By the Pricking of My Thumbs By the Pricking of My Thumbs By The Pricking of My Thumbs is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in November 1968 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at twenty-one shillings (21/-) and the US edition at $4.95. It features her detectives Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. Tommy and Tuppence were unusual in that they aged from novel to novel unlike Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, whose age remained more or less the same from Christie's
Partners in Crime (short story collection) and Tommy will go the ball in costume to investigate. They will act as the detectives Tommy McCarty and Dennis Riordan. At the Ace of Spades, the Beresfords sit in a private booth and peer through the door at the various other costumed and masked patrons. The booth next door is soon taken by a woman dressed as Alice's Queen of Hearts and a man outfitted as the gentleman dressed in newspaper. After a while, they hear a cry from the woman followed by the man laughing and then see him leaving. After a few minutes, suspicious, Tuppence makes Tommy