Appointment with Death

by Agatha Christie Book 19 in the Hercule Poirot series.

First published 1938

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The Boynton family travels through the Middle East under the control of its cruel matriarch, whose children have been trained into fear and dependence. At Petra, Mrs Boynton is found dead beside the camp, and almost every member of the group possesses both a motive and a brief opportunity.

Poirot agrees to solve the case within twenty-four hours by examining the family’s psychology and the sequence of visitors to the victim. The archaeological and tourist setting places a closed domestic tyranny in an exposed landscape, while the investigation asks how prolonged coercion distorts memory, courage and responsibility.