Hallowe'en Party

Hallowe'en Party is a work of detective fiction by English writer Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club in November 1969 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. This book was dedicated to writer P. G. Wodehouse. The novel features Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and the mystery novelist Ariadne Oliver, who begins the novel in attendance at a Hallowe'en party. A girl at the party claims to have witnessed a murder, which at the time she was too young to realize was such. Disbelieved by those around her, the girl then is drowned in an apple-bobbing bucket, and Poirot must solve a two-pronged mystery: who killed the girl, and what, if anything, did she witness? Synopsis While everyone is preparing for a Hallowe'en party at Rowena Drake's home in Woodleigh Common, 13-year-old Joyce Reynolds tells everyone she had once seen a murder before. When the party ends, Joyce is found dead, drowned in an apple bobbing tub. Ariadne Oliver, attending the party while visiting her friend Judith Butler, calls on Hercule Poirot to investigate. With help from retired Superintendent Spence, Poirot makes a list of deaths and disappearances in the last few years in Woodleigh Common: Rowena's aunt, Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe, died suddenly, and her au pair, Olga Seminoff, disappeared when a codicil that favoured her in her employer's will was found to be a forgery.