarbonate, the morphine had already been substituted by the stolen boracic powder. Poirot's suspicions about Valerie Hobhouse's role in the smuggling operation are proved correct by a police raid on her beauty shop.

The murderer is Nigel Chapman, who was known to have the morphine in his possession. He killed Celia because she knew about his dual identity and also knew that Valerie travelled abroad on a false passport. He killed Mrs Nicoletis because she was sure to give the smuggling operation away under pressure, and killed Patricia because she was likely to draw his father's attention to the recent events, as she was on the verge of writing a letter to him in the hope of reconciling him with his son before his death. When Poirot outlines to Nigel's father's solicitor the case against Nigel, the solicitor provides final proof. Nigel's mother had been poisoned not by his father but by Nigel. When the father discovered this ( is a poison slow to act, and the mother told her husband), he forced him to write a confession and left it with his solicitor together with a letter explaining that it should be presented to the authorities in case of any further wrongdoing by Nigel. Valerie placed the call to the police station, which had apparently come from Patricia, to establish an alibi for Nigel who had already bludgeoned Patricia. The green ink was a double-bluff intended to divert suspicion away from him. Valerie is willing to incriminate Nigel fully because Mrs Nicoletis was actually her mother.

Characters

 * Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective
 * Inspector Sharpe, the investigating officer
 * Miss Felicity Lemon, Poirot's secretary
 * Mrs Christina Nicoletis, the part-Greek, dipsomaniac owner of the student hostel at Hickory Road
 * Mrs Hubbard, Miss Lemon's sister and the warden of Hickory Road
 * George, Poirot's valet
 * Ahmed Ali, an Egyptian student residing at Hickory Road
 * Akibombo, a West African student residing at Hickory Road
 * Celia Austin, a resident in full-time employment at Hickory Road, chemist in the dispensary at St Catherines Hospital.
 * Leonard "Len" Bateson, a student residing at Hickory Road, studying medicine and surgery
 * Nigel Chapman, a student residing at Hickory Road, he has a diploma in Bronze Age and medieval history as well as Italian, and studies at the University of London
 * Sally Finch, an American student residing at Hickory Road under the Fulbright Program, specializing in poetry, based on archaeologist Joan Oates
 * René Halle, a French student residing at Hickory Road, studying English literature
 * Valèrie Hobhouse, a resident at Hickory Road in full-time employment as co-owner of Sabrina Fair, a beauty parlour
 * Elizabeth Johnston, a Jamaican student residing at Hickory Road, studying jurisprudence
 * Chandra Lal, an Indian student residing at Hickory Road studying political science
 * Patricia Lane, a student residing at Hickory Road with a diploma in archaeology
 * Geneviève Maricaud, a French student residing at Hickory Road studying English literature
 * Colin McNabb, a student residing at Hickory Road, doing post-graduate studies in psychology
 * Gopal Ram, an Indian student residing at Hickory Road studying political science
 * Jean Tomlinson, a resident at Hickory Road in full-time employment doing physical therapy at St Catherine's Hospital
 * Maria, the Italian cook at Hickory Road
 * Geronimo, Maria's husband, and the hostel manservant

Explanation of the novel's title
The title is taken, as are other of Christie's titles, from a nursery rhyme: Hickory Dickory Dock. This is nevertheless one of her most tenuous links to the original nursery rhyme, consisting of little more than the name of a road and an allusion being "in the dock," i.e. on trial. (“‘Hickory, dickory, dock,’ said Nigel, ‘the mouse ran up the clock. The police said, “Boo,” I wonder who, will eventually stand in the Dock?’”).

Literary significance and reception
Philip John Stead's review in the Times Literary Supplement of 23 December 1955 began: "Poirot's return to the happy hunting grounds of detective fiction is something of an event. He is called upon to solve the mystery of a series of apparently trivial thefts at a student's hostel but soon finds himself partnering the police in investigating murder. Mrs Christie rapidly establishes her favourite atmosphere by her skilful mixture of cheerfulness and suspense." After summarising the plot he concluded, "The amount of mischief going on in the hostel imposes some strain on the reader's patience as well as on Poirot's ingenuity; the author has been a little too liberal with the red herrings. Yet the thumb-nail sketches of the characters are as good as ever and in spite of the over-elaborate nature of the puzzle there is plenty of entertainment."

