Death in the Clouds

Death in the Clouds has one of the most novel murder weapons to be found in any Christie murder mystery - a blow-pipe thorn tipped with snake venom. As suggested by the title, the setting is also unusual – a cross channel flight.

The story evokes the atmosphere of a bygone era when flying would have been an experience for the relatively well-off, and in this novel, a number of the passengers are returning from a pocket-emptying stint in a French casino. Let money then be the motive for the murder.

The victim in this story is in fact a money lender with a means of pressurizing clients into paying that must surely be the envy of one or two bailiffs. One or two unscrupulous bailiffs that is.

The death on a small plane by a poisoned thorn shot from a blow pipe seems to limit the number of suspects to passengers and crew, but that’s not all. One of the passengers is the great Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot who surely cannot be the murderer. Surely not. Not even if the evidence points to him.

But further still there are two-lovers-to-be on the plane and soon they are to assist in the investigation. An investigation that will flow smoothly between London addresses, an English country estate and Paris.

What seems at first a deceptively simple mystery turns out to have as many twists as a yard of rope and a criminal far more devious, cunning and capable than can at first be imagined.

And yes, fasten your seat-belts as the closing chapters arrive. For either the investigator or the investigated will be in for a surprise bump landing.

A very enjoyable read with a superb plot, and read excellently by the talented Hugh Fraser.