Agatha Christie wisely refrains from overworking her star detective, Hercule Poirot, knowing that it's better for us to yearn for more Poirot stories than to complain of a surfeit…. ["Ordeal by Innocence"] introduces Dr. Arthur Calgary, Antarctic explorer. Once more Mrs. Christie's skill in puzzle-making and storytelling is so consummate that we never think of missing the little Belgian octogenarian….

The book is unusually long for Christie and may sag a bit in the middle; but family tensions and suspicions are adroitly handled, and the solution is characteristically surprising, trickily constructed and yet firmly based in character. (p. 18)

Anthony Boucher, in The New York Times Book Review (© 1959 by The New York Times Company; reprinted by permission), March 15, 1959.

'Owing to the influential connections at Meadowbank the murder of Miss Springer had been played down very tactfully in the press.' 'Meadowbank' is the smartest girls' school in Europe, with...