Agatha Christie's The Sittaford Mystery, first published in 1931, is a classic example of the work of this master of detective fiction. It appeared in the U.S. at the same time under the title The Murder at Hazelmoor.

The novel is set on the edge of Dartmoor, a rugged, brooding upland in Devonshire, southwestern England. The tiny village of Sittaford, ?at all times remote from the world,? Christie tells us, is even more isolated because of a huge snowstorm.

Here Mrs. Willett, a recent arrival, along with her daughter, Violet, has rented the house of Captain Trevelyan, a wealthy retired naval officer. Mrs. Willett hosts a séance, inviting several neighbors, including John Burnaby, the captain's best friend.

During the séance, a series of raps supposedly from the spirit world say that Captain Trevelyan is dead. To find out if this is true, Burnaby walks six miles to Exhampton, a nearby town where the captain has rented a house (having rented out his own to the Willetts) and finds him dead?murdered.

So begins a mystery that implicates everyone in this tiny and close-knit village. Suspicion falls upon James Pearson, the captain's nephew, who is to inherit a part of his large estate. Pearson had checked into the local inn the night of the murder and gone back to London early the next morning.

The inquiry draws in Inspector Narracott as well as Charles Enderby, a London newspaper reporter, and Emily Trefusis, James's fiancée, who is certain that he is innocent and is determined to clear his name.

The Sittaford Mystery combines Christie's classic mix of eccentric but sharply drawn characters, red herrings, and constant twists and turns. It is unusual in that neither of Christie's best-known detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, appears here. Instead the crime is unraveled by the shrewd, devoted, and beautiful Emily.

Both longtime Christie fans and newcomers will be delighted by this impeccably crafted mystery and its dark, haunted setting.