A child boasted of having witnessed a murder. Only a few hours later, that child was dead. And Hercule Poirot was faced with one of the most challenging cases of his long and brilliant career. Joyce was thirteen, a tiresome girl given to extravagant statements. The group of adults and children who were getting the games ready for the Hallowe'en party just laughed unbelievingly when she insisted she had once seen a murder committed. Yet that night someone shoved her head down into the bucket of water and held it there until she drowned. After the party was over, she was found, kneeling as if she were bobbing for apples. One of the very respectable guests at the party given in the quiet respectable town of Woodleigh Common must have committed a murder and gotten away with it, someone who had received a nasty shock from Joyce's revelation and had struck back as soon as possible.
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