Robert Barnard: "A significant falling-off in standards in this mid-'fifties story. A highly perfunctory going-through-the-paces: the rhyme has no meaning within the story; the plot (drugs smuggled in imported haversacks) is unlikely in the extreme; and the attempt to widen the range of character types (Africans, Indians, students of Freud etc.) is far from successful. Evelyn Waugh's diary records that it 'began well' but deteriorated 'a third of the way through into twaddle' – a judgment which, unusually for him, erred on the side of charity."

References to other works
When the students are attempting to place Hercule Poirot, during Chapter 4, one of them mentions the case retold in Mrs McGinty's Dead (1952). When Poirot comes to lecture to the students about his cases in the same chapter, he retells the story of The Nemean Lion, published in book form in The Labours of Hercules (1947). In chapter 5 Poirot also remembers Count Vera Rossakoff's "exotic splendour...even in decay", something that he has only observed in The Capture of Cerberus, also from The Labours of Hercules. In Chapter 21, Poirot visits a solicitor by the name of Mr Endicott to confirm his suspicions of Nigel Chapman. Endicott says to Poirot, "...I'm deeply in your debt. You cleared up that nasty Abernethy business for me." This may be a reference to the events in After the Funeral (1953), though Abernethie is mistakenly spelt "Abernethy" and not "Abernethie" as it is in After the Funeral. Furthermore, the catalyst to Poirot's direct involvement to the events in After the Funeral is a solicitor named Entwhistle, not Endicott.

References to actual history, geography and current science
In Chapter 11, Elizabeth Johnston refers to anti-Communist “witch hunts” in America. The term was first used in its metaphorical sense in 1938, but its specific connection with McCarthyism dates from the first performance of Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, in 1953. This implies that the setting of the novel is at most two years before its publication.

Television adaptations
A television adaptation, starring David Suchet as Poirot; Philip Jackson as Inspector Japp; Pauline Moran as Miss Lemon; Damian Lewis as Leonard Bateson; Sarah Badel as Mrs Hubbard; Elinor Morriston as Valerie Hobhouse and Jonathan Firth as Nigel Chapman, was broadcast in 1995 in the series Agatha Christie's Poirot. In common with the rest of the series, the setting is moved back in time from the post-World War II period of Christie's original novel to the 1930s. This results in an anachronism: the American student Sally Finch is said to be on a Fulbright scholarship, though the Fulbright Program was not founded until after the Second World War.
 * British

This adaptation differed from Christie's novel in that Sharpe is replaced with the recurring character of Inspector Japp, and a number of the students from the novel are left out, most notably Akibombo, Elizabeth Johnston, and Lal, who are students but neither English nor American. Other aspects omitted from the TV adaptation include the red herring of the green ink, the change of the motive for the murder of Celia, the theft of the poison being the only thing taken and the person who takes it (McNabb) and the smuggling involving only diamonds, the inclusion of a Custom and Excise Officer conducting an undercover operation, and the relationship between Valerie and Mrs Nicoletis.

The novel was also adapted as a 2015 episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie.
 * French

Publication history

 * 1955, Collins Crime Club (London), 31 October 1955, Hardcover, 192 pp
 * 1955, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), November 1955, Hardcover, 241 pp
 * 1956, Pocket Books (New York), Paperback, 222 pp
 * 1958, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 192 pp
 * 1967, Pan Books, Paperback, 189 pp
 * 1987, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, ISBN 0-7089-1637-6

In the UK the novel was first serialised in the weekly magazine John Bull in six abridged instalments from 28 May (Volume 97, Number 2552) to 2 July 1955 (Volume 98, Number 2557) with illustrations by "Fancett".

