Lord Edgware Dies.

Unlike the UK issue, which was stamped 7/6 in red ink with later editions stamped in black, this colonial issue for export to India remains unstamped, and at one time was in the hands of a bookseller in Kolkata. This copy is an outstanding example of one of the scarcest Christie titles from the early 1930s.

The ninth Hercule Poirot novel, Lord Edgware Dies, was first serialised in The American Magazine as '13 For Dinner'. This alternative title arose from the superstition that sitting down thirteen to dinner causes bad luck for the person who first leaves the table. In the text, after a last-minute change of plans, the characters find themselves unexpectedly at a table of thirteen people, a turning point in Christie's chilling mystery. The novel was well received world-wide, adapted for radio, television, and into a 1934 film starring Austin Trevor in his third performance as Poirot.

First edition, first impression, colonial issue in unpriced dust jacket; 8vo; mild spotting throughout and on edges, bookseller's ticket to rear pastedown; publisher's orange cloth, spine and board lettered in black, illustrated dust-jacket, spine panel entirely unfaded, extremities a little creased, short closed tear to foot of spine panel, housed in a red quarter morocco drop back box; 252pp.