The Man in the Brown Suit

　　青春洋溢的安妮，興奮地到心儀已久的倫敦進行探險，尋求刺激－－她馬上就達到目的了。在海德公園地鐵站的月台上，她親眼見到一位瘦削、渾身發出樟腦油味的男子，突然身體失去平衡，失足掉落鐵軌慘死。經過勘察，蘇格蘭警場以意外死亡結案。但安妮卻滿腹疑慮。她搞不懂那位第一個跑來檢查屍體的褐衣男子為何神色鬼祟；而且匆匆逃離，還留下一個神秘的訊息：

　　「奇夢登堡17-122號」……

　　★本書中譯本《褐衣男子》由遠流出版

　　A young woman investigates an accidental death at a London tube station, and finds herself of a ship bound for South Africa...Pretty, young Anne came to London looking for adventure. In fact, adventure comes looking for her -- and finds her immediately at Hyde Park Corner tube station. Anne is present on the platform when a thin man, reeking of mothballs, loses his balance and is electrocuted on the rails. The Scotland Yard verdict is accidental death. But Anne is not satisfied. After all, who was the man in the brown suit who examined the body? And why did he race off, leaving a cryptic message behind: ’17-122 Kilmorden Castle’?

作者簡介

阿嘉莎．克莉絲蒂（一八九Ｏ ~ 一九七六）

　　英籍女作家、劇作家。本名Agatha May Clarissa Miller，生於德望郡（Devon），家境富裕而傳統守舊，是家中的么女。生性害羞，孩童時期未曾接受學校教育，由女家庭教師教導學會識字和讀書。在母親的鼓勵下，大量閱讀各種書籍，並開始創作詩和短篇故事。

　　一九一五年第一次世界大戰期間，克莉絲蒂在醫院擔任藥劑師，從中學習各類毒藥的專業知識，並萌生撰寫推理小說的構想，處女作《史岱爾莊謀殺案》因此誕生。她創造的比利時私家偵探赫丘勒．白羅，是人氣歷久不衰的神探，其著名的「灰色的腦細胞」，已成為超人智慧的代名詞。

　　五十年的寫作生涯中，克莉絲蒂共完成六十六部小說、一百多篇短篇小說、十七個劇本，以一百零三種文字行銷全世界，共賣出二十億冊以上。她有好幾部小說被拍成叫好叫座的電影，如《東方快車謀殺案》、《尼羅河謀殺案》；她寫的劇本《捕鼠器》，從一九五四年以來，至今仍在倫敦劇院上演，堪稱是最長壽的舞台劇。如今克莉絲蒂這個名字，已涵蓋兩種意義：一為「推理小說」的同義字，二者是「謀殺之后」的殊榮。

　　Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in 44 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.