In the sprawling, half-timbered mansion in the affluent suburb of Swinly Dean, Aristide Leonides lies dead from barbiturate poisoning. An accident? Not likely. In fact, suspicion has already fallen on his luscious widow, a cunning beauty fifty years his junior, set to inherit a sizeable fortune, and rumored to be carrying on with a strapping young tutor comfortably ensconced in the family estate.

But criminologist Charles Hayward is casting his own doubts on the innocence of the entire Leonides brood. He knows them intimately. And he's certain that in a crooked house such as Three Gables, no one's on the level...

One minute, silly Heather Badcock had been gabbling on at her movie idol, the glamorous Marina Gregg.
The next, Heather suffered a massive seizure. But for whom was the deadly poison really intended?

Marina’s frozen expression suggested she had witnessed something horrific.
But, while others searched for material evidence, Jane Marple conducted a very different investigation – into human nature.

At Sir Hubert Handesley's country house party, five guests have gathered for the uproarious parlor game of Murder. Yet no one is laughing when the lights come up on an actual corpse, the good-looking and mysterious Charles Rankin.

Scotland Yard's Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives to find a complete collection of alibis, a missing butler, and an intricate puzzle of betrayal and sedition in the search for the key player in this deadly game.