Although Hercule Poirot has retired and is now devoting his time to growing vegetable marrows, when murder occurs nearly on his doorstep he once again gets involved with finding the killer.

Restless explorer Jubal Sackett journeys westward into the vast, unmapped wilderness of seventeenth-century America and discovers the perils of the rugged frontier, a new way of life among the Indians, and the love of a beautiful Natchez Indian princess.

A lush, wondrous story of an unrequited love that survives half a century and more than 600 distractions.

"Framed in the doorway of Hercule Poirot's bedroom stands an uninvited guest, coated from head to foot in dust. The man stares for a moment, then he sways and falls. Who is he? Is he suffering from shock or just exhaustion? Above all, what is the significance of the figure 4, scribbled over and over again on a sheet of paper? Poirot finds himself plunged into a world of international intrigue, risking his life--and that of his 'twin brother'--to uncover...