The novel was first serialised in the US in Collier's Weekly in three abridged instalments from 14 October (Volume 136, Number 8) to 11 November 1955 (Volume 136, Number 10) under the title Hickory Dickory Death with illustrations by Robert Fawcett.

title: Hickory Dickory Dock (novel)


text:
User talk:Hardshelltaco

Thanks for experimenting with Wikipedia. Your test worked, and has been reverted or removed. Please use the sandbox for any other tests you want to do. Take a look at the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia. Thanks. - KeithD 11:05, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Hardshelltaco


text:
Nicoll Highway MRT station

Nicoll Highway MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station on the Circle Line (CCL) in Singapore. Located in the Downtown Core underneath Republic Avenue near the Kallang River, the station serves commercial and residential developments along Nicoll Highway, such as the Golden Mile Complex and The Concourse. The station is operated by SMRT Trains.

First announced as part of the Marina MRT line (MRL) in 1999, the station was incorporated into Stage 1 of the CCL in 2001. During the construction, the tunnels linking to the original station site caved in along with the highway on 20 April 2004, killing four people. Following an investigation, which found human error and organisational failures as causes of the collapse, the station was relocated. Alongside the other stations on Stages 1 and 2 of the CCL, the station opened on 17 April 2010.

Designed by Ong & Ong, the station is 21.5 m deep and has a black and grey scheme. One of the two station entrances is linked to an overhead bridge. Nicoll Highway station features a public artwork Re-claiming the Peripherals by Khiew Huey Chian, consisting of four reliefs depicting wild plants.

History
Nicoll Highway station was first announced in November 1999 as part of the Mass Rapid Transit's Marina line (MRL), which consisted of six stations from the Dhoby Ghaut to Stadium station. In 2001, the station became part of Circle Line (CCL) Stage 1 when the MRL was incorporated into the CCL. The contract for the construction of Nicoll Highway station and tunnels was awarded to a joint venture between Nishimatsu Construction Co Ltd and Lum Chang Building Contractors Pte Ltd at on 31 May 2001.

Starting on 16 March 2002, a section of the Nicoll Highway from Ophir Road to Merdeka Bridge had to be temporarily diverted for the station's construction, with the bus stops shifted accordingly. An overhead bridge was constructed so that pedestrians could cross over the highway between the bus stops and The Concourse.

Tunnel collapse
The tunnels linking to the station caved in along with a 100 m stretch of the Nicoll Highway on 20 April 2004. The collapse of a tunnel retaining wall caused soil subsidence, creating a hole 100 metres long, 130 metres wide, and 30 metres deep (328 by 427 by 98 ft). Four people were killed and three were injured. While the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) managed to recover three bodies, the search for the last victim's body had to be called off two days after the incident owing to the unstable condition of the collapsed area, and his body was never found and recovered.

Safety measures were implemented after the collapse to minimise further damage to the collapsed area. A damaged canal had to be blocked up to prevent any water from the Kallang River from entering the site, while canvas sheets were laid on slopes in the site to protect the soil. Meanwhile, the surrounding buildings were monitored for their stability with additional settlement markers and electro-level beams installed at the nearby Golden Mile Complex. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) halted work at 16 of the 24 CCL excavation sites so these could be reviewed.

The collapsed site was quickly stabilised through the injection of concrete into areas vulnerable to movement or further collapse. Several vehicles, equipment and construction materials were retrieved using a specialised crane. The remaining equipment and material at the site were buried under infill rather than retrieved to avoid risking further collapse. Access to the collapsed site via the completed parts of the tunnel and the shaft was sealed off. After the site was refilled, the Nicoll Highway was rebuilt on bored piles so the new highway would not be affected by future excavation works. Reconstruction of the highway began on 24 August 2004; the new highway reopened on 4 December.

An investigation report by a Committee of Inquiry (COI) concluded that the incident could have been prevented and was caused by human error and organisational failures. The strut-waler support system was poorly designed and was weaker than it should have been, while there was a lack of monitoring and proper management of data. Although the LTA initially insisted that the collapse happened without warning, the COI report revealed that there were already "warning signs", such as excessive wall deflections and surging inclinometer readings, which were not addressed seriously. The report added that there was a lack of safety culture at the site and made several recommendations to improve the safety of construction projects, which the government accepted.

