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. The book is the last to feature her recurring character of Superintendent Battle. Lady Tressilian, an old and humourless woman confined to her bed, invites several guests into her seaside home of Gull's Point for two weeks at the end of the summer. Tennis star Nevile Strange, former ward of Lady Tressilian's deceased husband, incurs her displeasure by bringing his new wife, Kay, and his ex, Audrey, under her roof together, thus causing awkward romantic misunderstandings. But events soon turn when Lady Tressilian is killed and Superintendent Battle, who is vacationing nearby in the home of his nephew, Inspector James Leach, finds himself in a labyrinthine maze of clues and deception.