Anne Beddingfeld is single and ready for whatever adventures come her way. She comes across a man who has died in a tube station and picks up a piece of paper that has been left nearby. As she pieces together more pieces of the puzzle about the death she experienced, the message on the paper takes her to South Africa. The next day, there is a murder in England, and the killer tries to kill her on the ship en route to Cape town. At the time of release, reviews were mixed, with some wishing for another Poirot novel,[4] while others praising the writing style and believing that readers would want to read all the way to the end to find out who the killer was. (5) A later reviewer liked the beginning of the novel but thought that the ending did not live up to the quality of the beginning, and that the plot became too much like a thriller.