Wish there was a Hercule Poirot to solve our life problems! Agatha Christie's short story collection featuring the Belgian encompass a variety of mysteries left for the private investigator, and I must say the Dame never runs out of ideas. So get ready for a ride filled with murder, avarice and revenge, and all sorts of unexpected twists and turns.
The Western Star, which concerns a film actress and her diamond jewel, is interesting for the blackmailing angle, while the
Marsdon Manor tragedy involves the suicide of a Mr Maltravers that Poirot later deduces to be murder. Hastings's casual conversation with Poirot about his friends' renting a flat for a super cheap price gets the latter investigating the singular event in
The Adventure of the Cheap Flat.
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| Poirot Investigates |
The strange circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Harrington Pace in a locked room with two pistols on display has a clever denouement, and so is the
Million Dollar Bond Robbery aboard the liner
Olympia.
The Adventure of the Pharaoh's Tomb centers around an intriguing premise of the
Curse of the Pharaohs following an excavation at Egypt, which becomes a venue for multiple deaths. If Mrs Opalsen turns to Poirot for help during their stay at the Grand Metropolitan hotel when her valuable pearls are found missing, the next time it's the Leader of the House of Commons for a case involving the kidnapping of the Prime Minister towards the end of the World War I.
Banker Mr Davenheim's
disappearance and the seemingly unrelated burglary of his safe forms the crux of the next story, as Poirot exercises his grey cells to unravel an Italian count's murder in his flat by a dinner table curiously set for three people in
The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman. Miss Violet Marsh is clever enough to seek the Belgian's help to locate a
missing will made by her uncle with a strange clause requiring her to 'prove her wits' failing which the fortune would go to charity. The stories are a fun good read, and while some are really exceptional, they are quickly solved given the limited scope.
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