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''Destination Unknown'' is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 1 November 1954〔Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. ''Collins Crime Club – A checklist of First Editions''. Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (Page 15)〕 and in US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1955 under the title of ''So Many Steps to Death''.〔John Cooper and B.A. Pyke. ''Detective Fiction – the collector's guide'': Second Edition (Pages 82 and 87) Scholar Press. 1994. ISBN 0-85967-991-8〕〔(American Tribute to Agatha Christie )〕 The UK edition retailed at ten shillings and sixpence (10/6)〔 and the US edition at $2.75.〔 It is one of only four Christie novels to have not received an adaptation of any kind (such as screen, stage or radio) and one of only five of her novels to have not received a screen adaptation - the others being Death Comes as the End, Passenger to Frankfurt, Postern of Fate and Crooked House. ==Plot summary== Hilary Craven, a deserted wife and bereaved mother, is planning suicide in a Moroccan hotel, when she is asked by British secret agent Jessop to undertake a dangerous mission as an alternative to taking an overdose of sleeping pills. The task, which she accepts, is to impersonate a dying woman to help find the woman's husband, Thomas Betterton, a nuclear scientist who has disappeared and may have defected to the Soviet Union. Soon she finds herself in a group of travellers being transported to the unknown destination of the title. The destination turns out to be a secret scientific research facility disguised as a modern leper colony and leprosy research center at a remote location in the Atlas Mountains. The fabulously wealthy Mr Aristides has built the facility and lured the world's best young scientists to it so that he can later sell their services back to the world's governments and corporations for a huge profit, after having removed the scientists' resistance through lobotomies. The scientists are not allowed to leave the facility, and they are locked in secret areas deep inside the mountain whenever government officials and other outsiders visit. Hilary Craven successfully passes herself as Betterton's wife Olive, because he is miserable and wants desperately to escape. She falls in love with Andrew Peters, a handsome young American who was in the group with her on their journey to the facility. Through clues she has left along the way, Jessop eventually locates and rescues her and the others held there, with help from Peters, who turns out also to be a secret agent and the cousin of Betterton's first wife Elsa, whom Betterton had murdered. Betterton is arrested, Craven no longer wants to die, and she and Peters are free to begin their life together. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Destination Unknown (novel)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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