The situation quickly and--this being the Baudelaires--predictably deteriorates. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny find themselves tossed in a storm so terrible that our beloved narrator spends four pages describing how he cannot describe it.

Lemony Snicket is letting out all the stops in this next-to-last undertaking. The Baudelaire orphans are sent to the Hotel Denouement, where they meet old pals from earlier stories and act as concierge-detectives.

This tale of world politics centres around Victoria Jones, an impetuous young lady whose chance meeting with Edward Goring in a London park leads her to follow him to Baghdad. There she is recruited by Mr. Dakin of the Intelligence Service, who asks her to undertake a secret mission.

At the home of Lord Caterham and his daughter, Lady Eileen Brent (aka Bundle), Sir Oswald and Lady Maria Coote throw a party for some weekend guests. But the young guests play a practical joke on someone who turns up murdered the following morning. It's up to Bundle and her friends to solve the case, which only gets worse with the appearance of a second corpse. The trail of bodies leads to the mysterious Seven Dials Club.

Mystery writer Ariadne Oliver calls upon old friend Hercule Poirot to help unravel the mystery behind the apparent double suicide of General and Lady Ravenscroft fifteen years earlier. In such a cold case, the two must rely on the memories of "elephants," those older people who were around at the time, who recall events relating to the tragedy.

A blinding snowstorm - and a homicidal maniac - traps a small party of friends in an isolated estate. Out of this deceptively simple set-up, Agatha Christie fashioned one of her most ingenious puzzlers.