SOLVED. What is the name of the banned psychological thriller/mystery novel by Agatha Christie? (NOT "And then there were none.") [s]

[Akshaya]

I heard there is a banned Agatha Christie novel that hardly anyone knows about. As far as my friend remembers, it has the words "Fresh (or Flesh) Blood of Orchid" in the title. The book is said to be so chilling that it has either been banned or it had gone out of print in the 70s. All of Agatha Christie's books were published between the 1920s and 1970s. So this is the time frame.

The first chapter of the book, I hear, is about a young woman breaking out of a psychiatric asylum, hitchhiking with a truck driver, and having an episode while in the truck. She attacks the truck driver because of a trigger and he crashes the truck. She jumps to safety but is knocked out. The truck driver is killed in the accident.

The next morning, the girl is rescued by two farmers, who look after her and nurse her back to health. They don't know she is mentally ill and assume she is simply shaken up by the accident. However, one night, one of the farmers wakes up suddenly and sees the girl standing outside. It's a moonlit night, and she is dressed in white and has her hair undone. She is standing near a pond.

This is all my friend remembers. To me, it doesn't sound like Christie's writing. But my friend swears that she remembers the author being Agatha Christie herself. If it's not Christie, could someone help me with the name of the book and the author? It's killing me to not know what this book is!!Agatha Christie

[C.]

I hope someone can recall it! :D

[Akshaya]

Oh, I finally got a response from somewhere. Apparently, it's not Agatha Christie (as I suspected!) It's a James Hadley Chase book. "The Flesh of the Orchid." Thread closed. Thank you to whoever tried :)

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, Akshaya. Here's the link - The Flesh of the Orchid by James Hadley Chase.