title: Black Coffee (Poirot)
author:  Agatha Christie 
description: The new-look series of Hercule Poirot books for the 21st Century. Sir Claud Amory has discovered the formula for a new powerful explosive, which is stolen by one of the large household of relatives and friends. Locking everyone in the library, Sir Claud switches off the lights to allow the thief to replace the formula on the table, no questions asked. When the lights come on, however, he is dead, and Hercule Poirot -- with assistance from Hastings and Inspector Japp -- has to unravel a tangle of family feuds, old flames and suspicious foreigners to find the killer and prevent a global catastophe.
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  # Black Coffee
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Black Coffee
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Black Coffee
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Chapter 10
  
  
  The door opened, and Barbara Amory entered the room cautiously. Taking a chair
  from near the wall, she placed it in front of the bookcase, climbed on it, and
  reached for the tin case containing the drugs. At that moment, Hastings
  suddenly sneezed, and Barbara, with a start, dropped the box.
  
  
  “Oh!” she exclaimed in some confusion. “I didn't know there was anyone here.”
  
  
  Hastings rushed forward and retrieved the box, which Poirot then took from
  him.
  
  
  “Permit me, mademoiselle,” said the detective. “I am sure that is too heavy
  for you.”
  
  
  He moved to the center table and placed the tin case upon it. “It is a little
  collection of yours?” he asked. “The birds' eggs? The sea shells, perhaps?”
  
  
  “I'm afraid it's much more prosaic, Monsieur Poirot,” replied Barbara, with a
  nervous laugh. “Nothing but pills and powders!”
  
  
  “But surely,” said Poirot, “one so young, so full of health and vigour, has n