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Death in the Clouds (BBC Radio Collection)
 
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Death in the Clouds (BBC Radio Collection) [Audiobook] (Audio CD)

by Agatha Christie (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
Price: £7.00 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Audio CD
  • Publisher: BBC Audiobooks Ltd (3 May 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 056353043X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0563530435
  • Product Dimensions: 14.1 x 12.6 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 160,975 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description
A full-cast BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of an Agatha Christie story. On a flight from Le Bourget to Croydon, on which Hercule Poirot is an apprehensive passenger, a woman is found dead. A doctor on board is inclined to put it down to a wasp-sting, but Poirot suspects that a poisoned dart is the real cause - and, perhaps rather too conveniently, a blow pipe is dicovered stuffed down the back of his seat. Clearly the murder can only have been committed by one of the passengers or crew on the plane. But which one? Poirot, Japp and M. Fournier of the Surete will make their way through shoals of red herrings before reaching an utterly unexpected conclusion.

About the Author
Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Death in the Clouds (BBC Radio Collection)
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Death in the Clouds (BBC Radio Collection) 4.0 out of 5 stars (13)
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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
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 (8)
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2 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Murder at the hands of Hercule Poirot?, 10 Oct 2002
By John Austin "austinjr@bigpond.net.au" (Kangaroo Ground, Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Death in the Clouds (The Christie Collection) (Paperback)
The mid 1930s were some of the best years of the so-called “Golden Age of Detective Fiction” in Britain. Most practitioners belonged to the Detection Club, they reviewed and promoted one another’s books publically and privately they shared and re-worked one another’s ideas. An example of this literary cross-fertilization may be seen when Freeman Wills Crofts’ “The 12.30 From Croydon”, 1934, and “Agatha Christie’s “Death In the Clouds”, 1935, are compared. Both books begin with a passenger plane flight across the English Channel. In the former novel, a passenger is found to be dead at the end of Chapter One when the plane touches down in Paris. In the latter, a passenger is found to be dead at the end of Chapter One when a plane touches down in London. Thereafter, and indeed in the titling of the two books, each writer develops the idea differently.

Agatha Christie devises a whodunit puzzle. Characters are displayed in terms of how they appear physically, in their dialogue, by reputation or hearsay. Clues and significant red herrings are tossed about so that the murderer might mislead everybody else, and the writer might mislead the reader. Just how misleading appearances might be, is cleverly contrived at one point in this book when a jury at an inquest into the passenger’s death return a unanimous verdict of murder at the hands of another passenger, namely Hercule Poirot.

Agatha Christie, who lived to become the world’s best-selling author, presents her puzzle in immensely readable but unsophisticated prose. The two dimensional characters are somehow easy to keep in mind as you strive to guess the murderer’s identity and, of course, there is Hercule Poirot to unerringly point the finger. He can also voice a note of compassion with his oft repeated, “Ah, yes, life can be terribly cruel”.

“Death In the Clouds” is recommended for reading during prolonged international flights or sleepless nights as an escape from stressful reality. Don’t begin it, however, if you need a full night’s sleep. It is possible you will want to keep reading through to the last page.

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Far from Poirot's finest hour, 27 May 2007
By Ms. MacNeill (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Death in the Clouds (Poirot) (Paperback)
Not anywhere close to being Christie's best Poirot novel, which was rather a disappointment.

I felt that the story would have been improved had more time been spent on the plane, with Poirot perhaps even having to solve the mystery while in the air. Of course, this perhaps might give it too much in common with (the far superior) "Murder on the Orient Express". However, the murder has been got over with by the end of chapter two, by which time the plane has reached the airport, and the rest of the story is spent on land. I did feel that this was a mistake on Christie's part, as the "solve a mystery in an aeroplane" plot is unusual, if not unique, and I for one would have found it much more entertaining than what does take place.

