THIRTEEN AT DINNER is a truly entertaining audiocassette. I own almost all of the Agatha Christie/"BBC Radio Presents" dramas, and this one ranks among the best of them, including SAD CYPRESS, DEATH ON THE NILE, and the Miss Marple double feature, 4:50 FROM PADDINGTON and A POCKET FULL OF RYE.

This particular Hercule Poirot whodunit has previously been adapted several times -- first as a 1934 British film, under the original title, LORD EDGWARE DIES (1934), released just a year after the debut of the novel.

Then came the 1985 American television movie, starring Peter Ustinov as Poirot; Jonathan Cecil as Captain Hastings; David Suchet, the PBS Poirot, as Inspector Japp; and Faye Dunaway.

The recent PBS version, reverting to the LORD EDGWARE DIES title, presented Suchet as Poirot -- in a cast that included Dominic Guard and Christopher Guard. This rates as the best screen adaptation to date.

But the BBC Radio version, dating from 1992, is sublime. John Moffatt, the perennial Poirot of BBC Radio, again assumes that role. His Captain Hastings is Simon Williams, perhaps best known in America as James in UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS.

The one drawback to this audio is that there is no additional cast listing. With all other BBC Radio dramas in the BDD (Bantam Doubleday Dell) series, there's a printed cast list -- and the players are also credited by the announcer at the conclusion of the tape. Not here, alas! And I'd love to know who the other actors are in this superlative production.

That omission aside, THIRTEEN AT DINNER is highly recommended for Christie aficionados and radio drama lovers in general.

Full disclosure: for the past fourteen years I have worked for an imprint of Random House, which, a year ago, acquired the division that distributes these BBC Radio tapes in the U.S. -- but I was a fan of the Christie series (and other BBC Radio presentations) long before corporate megamerger fused us into one media-monolith family.

Bette Davis is having problems in Hollywood. Warner Brothers won't provide the juicy parts she needs to broaden her screen career, and she wants to renegotiate her contract. Also, her marriage seems to be on the rocks. So naturally, she decides to sail to England to get away from it all. On the ship she meets Nydia Tilson, a prominent medium. And since Bette is looking for a place to live while in London, Nydia suggests she rent the mansion of her former fiancé, the famous archaeologist, Virgil Wynn. Bette is more that willing to do so.

Unfortunately, it appears as if someone is slowly murdering Virgil, who realizes this but with stiff British upper lip sits around fading away while planning to leave on his next (and probably last) archaeological dig.

Bette moves in the day Virgil that moves out for journey to Egypt. She also meets her next door neighbor a certain Mrs. Mallowan, who just happens to be a writer with a passion for eating apples.

The next morning Bette wakes to discover Virgil's dead body. Informing her neighbor of the situation Agatha Mallowan responds, "My specialité. A body in the library!"

The rest of the novel unwinds in true Christie-style with loads of suspicious friends, relatives and hired help. (Unfortunately, there's no butler who could have done it.)

As in all of his celebrity mysteries, Baxt has again thoroughly researched both the history of the era and the lives of Bette Davis and Agatha Christie. This results in a very believable and enjoyable work. This one set on my book shelf for a couple of years before I got around to reading it. So you might have a hard time finding a copy of it. If you do, grab it because it is a fun read.

Miss Marple is attending a dinner party at the Bantrys' with 3 other guests this evening: Sir Henry Clithering, retired Comissioner of Scotland Yard; Jane Helier, the actress; and Doctor Lloyd. (Sir Henry, as the Bantrys' houseguest, asked that she be invited, having met her the previous year.) Each of the six dinner guests tells a story during the course of the evening, some mystery to which he or she knows the answer, and the listeners attempt to work out the solution. (Miss Marple wins every time, and baffles the others when she tells her own story.) Only 4 of the six stories appear in this recording, an excellent narration by Joan Hickson (who gave the best performances I've ever seen as Miss Marple). The final pair can be found on her narration of _The Herb of Death and Other Stories_.

