The joke was meant to be harmless. Eight alarm clocks, set to ring in sequence, to wake the famously sound-sleeping Gerry Wade at the country house Chimneys. But when morning comes, one clock is missing, and Gerry is dead. What begins as house party amusement curdles into something far darker in this sly, unsettling mystery from the queen of crime. Jimmy Thesiger finds himself entangled in a web that stretches beyond the English countryside. The cryptic phrase "Seven Dials" - first glimpsed in a dead man's belongings - leads Jimmy, along with the irrepressible Bundle Brent and her fellow investigators, into international intrigue, secret societies, and a conspiracy that reaches into the highest levels of power. Christie delivers razor-sharp social comedy alongside genuine suspense in this darker, stranger work - one where the humor cuts sharper because we know how quickly things can turn fatal.