Unusually for Christie (who tends to be quite apt at handing large casts of characters), I found myself often getting lost and confused by the throng she throws at the reader here. Too much time is spent with a few characters, while others are developed quite considerably for a chapter or so and then barely mentioned again. This is quite frustrating. Although Christie is not known for her excellent character-crafting, she usually manages to make her main suspects comic or interesting in some way. "Death in the Clouds", however, features characters who are watery stereotypes who are hard to care about, or even like.

Furthermore, the murder has an unsatisfactory resolution, with both Poirot and Christie keeping a number of key facts back from the reader. With such a muddle of events going on, I found myself becoming quite annoyed by the end that the murderer hadn't thought to kill off everyone on board and thus save me the bother of eliminating all the other candidates.

All is not lost. As the previous reviewer says, there are some amusing jabs by Christie at herself and the genre as a whole, what with Daniel Clancy the mystery writer (clearly an early prototype of Ariadne Oliver) and the device of the snake poison as method of murder. The story does also pick up the pace a little after the first hundred pages, which was a relief - although still not enough to allow me to feel invested in any of the characters.

Try it if you're a fan, but readers new to Poirot would be better off sticking to the oft-recommended "Death on the Nile", "Murder on the Orient Express", "Murder of Roger Ackroyd", and "Cards on the Table".
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars BBC Radio Collection - Death In The Clouds - Agatha Christie, 12 Jun 2004
The latest release in an impressive series of adaptations featuring John Moffatt as Hercule Poirot, first broadcast on Radio 4.

Moffatt first played Poirot back in the 1980's and is as definitive on radio as David Suchet is on television.

Christie wrote this story during the mid 1930's and whilst it is not in the first rank of titles published during this period, such as Murder On The Orient Express or Death On The Nile, it is a solid second division yarn.

A point of interest is the appearance of Philip Jackson as Japp, who is well known for the same role opposite Suchet in the ITV series.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A sting in the tale?
'Death in the Clouds' was written in 1935 and as such one might well think it would be rather dated. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Eric Watson

4.0 out of 5 stars Poirot takes to the air!
In its time, I expect the thought of Poirot flying in the air liner Prometheus (albeit to Croydon) was quite exotic. Read more
Published 8 months ago by A. Butterfield

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic
Death in the Clouds is classic Christie: a closed group of suspects, an ingenious plot, and some extra fun for fans in the shape of one character, Daniel Clancy, a detective... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Jay Gregory

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable Read
I don't always listen to other peoples reviews on books, and to me this prooved me right. I thought this was an enjoyable read indeed. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Webdevil

4.0 out of 5 stars "The most interesting thing about this case is the personality of the dead woman."
Agatha Christie sells herself short with this remark--the most interesting thing about this case is the fun that Christie herself has with the mystery! Read more
Published on 12 Sep 2006 by Mary Whipple

3.0 out of 5 stars Poirot in the clouds!
Another Christie novel featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. As in many cases, the crime takes place in a confined place and the number of possible murderers is quite... Read more
Published on 28 Oct 2002

4.0 out of 5 stars Tricky Poirot mystery.
Great start to the book. The mystery is very cleverly written and sleuthing skills better than mine will be needed to solve it. Read more
Published on 6 Jun 2001 by W. O'NEILL

4.0 out of 5 stars Poirot prime suspect for 'Impossible' murder in an aeroplane
Someone daringly commits an 'impossible' murder in a small enclosed space during an airflight from Paris to Croydon. Read more
Published on 15 Jan 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars blowpipes, murder and all in the confines of an aeroplane
The plane flight looked like it was going to be the same asany other to Poirot. Little did he know that a wasp could hold the key to a murder in the skies; a death in the clouds.
Published on 28 Jun 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a good book for reading on a plane!
Hercule Poirot was high in the sky trying to forget that he didn't like flying.There is one thing Poirot dosen't know, behind him there is a dead woman. Read more
Published on 8 Aug 1999

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