< Back
One Poisoning.
Taken at the Flood
A few weeks after marrying an attractive young widow, Gordon Cloade is tragically killed in the London blitz and overnight the former Mrs Underhay finds herself in sole possession of the Cloade family fortune. Shortly afterwards, Hercule Poirot receives a visit from the dead man's sister-in-law, who claims she has been warned by 'spirits' that Mrs Underhay's first husband is still alive. Yet what mystifies Poirot most is the woman's true motive for approaching him.Year: 1948
Detective: Hercule Poirot
Location: London
Detective: Hercule Poirot
Location: London
Cast of characters
Hercule Poirot. Also: The Cloades: Frances, Gordon, Jeremy, Katherine (Kathie), Dr. Lionel, Rosaleen and Rowland, Eileen Corrigan, David Hunter, Mrs. Leadbetter, Beatrice Lippincott, Adela and Lynn Marchmont, Major George Douglas Porter, Superintendent Spence, Charles Trenton, Captain Robert UnderhayPublishing history
Publishing: First published in 1948 by William Collins Sons & Co. in London, and as 'There Is A Tide', by Dodd, Mead & Co. in New York. The novel has not been adapted for stage or screen.Notes and reviews
The title of the novel is taken from William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act V, Scene III, in which Brutus tells Cassius: "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune."Murder methods:
One Blow to the Head.One Poisoning.