The day Lance arrives at Yewtree Lodge, leaving his wife in London, Adele dies of cyanide in her tea, and a few hours later the maid Gladys Martin is found strangled in the yard, with a clothes peg put on her nose. Son Lancelot and his wife Pat are travelling from Kenya to London, at the invitation of his father, according to Lance at Paris, he wires that he will be home next day, and police meet him at the airport. Rex's wife Adele is the main suspect in the murder. An autopsy reveals the cause of death was poisoning by taxine, a toxic alkaloid obtained from the yew tree, and that Fortescue ingested it with his breakfast, while a search of his clothing reveals a quantity of rye in his jacket pocket. When London businessman Rex Fortescue dies after drinking his morning tea, Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Neele spearheads the investigation. Writing later, another reviewer felt that the characters included an 'exceptionally nasty family of suspects' in what was 'Still, a good, sour read.' Plot summary Christie's overall high quality in writing detective novels led one to say 'they ought to make her a Dame'. Two reviewers at the time of publication felt that 'the hidden mechanism of the plot is ingenious at the expense of probability' and that the novel was 'Not quite so stunning as some of Mrs Christie's criminal assaults upon her readers'. She works with Inspector Neele until the mysteries are revealed. Miss Marple travels to the Fortescue home to offer information on the maid, Gladys Martin. Like several of Christie's novels (e.g., Hickory Dickory Dock and One, Two, Buckle My Shoe) the title and substantial parts of the plot reference a nursery rhyme, in this case ' Sing a Song of Sixpence'. The book features her detective Miss Marple.

The UK edition retailed at ten shillings and sixpence (10/6) and the US edition at $2.75. A Pocket Full of Rye is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 9 November 1953, and in the US by Dodd, Mead & Co.

Matthew macfadyen a pocket full of rye