Relocation and opening
Through an announcement by the LTA on 4 February 2005, the station was relocated 100 m south of the original site along Republic Avenue, with a new tunnel alignment between the Millenia (now Promenade) and Boulevard (now Stadium) stations. The LTA decided against rebuilding at the original site due to higher costs and engineering challenges posed by debris left at the original site. The new tunnels were designed by Aecom consultants, while the former tunnels to the previous site were crushed with special machinery from Japan.

The new station was built using the top-down method while the 1.8 km of tunnels were bored through, minimising the impact on the environment. The retaining walls for the new station site were 1.5 m thick and entrenched 60 m underground – twice the previous depth. To reduce ground movement, the walls would be embedded into hard layers of soil. To ensure stability and prevent movement of the bored tunnels, the contractor implemented perforated vertical drains, with ground improvement efforts undertaken in the vicinity of tunnel drainage sumps and cross-passages.

On 29 September 2005, the LTA marked the start of the new station's construction with a groundbreaking ceremony, during which the diaphragm walls were first installed. Due to the tunnels' collapse, the completion date of CCL Stage 1 was delayed from 2007 to 2009, and pushed further to 2010. On 26 January 2010, Raymond Lim, the transport minister, announced that the station, together with the rest of CCL Stages 1 and 2, would begin operations on 17 April that year. Prior to the station's opening, passengers were offered a preview of the station during the CCL Discovery open house on 4 April.

Name and location
As the name suggests, the station is located near Nicoll Highway underneath Republic Avenue, in the Central Region of Singapore. The name of the station was also its working name. In an LTA naming poll, two other names for the station, Kampong Glam and Sultan Gate, were shortlisted. While these names were intended to reflect the history and heritage of the area, they were considered unsuitable for the relocated station. With strong public support, the station retained its working name.

Surrounding developments include Golden Mile Tower, Golden Sultan Plaza, The Concourse and The Plaza. The station is located on the west bank of the Kallang Basin and near the Kallang River, where the Kallang Water Sports Centre and Marina Promenade Park are situated. The station also serves the Hajjah Fatimah Mosque.

Services
Nicoll Highway station serves the CCL and is situated between Promenade and Stadium stations. The official station code is CC5. Being part of the CCL, the station is operated by SMRT Trains. Prior to the collapse, there were plans for the station, along with the adjacent Promenade station, to have a cross-platform interchange with an unspecified future line; that had to be realigned as the new station did not have such provisions to be an interchange. The new tunnels were designed by Aecom consultants and tunnels to the previous site were demolished with special machinery from Japan. The station operates between 5:45am and 12:17am, with trains running every 5 to 7 minutes in both directions daily.

Design
The two-level underground station is 165 m long and the platforms are 21.5 m deep. Designed by ONG & ONG, the station has a colour scheme of black, grey and white. The platform's dark, polished seats were intended to complement the rest of the station's modern design. The station has two exits, with Exit A connecting to The Concourse via an overhead pedestrian bridge. The station architecture is intended to represent the "technological sophistication" of the MRT network.

The station is wheelchair accessible. A tactile system, consisting of tiles with rounded or elongated raised studs, guides visually impaired commuters through the station, with dedicated tactile routes that connect the station entrances to the platforms. Wider fare gates allow easier access for wheelchair users into the station.

Station artwork
The station features Khiew Huey Chian's artwork Re-claiming the Peripherals as part of the Art-in-Transit programme – a public art showcase that integrates artworks into the MRT network. The artwork consists of four 6 by reliefs displayed over the platform doors, depicting often-overlooked wild plants in various shapes and formations. These plants had been crucial in preventing soil erosion of the reclaimed land on which the station is presently located, and had also left a deep impression on Khiew during his youth. He sought to showcase their importance by depicting the site's early beginnings before development of the area.

