Recent from talks
Towards Zero
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Towards Zero
Towards Zero is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in June 1944 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in July of the same year. The first US edition of the novel retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6).
Lady Tressilian invites her ward for his annual visit to Gull's Point. He insists on bringing both his former wife and his present wife, though Lady Tressilian finds this awkward. Her old friend Treves dies, then she is murdered as well; Superintendent Battle and his nephew are called in. The book is the last to feature Superintendent Battle.
Lady Tressilian is now confined to her bed but still invites guests to her seaside home at Gull's Point during the summer. Tennis star Nevile Strange, former ward of Lady Tressilian's deceased husband, incurs her displeasure when he proposes to bring both his new wife, Kay, and his former wife, Audrey, to visit at the same time – a change from past years. Lady Tressilian grudgingly agrees to this set of incompatible guests. A long-time family friend, Thomas Royde, home after a long stretch working overseas and still faithfully waiting on the sidelines for Audrey, is also a guest. Staying in hotels nearby are Kay's friend, Ted Latimer, and Mr Treves, an elderly former solicitor and long-time friend of the Tressilians.
The house party feels uncomfortable, as Lady Tressilian had predicted. Invited to a dinner party, Mr Treves relates the story of an old case in which a child killed another with an arrow, which was ruled an accident, although a local man reported seeing the child practising with a bow and arrow. The child was given a new name and a fresh start. Mr Treves remembers the case and the child because of a distinctive physical feature, which he does not reveal. The next morning Treves is found dead in his hotel room and his death is attributed to heart failure from climbing up the stairs to his room the previous night, greatly upsetting Lady Tressilian. Thomas and Ted are mystified, as they saw a note stating that the lift was out of order when they walked Treves back. They learn from hotel staff that the lift was in working order that night. His death is ruled to be from natural causes.
When Lady Tressilian is found brutally murdered in her bed and her maid drugged a few days later, evidence points to Nevile Strange as the murderer since one of his golf clubs is found at the scene with his fingerprints, he and Audrey stand to inherit, and he was overheard quarrelling with Lady Tressilian. However when the maid wakes up she tells Superintendent Battle that she saw Lady Tressilian alive after Nevile's visit to her room, before he left for Easterhead Bay to find Ted. The evidence then points to Audrey: a bloodied glove belonging to her is found in the ivy below her window together with the real murder weapon, fashioned from the handle of a tennis racquet and the metal ball from the fireplace fender in Audrey's room. Mary Aldin, Lady Tressilian's companion, relates the story told by Mr Treves and his claim that he could recognise that child with certainty; Battle is certain that the lift sign was placed in order to silence Mr Treves.
Angus MacWhirter is standing at the cliff where, a year earlier, he had attempted suicide, when Audrey attempts to run off the same cliff. He grabs her before she can jump. She confesses her fear and he promises that she will be safe. The local drycleaners inadvertently give MacWhirter an uncleaned jacket belonging to someone else. Though he is not one of the party at Gull's House he is aware of the progress of the investigation, well reported in the local newspapers. He realises why the jacket has stains in a certain odd pattern. He visits Gull's Point and requests Mary Aldin's help to find a rope in the house. They find a large damp rope in an otherwise dusty attic and she locks the door until the police come.
Battle arrests Audrey on the evidence and her ready admission of guilt. However he suspects that Audrey is in a similar situation to that of his daughter when she had previously confessed under pressure to a theft she had not committed. MacWhirter meets Battle and tells him what he has learned about this case, including his observation of a man swimming across the creek on the night of the brutal murder and climbing into the house on a rope. Then Thomas reveals that Audrey had ended their marriage, not Nevile, since she had grown afraid of him. She had left Nevile and was about to marry Adrian Royde, Thomas's brother, when Adrian was killed in a road accident. With the parties on a motor launch, Battle uses this information to force a confession from Nevile Strange. He was the mastermind behind all the events and circumstances that should have converged into "zero" – the hanging of his first wife for the murder of Lady Tressilian.
Nevile may have been behind two other deaths (Mr Treves and Adrian Royde) but there is insufficient evidence to prosecute. With his confession, the rope, and the ruse with Mrs Tressilian’s bell-pull explained (it appeared broken but did not contribute to her death), Battle charges him with the murder of Lady Tressilian. Audrey seeks out MacWhirter to thank him and they decide to marry. They will travel to Chile, where he is to begin his new job. Audrey expects that Thomas will come to realize that he really wants to marry Mary Aldin instead.