"The Blue Geranium" - Colonel Bantry doesn't believe in ghosts, which is why this story worries him so much; Mrs. Bantry invited Miss Marple at Sir Henry's request, partly because she'll be thankful to see the question settled, if possible. One of the Bantry's friends was married to a complaining invalid, who went in for spiritualism. Then a new medium gave her a prophecy: "Never have blue flowers! The blue primrose, warning; the blue hollyhock, danger; the blue geranium, death." And so it came to pass...or did it?

"The Four Suspects" - Sir Henry, before his retirement, undertook to have Dr. Rosen protected from the German secret society he had exposed to the police, but ultimately the society had identified him as a spy, and somehow passed a message to one of the four people in his household who must have killed him. It can't be proved as murder; just an old man falling downstairs. But Sir Henry is troubled, because one of the suspects - the secretary - was one of his own men, put there for safety. How did the society pass the kill order to the assassin in the isolated country house?

"The Companion" - Dr. Lloyd's story is a remembrance of his days in the Canary Islands. He remembers a night when he met a beautiful Spanish dancer, and a pair of bland, ordinary, English ladies seeing the world, and being completely mistaken in thinking who would have adventures. The key to this mystery is a point that Christie used in at least 1 other Marple story and one of her novels, incidentally.

"The Christmas Tragedy" - Sir Henry protests on behalf of the downtrodden males, since none of the ladies has yet told a story, so Miss Marple takes up the gauntlet. But since she's telling it, the story has a different emphasis than usual. When she first met the young couple, she was convinced that the husband meant to kill his wife for her money, and tried everything she could to prevent it, but in the end, Gladys died. But how did he do it?

These books are all great, with Hercule Poirot at his best. I recommend it to any mystery lover...or any book lover at that!

First of all these are both Miss Marple stories--not Hercules Poirot! Great value for the price--classic Christie and Joan Hickson (of BBC fame) is the perfect reader.

I think that agatha christe is the best writer for all the times y love her. Y dont know how to write very well because i am from Argentina and i am 16 years old y I only learn english in collage but y thik that saying that she is great its ok Maria

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is simply Agatha Christie's materpiece, to many critics, most of them contemporaneous with the publishing of the book, this is the best "guest who kills" ever written.Strongly recommended to those who want to get caught in the spell of the british author. At the end, you will be unavoidably forced to recognize that you could not come up with the correct answer.But don't worry. Neither could I.

I've discussed these stories in chronological order rather than order of appearance. The stories are an unabridged narration by Joan Hickson, who gave the best interpretation of Miss Marple I've ever seen. The only quibble I have with the recordings is that the publisher didn't group the stories into separate recordings based on content (e.g. a story from _The Tuesday Club Murders_ is on this recording). I advise you to scoop up the set of recordings (see my Listmania list), unless you can find some omnibus audio edition of Hickson's narration that includes the lot.

"The Thumbmark of St. Peter" - Miss Marple's contribution to the Tuesday Night Club (see Hickson's narration of _The Tuesday Club Murders_ for the earlier stories), at which each member was required to tell the story of a real life mystery, to which he or she knew the answer, but none of the others did. One of her many nieces - Mabel, this time - had made an unwise marriage, but after her husband's death, wrote her aunt in near hysteria. Not grief; stress, because rumours were spreading that she had poisoned her husband.

"The Herb of Death" - Mrs. Bantry's story, the 5th of 6 stories, one told by each member of a dinner party at the Bantrys. (Hickson's recording of the 1st 4 form _The Blue Geranium and Other Stories_.) Mrs. Bantry didn't want to tell a story, saying that she isn't any good at it. So she begins by telling of the bare facts of a death at Sir Ambrose Bercy's - a lot of foxglove got picked with the sage, everyone got food poisoning (including the Bantrys), and Sir Ambrose's ward Sylvia actually died of it. "There isn't anymore. That's all." Sir Henry in particular takes this as a challenge, since the listeners then have to work at ferreting out the details with clever questions.

