A Pocket Full of Rye, The Crooked House and Hickory Dickory Death

Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his “counting house” when he suffered an agonizing and sudden death. On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain traces of cereals.

Yet, it was the incident in the parlor which confirmed Miss Marple’s suspicion that here she was looking at a case of crime by rhyme . . .

The Leonides are one big happy family living in a sprawling, ramshackle mansion. That is until the head of the household, Aristide, is murdered with a fatal barbiturate injection.

Suspicion naturally falls on the old man's young widow, 50 years his junior. But the murderer has reckoned without the tenacity of Charles Hayward, fiancé of the late millionaire's granddaughter.

An outbreak of kleptomania at a student hostel is not normally the sort of crime that arouses Hercule Poirot's interest. However, the warden of the hostel is his secretary, Miss Lemon's sister, and efficient Miss Lemon is less than efficient when worried. To set her mind at ease, and decrease the number of mistakes in her typing, he agrees to meet with Mrs. Hubbard.

When he sees the bizarre list of stolen and vandalized items - including a stethoscope, a box of chocolates, a slashed rucksack, and a diamond ring (which was stolen, then discovered in a bowl of soup) - he congratulates Mrs. Hubbard on a "unique and beautiful problem". But Poirot soon has more than a possible petty thief on his hands when murder enters the picture.