If you are looking for an exciting, well-knit detective story, filled with people who are people and not puppets, and with a surprise at the end which has been so cleverly prepared that although you know it's coming, you haven't the least suspicion of what it may be, we advise you read this book.

The scene of the story is the town of St. Mary Mead—more specifically, the quiet study of the little vicarage, where, returning from a sick call, the unobtrusive padre discovers, in a pool of blood, the body of his murdered friend, Colonel Protheroes. Seven persons might have profited by this unfortunate circumstance, as one of the most unconventional and shrewdest detectives in all fiction proceeds to point out. But which of the seven committed the murder?

As customary in an Agatha Christie story, the solution is a complete surprise. And in the unraveling of the plot, there is never a dull moment; the characters and the dialogue are thoroughly amusing; and the whole atmosphere is pervaded by the brisk gaiety which readers associate with Agatha Christie's best work.

From the dust jacket of the First American Edition by Dodd, Mead and Company