The work was intended to be in shades of white, but this colour was associated with death, so it was changed to grey. The Art Review Panel was concerned that the work would reference the Nicoll Highway collapse. Keeping the ambiguity of the artwork, the new colour complements the grey scheme of the station architecture. During the artwork's production, there were concerns over the uneven backing of the material, which caused the colour shading to not "come out right". With Khiew's closer involvement in the production process, this problem was later resolved. The station architects were concerned that the "pretty" figures would clash with the station's futuristic architecture, but Khiew felt that the contrast emphasised his intention of capturing the commuter's attention. It was initially intended for his work to be spread across the platforms' entire length above the screen doors to represent the highway. However, this idea would have hindered maintenance works for the cables running above the doors. Hence, the work was limited to four places above the platforms, which Khiew took as a challenge to "communicate with less". Khiew hoped that commuters would gain different perspectives from his work while encouraging them to be open-minded.

title: Nicoll Highway MRT station


text:
Destination Unknown (novel)

Destination Unknown is a work of spy fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 1 November 1954 and in US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1955 under the title of So Many Steps to Death. The UK edition retailed at ten shillings and sixpence (10/6) and the US edition at $2.75.

The novel opens in Morocco, where Hilary Craven is staying after a failed marriage. She plans to commit suicide, but is instead recruited by the British secret service for a mission. She is asked to impersonate the wife of a nuclear scientist who has recently disappeared. Hilary is soon transported to meet her new "husband".

Reviews at the time of publication in 1954-1955 found the novel timely, and clearly more fun for Mrs Christie to write than her usual mystery novels. One reviewer was clear in saying that mystery novels were her strong suit and this type of novel was not, yet it was worth reading. A later review, by Robert Barnard, felt the novel started well, but digressed as it found its way to the resolution, and “topples into hokum”. He mentioned the highly valued scientists who worked at Los Alamos during World War II on the atomic bomb and disappeared when peace came as the premise for the novel; Bruno Pontecorvo, who defected to the Soviet Union in 1950, and Klaus Fuchs, theoretical physicist who sent secret information to the Soviet Union and was imprisoned about that same time for that crime.

It is one of only four Christie novels not to have received an adaptation of any kind, the others being Death Comes as the End, Passenger to Frankfurt, and Postern of Fate.

Plot summary
Hilary Craven, a deserted wife and bereaved mother, is planning suicide in a Moroccan hotel, when she is asked by British secret agent Jessop to undertake a dangerous mission as an alternative to taking an overdose of sleeping pills. The task, which she accepts, is to impersonate a dying woman to help find the woman's husband, Thomas Betterton, a nuclear scientist who has disappeared and may have defected to the Soviet Union. Soon she finds herself in a group of travellers being transported to the unknown destination of the title.

The destination turns out to be a secret scientific research facility disguised as a modern leper colony and leprosy research center at a remote location in the Atlas Mountains. The fabulously wealthy Mr Aristides has built the facility and lured the world's best young scientists to it so that he can later sell their services back to the world's governments and corporations for a huge profit, after having removed the scientists' resistance through lobotomies. The scientists are not allowed to leave the facility, and they are locked in secret areas deep inside the mountain whenever government officials and other outsiders visit.

Hilary Craven successfully passes herself as Betterton's wife Olive, because he is miserable and wants desperately to escape. She falls in love with Andrew Peters, a handsome young American who was in the group with her on their journey to the facility. Through clues she has left along the way, Jessop eventually locates and rescues her and the others held there, with help from Peters, who turns out also to be a secret agent and the cousin of Betterton's first wife Elsa, whom Betterton had murdered. Betterton and Aristides are arrested, Craven no longer wants to die, and she and Peters are free to begin their life together.

