From seat No. 9 Hercule Poirot was ideally placed to observe his fellow air passengers. Over to his right sat a pretty young woman clearly infatuated with the man opposite; ahead in seat No. 13 sat a countess with a poorly concealed cocaine habit; across the gangway in seat No. 8 a detective writer was being troubled by an aggressive wasp. What Poirot did not yet realize was that behind him in seat No. 2 sat the slumped lifeless body of a woman.--The publisher.