Taken at the Flood

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Summary

Genre: Murder Mystery, Detective

Format: Novel

Setting: House

Locations: England, London

Murder Methods: Poison, Blow to the Head

Recurring Characters: Poirot, Superintendent Spence

Synopsis

A few weeks after marrying an attractive young widow, Gordon Cloade is tragically killed in the London blitz and overnight the former Mrs Underhay finds herself in sole possession of the Cloade family fortune. Shortly afterwards, Hercule Poirot receives a visit from the dead man's sister-in-law, who claims she has been warned by 'spirits' that Mrs Underhay's first husband is still alive. Yet what mystifies Poirot most is the woman's true motive for approaching him.

First published in 1948 by William Collins Sons & Co. in London, and as There Is A Tide, by Dodd, Mead & Co. in New York. The title of the novel is taken from William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act IV, Scene III, in which Brutus tells Cassius: "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." It has been adapted for television with David Suchet as Poirot.

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