Hub AI
Towards Zero AI simulator
(@Towards Zero_simulator)
Towards Zero
Towards Zero is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in June 1944 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in July of the same year. The first US edition of the novel retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6).
Lady Tressilian invites her ward for his annual visit to Gull's Point. He insists on bringing both his former wife and his present wife, though Lady Tressilian finds this awkward. Her old friend Treves dies, then she is murdered as well; Superintendent Battle and his nephew are called in. The book is the last to feature Superintendent Battle.
Lady Tressilian is now confined to her bed but still invites guests to her seaside home at Gull's Point during the summer. Tennis star Nevile Strange, former ward of Lady Tressilian's deceased husband, incurs her displeasure when he proposes to bring both his new wife, Kay, and his former wife, Audrey, to visit at the same time – a change from past years. Lady Tressilian grudgingly agrees to this set of incompatible guests. A long-time family friend, Thomas Royde, home after a long stretch working overseas and still faithfully waiting on the sidelines for Audrey, is also a guest. Staying in hotels nearby are Kay's friend, Ted Latimer, and Mr Treves, an elderly former solicitor and long-time friend of the Tressilians.
The house party feels uncomfortable, as Lady Tressilian had predicted. Invited to a dinner party, Mr Treves relates the story of an old case in which a child killed another with an arrow, which was ruled an accident, although a local man reported seeing the child practising with a bow and arrow. The child was given a new name and a fresh start. Mr Treves remembers the case and the child because of a distinctive physical feature, which he does not reveal. The next morning Treves is found dead in his hotel room and his death is attributed to heart failure from climbing up the stairs to his room the previous night, greatly upsetting Lady Tressilian. Thomas and Ted are mystified, as they saw a note stating that the lift was out of order when they walked Treves back. They learn from hotel staff that the lift was in working order that night. His death is ruled to be from natural causes.
When Lady Tressilian is found brutally murdered in her bed and her maid drugged a few days later, evidence points to Nevile Strange as the murderer since one of his golf clubs is found at the scene with his fingerprints, he and Audrey stand to inherit, and he was overheard quarrelling with Lady Tressilian. However when the maid wakes up she tells Superintendent Battle that she saw Lady Tressilian alive after Nevile's visit to her room, before he left for Easterhead Bay to find Ted. The evidence then points to Audrey: a bloodied glove belonging to her is found in the ivy below her window together with the real murder weapon, fashioned from the handle of a tennis racquet and the metal ball from the fireplace fender in Audrey's room. Mary Aldin, Lady Tressilian's companion, relates the story told by Mr Treves and his claim that he could recognise that child with certainty; Battle is certain that the lift sign was placed in order to silence Mr Treves.
Angus MacWhirter is standing at the cliff where, a year earlier, he had attempted suicide, when Audrey attempts to run off the same cliff. He grabs her before she can jump. She confesses her fear and he promises that she will be safe. The local drycleaners inadvertently give MacWhirter an uncleaned jacket belonging to someone else. Though he is not one of the party at Gull's House he is aware of the progress of the investigation, well reported in the local newspapers. He realises why the jacket has stains in a certain odd pattern. He visits Gull's Point and requests Mary Aldin's help to find a rope in the house. They find a large damp rope in an otherwise dusty attic and she locks the door until the police come.
Battle arrests Audrey on the evidence and her ready admission of guilt. However he suspects that Audrey is in a similar situation to that of his daughter when she had previously confessed under pressure to a theft she had not committed. MacWhirter meets Battle and tells him what he has learned about this case, including his observation of a man swimming across the creek on the night of the brutal murder and climbing into the house on a rope. Then Thomas reveals that Audrey had ended their marriage, not Nevile, since she had grown afraid of him. She had left Nevile and was about to marry Adrian Royde, Thomas's brother, when Adrian was killed in a road accident. With the parties on a motor launch, Battle uses this information to force a confession from Nevile Strange. He was the mastermind behind all the events and circumstances that should have converged into "zero" – the hanging of his first wife for the murder of Lady Tressilian.
Nevile may have been behind two other deaths (Mr Treves and Adrian Royde) but there is insufficient evidence to prosecute. With his confession, the rope, and the ruse with Mrs Tressilian’s bell-pull explained (it appeared broken but did not contribute to her death), Battle charges him with the murder of Lady Tressilian. Audrey seeks out MacWhirter to thank him and they decide to marry. They will travel to Chile, where he is to begin his new job. Audrey expects that Thomas will come to realize that he really wants to marry Mary Aldin instead.