Destination Unknown (Agatha Christie Collection)

Product Description<br/><br/><br/>A security agent goes on the trail of a missing atomic scientist...When a number of leading scientists disappear without trace, concern grows within the international intelligence community. Are they being kidnapped? Blackmailed? Brainwashed?One woman appears to have the key to the mystery. Unfortunately, Olive Betteron now lies in a hospital bed, dying from injuries sustained in a Moroccan plane crash.Meanwhile, in a Casablanca hotel room, Hilary Craven prepares to take her own life. But her suicide attempt is about to be interrupted by a man who will offer her an altogether more thrilling way to die...<br/><br/><br/>From AudioFile<br/><br/><br/>After the death of her child and the end of her marriage, Hilary Craven has nothing left to lose--or so she believes until she takes on a dangerous intelligence assignment. Hilary, who resembles the late wife of a missing physicist, agrees to take on the woman's identity to help solve a series of mysterious disappearances. She's soon on her own, or so she believes. Emilia Fox's male voices may be gruff, but she's an ace with these Christie cliff-hangers--creating tension and, at times, a romantic atmosphere. She shifts her tone gradually as Hilary's character evolves from grief to steely resolve, drawing listeners into Hilary's plight. With only her voice and our imaginations to work with, Fox spins this atypical Christie novel into a Hichcockian concoction of suspended disbelief. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine--<br/>Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine<br/><br/><br/>Review<br/><br/><br/>` Nothing should be taken for granted.' Spectator` A first class thriller.' Birmingham Post<br/><br/><br/>About the Author<br/><br/><br/>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 100 foreign countries. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.<br/><br/><br/>From the Back Cover<br/><br/><br/>When a number of leading scientists disappear without a trace, concern grows within the international intelligence community. And the one woman who appears to hold the key to the mystery is dying from injuries sustained in a plane crash.<br/>Meanwhile, in a Casablanca hotel room, Hilary Craven prepares to take her own life. But her suicide attempt is about to be interrupted by a man who will offer her an altogether more thrilling way to die. . . .<br/><br/><br/>Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.<br/><br/><br/>Chapter One<br/>The man behind the desk moved a heavy glass paper weight four inches to the right. His face was not so much thoughtful or abstracted as expressionless. He had the pate complexion that comes from living most of the day in artificial light. This man, you felt, was an indoor man. A man of desks and files. The fact that to reach his office you had to walk through long twisting underground corridors was somehow strangely appropriate. It would have been difficult to guess his age. He looked neither old nor young. His face was smooth and unwrinkled, and in his eyes was a great tiredness. <br/>The other man in the room was older. He was dark with a small military moustache. There was about him an alert nervous energy. Even now, unable to sit still, he was pacing up and down, from time to time throwing off a remark in a jerky manner. <br/>"Reports!" he said explosively. "Reports, reports and more reports, and none of them any damn good!" <br/>The man at the desk looked down at the papers in front of him. On top was an official card headed, "Betterton, Thomas Charles." After the name was an interrogation mark. The man at the desk nodded thoughtfully. He said, <br/>"You've followed up these re