Agatha Christie

The inspiration for A Haunting in Venice - now a major motion picture. When a Hallowe'en party turns deadly, it falls to Hercule Poirot to unmask a murderer... During a night of party games, Joyce Reynolds boasts that she once witnessed a murder. No one believes her, but then she is found drowned, face down in an apple-bobbing tub. Set against a night of trickery and the occult, Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver must race to uncover the real evil responsible for this ghastly murder. Hallowe'en Party is the sensational Agatha Christie novel that inspired the brand new feature film directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh. This special edition is introduced by its screenwriter, Michael Green.

Filming As a Haunting in Venice

Hallowe'en Party

Laura Dobie

Preparations for a children's party usually give far more trouble to the organizers than an entertainment devised for those of adult years. Food of good quality and suitable alcoholic refreshment-with lemonade on the side, that, to the right people, is quite enough to make a party go. It may cost more but the trouble is infinitely less. So Ariadne Oliver and her friend Judith Butler agreed together.

‘I can't help thinking,' said Ariadne Oliver, 'that girls are really very silly nowadays.' 

‘Don't you think they always were?' asked Rowena Drake. 

‘I suppose you're right,' she admitted. 

‘Now then,’ cried Mrs Drake - ‘supper’.

Everything noticeable is worth remembering.

What's going on in this place?' said Judith. I can't think why I ever came here. 

‘I sometimes wondered why you did,' said Mrs Oliver, 'but there's no accounting for where people go to live. A friend of mine went to live in Moreton-in-the-Marsh the other day. I asked him why he wanted to go and live there. He said he'd always wanted to and thought about it. Whenever he retired he meant to go there. I said that l hadn't been to it myself but it sounded to me bound to be damp. What was it actually like? He said he didn't know what it was like because he'd never been there himself. But he had always wanted to live there. He was quite sane, too.’

Hallowe'en Party quotes

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