Poirot - Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case

　　(二次大戰期間，倫敦遭受德軍無情轟炸，人人自危，阿嘉莎．克莉絲蒂亦不例外。苦於生命飄搖之感，克莉絲蒂預先完成了兩部小說，讓她親手創造的偵探就此榮退，以免萬一遭逢不幸，仍得讓這些神探有個完美的告別演出)

　　話說年事漸長的海斯汀在阿根廷接到白羅的緊急召喚，於是不辭辛勞的趕回英國家鄉。失去愛妻的他，滿懷愁緒回到史岱爾莊--那是他與白羅合破第一件奇案的地點--卻發現這個對他意義非凡的所在，早已今非昨日，變成了一家做生意的旅館；而且白羅的身體亦枯槁殘弱，不得不以輪椅代步。

　　萬幸的是，他發現白羅的灰色腦細胞仍然精準如昔，不認同謀殺行為的精神亦未曾稍減--這就是他召回海斯汀的目的--他認為一樁連續殺人案件的兇手，即將潛入史岱爾莊再次行兇造孽，他需要海斯汀協助調查。

　　問題是，海斯汀有了麻煩。他發現他心愛的女兒竟也來至此地，而且與一位少校墜入情網，他擔心女兒受惡劣浪蕩子所欺，竟產生毒殺少校的念頭……

　　這棘手的情況白羅要如何處理？海斯汀可是來壞事的嗎？這個毒辣的兇手將怎樣與白羅纏鬥？亦或是趁亂得逞？

　　看倌們請靜心觀賞偉大神探這最後一役,白羅將就此向世人告別,謝幕鞠躬,瀟灑退場!

　　★本書中譯本《謝幕》由遠流出版

　　A wheelchair-bound Poirot returns to Styles, the venue of his first investigation, where he knows another murder is going to take place! The house guests at Styles seemed perfectly pleasant to Captain Hastings; there was his own daughter Judith, an inoffensive ornithologist called Norton, dashing Mr Allerton, brittle Miss Cole, Doctor Franklin and his fragile wife Barbara , Nurse Craven, Colonel Luttrell and his charming wife, Daisy, and the charismatic Boyd-Carrington. So Hastings was shocked to learn from Hercule Poirot’s declaration that one of them was a five-times murderer. True, the ageing detective was crippled with arthritis, but had his deductive instincts finally deserted him?!

作者簡介

　　阿嘉莎．克莉絲蒂（一八九Ｏ ~ 一九七六）英籍女作家、劇作家。本名Agatha May Clarissa Miller，生於德望郡（Devon），家境富裕而傳統守舊，是家中的么女。生性害羞，孩童時期未曾接受學校教育，由女家庭教師教導學會識字和讀書。在母親的鼓勵下，大量閱讀各種書籍，並開始創作詩和短篇故事。

　　一九一五年第一次世界大戰期間，克莉絲蒂在醫院擔任藥劑師，從中學習各類毒藥的專業知識，並萌生撰寫推理小說的構想，處女作《史岱爾莊謀殺案》因此誕生。她創造的比利時私家偵探赫丘勒．白羅，是人氣歷久不衰的神探，其著名的「灰色的腦細胞」，已成為超人智慧的代名詞。

　　五十年的寫作生涯中，克莉絲蒂共完成六十六部小說、一百多篇短篇小說、十七個劇本，以一百零三種文字行銷全世界，共賣出二十億冊以上。她有好幾部小說被拍成叫好叫座的電影，如《東方快車謀殺案》、《尼羅河謀殺案》；她寫的劇本《捕鼠器》，從一九五四年以來，至今仍在倫敦劇院上演，堪稱是最長壽的舞台劇。如今克莉絲蒂這個名字，已涵蓋兩種意義：一為「推理小說」的同義字，二者是「謀殺之后」的殊榮。

　　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.