SPOILERS!!!
This novel is told from two perspectives. One is in the first person with Mark Easterbrook's narration. Mark is a journalist who writes articles. And the other perspective is in the third person.
Mark is in a bar in Chelsea when she sees a fight betwen two girls. One of the girls is called Tommy, and later she is told that her name is Tommasina Tuckerton, who comes from a very rich person, but it is a fashion to slum it. Some weeks later Mark reads that Tommy has died.
Mark then gets a call from his cousin Rhoda, who needs a favour. So Mark goes to see Ariadne Oliver because he wants to ask the writer to agree to sign her books in Rhoda's fete. Ariadne hesitates, but then she agrees.
When Mark and his friend Hermia go and see McBeth, they end up in a restaurant. Sitting at the table next to them is David Ardinghly who is with a girl called Poppy. Mark mentions the fight between the two girls, and they eventually talk about the possibility of a service to get rid of undesirable people, and Poppy mentions she heard that there is The Pale Horse. Mark is curious when from Ariadne Oliver hears the name The Pale Horse in connection to Rhoda's fete, so she decides to talk to Poppy, but then Poppy, looking scared, says that she never mentioned The Pale Horse.
When Mark and Ariadne go to the fete, Mark asks about the Pale Horse, and he is told that The Pale Horse used to be an inn, but now it is a house where three women live. These women are said to have paranormal powers. They are Thyrza Grey, who is the owner of the Pale Horse. Sybil Stamford is Thyrza's friend and is a medium. And their cook is Bella, who is said to be a witch.
Apart from Mark's narrative we have a string of events. Father Gorman is summoned to talk to a dying woman, Mrs Davis, who is living at Mrs Coppins. Father Gorman talks to the woman, and she is eager to tell him something before it is too late. Mrs Coppins hears her mention wickedness and a horse. The woman dies before the ambulance arrives. Then Father Gorman goes to the local pub and writes a series of names that the woman told him, and as his pocket is ripped, he hides it in his shoe. Then he leaves the pub, and someone hits him from behind, killing him.
The police find the priest, and Dr Jim Corrigan, who is the police surgeon, is part of the investigation. Detective Lejeune shows Dr Corrigan the paper found in the priest's shoes with a series of names: Ormerod, Sandford, Parkinson, Hesketh-Dubois, Harmondsworth, Tuckerton, Corrigan? and Delafontaine. They don't know what these names are, and it is curious that Corrigan and Delafontaine have a question mark. Dr Corrigan says that he doesn't know the names on the list, and he is not sure that his name on the list refers to him. As the more uncommon names is Hesketh-Dubois, they find the namuber in the directory, and when he calls, he is told that Lady Hesketh-Dubois died of a brain tumour five months before.
Then Dr Corrigan decides to go to Lady Hesketh-Dubois's house, and then he bumps into Mark, who turns out to be the woman's godson. Dr Corrigan and Jim were at school together, and Dr Corrigan tells him about the death of Father Gorman, and the possibility that those names were people who were blackmailed, but Mark says that he can't think how his godmother could be blackmailed. Mark notices that one of the names, Tuckerton, is the name of Tommy, the girl who got into a fight, and he tells Corrigan that she also died.
This is really intriguing. I don't remember reading this novel before, so I am clueless about this mystery.
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