The scary way

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The uncanny way (original title Destination Unknown ) is the 46th detective novel by Agatha Christie . It first appeared in the UK on November 1, 1954 at the Collins Crime Club and in 1955 in the US on "Dodd, Mead and Company" under the title So Many Steps to Death . The German first edition was published in 1958 by Scherz Verlag (Bern, Stuttgart, Vienna) with the translation by Sophie Zilcher Seyboth, which is still used today.

Introduction to the plot

Hilary Craven, a lonely wife and grieving mother, plans to commit suicide in a hotel in Morocco. Suddenly she is asked if she would like to take part in a dangerous mission as an alternative to an overdose of sleeping pills. She is supposed to take on the role of a deceased woman in order to track down her husband, a missing nuclear physicist. It is believed that he defected to the Soviet Union. And so she suddenly finds herself in the middle of a travel group with the unknown destination that gives it the title. Her will to live quickly returns and she begins her own investigations.

References to current events

The novel reflects the events surrounding the espionage case of Bruno Pontecorvo and Klaus Fuchs from the 1950s, two physicists who defected to the Soviet Union.

Major expenses

  • 1954, Collins Crime Club (London), November 1st, 1954
  • 1955, Dodd Mead and Company (New York)
  • 1958 German first edition by Scherz Verlag

Film adaptations

This novel is one of the few novels by Christie that was not made into a film.

Audio books

  • 2009 The uncanny way (sound carrier): abridged reading. Speaker: Susanne Schroeder and Peter Veit. Director: Toni Nirschl. Translation from English by Tanja Handels. The Hörverlag (Munich)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. Collins Crime Club - A checklist of First Editions . Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (Page 15)
  2. ↑ John Cooper and BA Pyke. Detective Fiction - the collector's guide : Second Edition (Pages 82 and 87) Scholar Press. 1994. ISBN 0-85967-991-8
  3. ↑ American Tribute to Agatha Christie
  4. ↑ a b German first edition in the catalog of the Swiss National Library
  5. ^ Audiobook (licensed) in the catalog of the German National Library
Works by Agatha Christie


Novels with
Hercule Poirot

The Missing Link in the Chain  (1920) • Murder on the Golf Course  (1923) • Alibi  (1926) • The Big Four  (1927) • The Blue Express  (1928) • The House on the Dune  (1932) • Thirteen at Table  ( 1933) • Murder on the Orient Express  (1934) • Nicotine  (1935) • Death in the clouds  (1935) • The murders of Mr ABC  (1936) • Murder in Mesopotamia  (1936) • With open cards  (1936) • Death on the Nile  (1937) • The dog playing the ball  (1937) • Death awaits  (1938) • Hercule Poirot's Christmas  (1938) • Morphine  (1940) • The secret of the buckled shoes  (1940) • Evil under the sun  (1941) • The Unfinished Portrait  (1942) • The Owl House  (1946) • The Death Whirlwind  (1948) • Four Women and a Murder  (1951) • The Wax Bouquet  (1953) • The Kleptomaniac  (1955) • Reunion with Mrs. Oliver  (1956) • The Cat in the Dovecote  (1959) • On a Double Track  (1963) • The Forgetful Murderess  (1966) • The Snow White Party  (1969) • Elephants Don't Forget  (1972) • Curtain  (1975)

Novels with
the Beresfords

A Dangerous Adversary  (1922) • Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf  (1941) • Lots of charming old ladies  (1968) • Age does not protect against ingenuity  (1973)

Novels with
Miss Marple

Murder in the Rectory  (1930) • The Dead in the Library  (1942) • The Shadow Hand  (1943) • A Murder Is Announced  (1950) • Fata Morgana  (1952) • The Secret of the Gold Mine  (1953) • 4:50 p.m. from Paddington  ( 1957) • Murder in the Mirror  (1962) • Caribbean Affair  (1964) • Bertrams Hotel  (1965) • Fate in Person  (1971) • Rough Rest  (1976)

Novels with
fellow investigators

The Man in the Brown Suit  (1924) • The Count's Memoirs  (1925) • The Last Joker  (1929) • The Secret of Sittaford  (1931) • A Step into the Void  (1934) • The Dying in Wychwood  (1939) • And then There was no more  (1939) • Shortly before midnight  (1944) • Avenging ghosts  (1944) • Hydrocyanic acid  (1945) • The crooked house  (1949) • They came to Baghdad  (1951) • The uncanny way  (1954) • Fatal error  ( 1958) • The pale horse  (1961) • Murder made to measure  (1967) • Passenger to Frankfurt  (1970)

Anthologies

Poirot accounts  (1924) • Pandora's Box  (1929) • The Strange Mister Quin  (1930) • The Tuesday Night Club  (1932) • The Dog of Death  (1933) • Something's Lazy  (1934) • Parker Pyne Investigates  ( 1934) • Hercule Poirot Never Sleeps  (1937) • The Labor of Hercules  (1947) • A Diplomatic Incident  (1960) • Poirot's First Cases  (1974) • Miss Marple's Last Cases  (1979) • The Murderous Tea Round  (1991) • As long as it bright is  (1997)