Towards Zero is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in June 1944, and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in July of the same year.

Lady Tressilian is now confined to her bed, but still invites guests to her seaside home at Gull's Point during the summer.

Thomas and Ted are mystified, as they saw a note stating that the lift was out of order when they walked Treves back.

However, when the maid wakes up, she tells Superintendent Battle that she saw Lady Tressilian alive after Nevile's visit to her room, before he left for Easterhead Bay to find Ted.

However, he suspects that Audrey is in a similar situation to that of his daughter when she had previously confessed under pressure to a theft she did not commit.

MacWhirter meets Battle and tells him what he has learned about this case, including his observation of a man swimming across the creek on the night of the brutal murder, and climbing into the house on a rope.

With his confession, the rope, and the ruse with the bell pull explained, Battle charges him with the murder of Lady Tressilian.

By virtue of masterly story-telling it makes the welfare of certain persons at a seaside town seem of more importance at the moment than anything else in the world.

Mechanized brains may object that the murderer "perfects" his mystery by methods imposed upon fiction's police, but even when the maze is vaguely recognised the tale still grips.

As an exhibition of the modern brand of human nature, Towards Zero deserves higher praises than any that can be awarded to it as an excellent detective story.

"[3] Maurice Richardson in the 6 August 1944 issue of The Observer wrote, "The new Agatha Christie has a deliciously prolonged and elaborate build-up, urbane and cosy like a good cigar and red leather slippers.

How gratifying to see Agatha Christie keeping the flag of the old classic who-dun-it so triumphantly flying!

Highly effective story of the child and the bow-and-arrow (part II, chapter 6) and good characterization of the playboy-sportsman central character – very much of that era when one was expected to behave like a gentleman at Wimbledon.

Portions are missing from the newspapers scanned by Trove, so the exact dates are not certain, save for the start on 7 October 1944.

It was performed in 2019 at The Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich, England, using the play as written by Agatha Christie in 1945 and recently "unearthed by author Julius Green.

[11] In 2007, the novel was adapted as part of the third season of the Agatha Christie's Marple television series produced by ITV.

In 2019, the novel was again adapted as an episode of French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie.