On the short flight from Le Bourget to Croydon the woman in seat number two dies from a wasp sting. Hercule Poirot is also on the flight and he is not convinced that a wasp sting did cause the death. Poirot has a large cast of characters to choose from in this locked-room mystery and working with Scotland Yard and the Sûreté he sets out to discover the truth in his very methodical way.

Also published as Death in the clouds. First published in 1935 by William Collins Sons & Co. in London, and as 'Death in the Air' by Dodd, Mead & Co. in New York.