Characters

 * Mr Jessop, a British security agent
 * Thomas Betterton, a young scientist who has recently disappeared
 * Olive Betterton, his second wife who wishes to join him
 * Boris Glydr, the Polish cousin of Thomas Betterton's deceased first wife, Elsa
 * Hilary Craven, a woman with looks similar to Olive, recently lost her only child and her husband left her
 * Mrs Calvin Baker, a seemingly typical American tourist, who is actually a major player in the events that unfold, and who harbors great resentment and hatred for her native country
 * Janet Hetherington, a dour English traveller, really a British agent
 * Henri Laurier, a gallant Frenchman
 * Mr Aristides, one of the world's wealthiest men with his hands in many different pots worldwide
 * Andrew Peters, a young research chemist
 * Torquil Ericsson, a Norwegian idealist
 * Dr Louis Barron, a Frenchman dedicated to bacteriological research
 * Helga Needheim, an arrogant German scientist
 * Paul Van Heidem, a social manager at the facility
 * Dr Nielson, the deputy director, in charge of administration
 * The Director, a charismatic speaker employed by Aristides
 * M. LeBlanc, a French investigator who works with Jessop

Major themes
This book explores the 1950s subject of defection to the Soviets, but it also demonstrates how the break-up of Christie's first marriage in the 1920s remained with her. Like her 1934 Mary Westmacott novel Unfinished Portrait, it starts with a youngish woman who has married, had a daughter and whose husband has replaced her with someone else.

In both books, a young man displays remarkable perceptiveness in spotting her intention to end her life and defies convention to save her, not only in tackling a stranger on intimate matters but in spending time in the woman's hotel bedroom to talk her out of suicide. In this story he talks her into espionage instead.

Literary significance and reception
Philip John Stead writing in The Times Literary Supplement in its review of 19 November 1954, was enthusiastic about the novel in posing the question, "Where do scientists go when they vanish from the ken of the Security Services? A solution to this fascinating problem is propounded in Destination Unknown. While it must be admitted that the secret, when disclosed, smacks rather of The Thousand and One Nights than of modern international rivalry for scientific talents, it may surely be excused on the ground that it provides Mrs Christie with a story-tellers holiday from the rigours of detective fiction. Readers may regret the absence of the tonic logicalities of crime's unravelling – though "clues" are not altogether missing – for the secret service story belongs largely to Adventure, but in their place is the author's obvious pleasure in the wider horizons of the more romantic genre." The review concluded, "However much the purist yearns for Poirot or Miss Marple, he can hardly deplore Mrs Christie's bright, busy excursion into this topical and extravagant sphere."

Maurice Richardson of The Observer of 31 October 1954, said, "The thriller is not Agatha Christie's forte; it makes her go all breathless and naïve." He concluded, "Needs to be read indulgently in a very comfortable railway carriage. She probably had a delicious busman's holiday writing it."

Robert Barnard wrote, "Slightly above-average thriller, with excellent beginning (heroine, whose husband has left her for another woman, and whose small daughter had died, contemplates suicide in strange hotel). Thereafter topples over into hokum, with a notably unexciting climax. Mainly concerns disappearing scientists – it is written in the wake of the Fuchs/Pontecorvo affairs. Mentions the un-American Activities Committee, without obvious disapproval." Barnard refers to Bruno Pontecorvo, a pioneering nuclear scientist who worked with the Allies in World War II then defected to the Soviet Union in 1950 and Klaus Fuchs, theoretical physicist who was also in Los Alamos during World War II, but sent secret knowledge to the Soviet Union and went to prison for that in 1950.

Publication history

 * 1954, Collins Crime Club (London), 1 November 1954, Hardback, 192 pp
 * 1955, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), 1955, Hardback, 212 pp
 * 1956, Pocket Books (New York), Paperback, 183 pp
 * 1958, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 191 pp
 * 1969, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 203 pp
 * 1977, Greenway edition of collected works (William Collins), Hardcover, 196 pp ISBN 0-00-231089-9
 * 1978, Greenway edition of collected works (Dodd Mead), Hardcover, 196 pp
 * May 1983, Pocket Books, paperback, 237 pp, ISBN 0671473085

In the UK the novel was first serialised in the weekly magazine John Bull in five abridged instalments from 25 September (Volume 96, Number 2517) to 23 October 1954 (Volume 96, Number 2521) with illustrations by William Little.

The novel was first serialised in the US in the Chicago Tribune in fifty-one parts from Tuesday, 12 April to Thursday 9 June 1955 under the title of Destination X.

title: Destination Unknown (novel)