from the back cover:

Hercule Potriot...

today the most popular detective in fiction since Sherlock Holmes, made his bow to the worl in this book. 

No one had heard the name of Agatha Christie when she shyly sent the MS. to a London publisher. He recected it! So did others. Then one more far-seeing accepted the new author's work. It became fomous - and Christie fans place it among the very best Poirot tales.

Intriguing clues marked the murder at Styles Court - crushed fragments of a coffee-cup, a few threads of fabric, a scrap of half-charred paper, an old envelope with these words on it:

"posessed... I am posessed... He is possessed... I am possessed... possessed"