Christie is at her best in this book that focuses not on the "zero hour" of a murder, but on how all of the characters--the suspects--got to the point of being there during the crime itself. 
 The characters are cleverly drawn and the third person narrative is perfection: honest and deceiving at the same time. And although my favorite little egg-headed Belgium, Hercule Poirot, doesn't make an appearance, one of his Scotland Yard colleagues, Superintendent Battle, is inspired by Poirot to notice something out of order that leads him to an important element of the crime. 
 This is definitely one that I'll come back to when I have a couple of days with nothing to read and need a little mystery.