The Sittaford Mystery

The Sittaford Mystery is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie, published in 1931. It appeared in the United States as The Murder at Hazelmoor, which made it the first of her books to be given a different title for the American market.

Sittaford is a small village on the edge of Dartmoor, and on a bitter winter night Mrs Willett and her daughter entertain their neighbours with a séance. The table spells out a message that Captain Trevelyan is dead, which the guests take for a parlour trick until Major Burnaby, unable to get a vehicle through the snow, walks to the village to look in on his friend. The prediction is treated as a game until he goes, and the weather means that nobody can leave the village afterwards.

Emily Trefusis is engaged to the captain's nephew, and she works on the case alongside the police instead of waiting to be told what has happened. She was the character reviewers singled out when the book appeared, and Christie makes her the one who does the patient, human work of the investigation while the professionals argue about method.