"The Affair at the Bungalow" - Jane Helier's story, the last of the 6. Miss Helier, like a few other beautiful blond actresses in Christie's works, is, to put it kindly, not regarded as an intellectual. So when she comes up with a tale of robbery that 'happened to a friend of hers', all the other guests figure they know what's coming next.

"Death by Drowning" - A girl in St. Mary Mead has just been found drowned - Rose, the daughter of a man who runs the local pub. Having just learned that she was pregnant (having seduced a promising young architect in hopes of a shotgun wedding), quite a few people have reason to want her dead: the architect (engaged to a girl back in London), and her devoted admirer Joe Ellis, to name two. Miss Marple fears that the police may get the wrong person, so she reveals her own suspicions privately to Sir Henry (still a guest at the Bantrys'), and he follows up on them.

The four unabridged tales herein are among the few Marple short stories not found in _The Thirteen Problems_. While never adapted for television with Joan Hickson as Miss Marple, she provides the narration.

"The Case of the Perfect Maid", a.k.a. "The Servant Problem" - Miss Marple's maid comes to her on behalf of her cousin Gladys, an honest but opinionated soul who has just been fired by the Skinners, who apparently suspect her of trying to steal a brooch. Miss Marple tries to intervene - but Miss Lavinia and her hypochondriac sister Miss Emily, find a new maid who seems to be a perfect paragon. Miss Marple, though, doesn't like seeing Gladys' reputation unfairly slandered, and doesn't believe in paragons...

"The Case of the Caretaker" - Seeing Miss Marple badly pulled down and depressed after influenza - dangerous, at her age - Dr. Haydock presents her with a manuscript, detailing a mystery from his own past. Young Harry, a wild young 'county' brat who was packed off to Africa to squelch his scandalous conduct with local young women, has triumphantly returned with a clinging, rich young wife to restore his half-ruined childhood home, King's Dean. He even scunners the local gossips by introducing her to his most notorious old flame (now married and losing her teeth). But the caretaker's wife, although she and her husband were pensioned off with a nice cottage, continually stages cursing scenes with Harry's bride, protesting being turned out - although she always complained bitterly about King's Dean when she lived there...Solving this one requires a grasp of human nature, as with many of Christie's stories.

"Strange Jest" - Jane Helier, who met Miss Marple in _The Thirteen Problems_ at the Bantrys' dinner party and *knows* how clever she is, introduces her to two young people who were left a large country house by a rich uncle - but in his mistrust of banks, he's hidden the bulk of his fortune where they can't find it. Miss Marple is reminded of her uncle Henry: a decent man, but a terrible practical joker in his day...

"Tape-Measure Murder", a.k.a. "The Case of the Retired Jeweller" - Mrs. Spenlow, once a servant in a house where a notorious jewel theft took place, long ago left it to get married and run a flower shop. Now on her second husband, a retired jeweller, she's developed a habit of picking up and dropping religious fads, but it's never affected her talent for manipulating money, and she can afford to have the village dressmaker come to her own house for a fitting. But the dressmaker (and one of the local old biddies, Miss Hartnell) find Mrs. Spenlow dead, wearing only a kimono in the middle of the afternoon. Miss Marple is the only believer in Mr. Spenlow's innocence. (She doesn't think he's very bright, though, and talks to him just as she speaks to her 3-year-old grandnephew.)

So said Hercule Poirot, and I have no doubt that he's spoke right. Poirot is the next Sherlock Holmes, perhaps, he's even better than Holmes. Created by the 'Queen of Mystery' Agatha Christie, Poirot became an instant hit all over the world due to his peculiar habits and nature. But there's no denying the fact that he's solved some of the most baffling murders ever. Now, Anne Hart writes the biography of a fictious character, and does it pretty well. With references from all Poirot novels, she traces the little man right from his birth to his last case in which he died before he could solve the case...or so we think. All in all, this book is a great treat for all Poirot fans. Don't miss it!