I confess, that was my immature reaction to the book. In fact, you have to wait till just over halfway through the book before anyone dies. I remember reading this book as a youngster and being frustrated that there wasn’t a nice juicy murder for me to get my teeth into right from the start. They were clearly good friends anyway! Towards Zero was first serialised in the US in Collier’s Weekly in three parts in May 1944, under the title Come and Be Hanged! The book was first published in the US in June 1944 under its usual title of Towards Zero by Dodd, Mead and Company, and in the UK by Collins Crime Club in one month later.

I’m not sure what the recent excesses that Christie refers to in this dedication are. Graves’ literary pillory! Your friend, Agatha Christie.” Robert Graves was, of course, a famous and successful writer, who created works such as Goodbye to All That, I Claudius, and Claudius the God. This is a story for your pleasure and not a candidate for Mr. All I ask is that you should sternly restrain your critical faculties (doubtless, sharpened by your recent excesses in that line!) when reading it. Dear Robert, since you are kind enough to say you like my stories, I venture to dedicate this book to you. As usual, if you haven’t read the book yet, don’t worry, I promise not to tell you whodunit! After one apparently accidental death and another that’s definitely murder, Superintendent Battle, together with his nephew Inspector Leach, questions the suspects and gets to the bottom of what actually happened. Tempers flare, old flames are kindled, and old scores are settled. In which tennis star Nevile Strange takes his new wife Kay to stay with his late guardian’s widow, Lady Tressilian, when his first wife, Audrey, is also visiting.

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