Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie

 

Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie.

This edition published 3rd August 2017 by Harper Collins.

From the cover of the book:

The very first collection of superb short stories featuring Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings…

First there was the mystery of the film star and the diamond… then came the ‘suicide’ that was murder… the mystery of the absurdly chaep flat… a suspicious death in a locked gun-room… a million dollar bond robbery… the curse of a pharoah’s tomb… a jewel robbery by the sea… the abduction of a Prime Minister… the disappearance of a banker… a phone call from a dying man… and, finally, the mystery of the missing willl.

What links these fascinating cases? Only the brilliant deductive powers of Hercule Poirot!

***********

Poirot Investigates, published in 1924, was Agatha Christie's third outing for the little Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and his faithful sidekick Captain Arthur Hastings - and her first short story collection. It builds very much on the relationship established between the sleuthing pair in the previous novels featuring their exploits, The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Murder on the Links, bearing all the hallmarks of the Holmes and Watson style rapport that inspired their partnership - but there are also enjoyable traces here of Poirot's little grey cell modus operandi that becomes all his own as is character develops over the years.

The collection comprises eleven knotty cases that are solved in good order by Poirot, while Hastings frequently gets hold of the the wrong end of the stick and gets endearingly huffy when Poirot pokes genial fun at him, and they are a great showcase for the finer qualities of both of them.

The stories are as follows:

- The Adventure of the Western Star

- The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor

- The Adventure of the Cheap Flat

- The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge

- The Million Dollar Bond Robbery

- The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb

- The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan

- The Kidnapped Prime Minister

- The Disappearance of Mr Davenheim

- The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman

- The Case of the Missing Will

The subject matter holds a veritable feast of themes that echo through Christie's work, with theft, marital strife, deception, and good old fashioned greed at the root of the crimes, and there is also an entertaining sprinkling of politics, espionage, and the kind of shady underworld antics that appear in her more adventurous stories too. The final parting shot, The Case of the Missing Will, is the most curious of the bunch, as it is more of a quirky treasure hunt, with some interesting reflections on the education of women. My favourite one though is The Adventure of the Western Star, which is a twisty tale of passion, avarice and betrayal around the theft of a whopping diamond (or is it two...) - it comes with a slice of Hollywood glamour, and has Hasting's totally stumped, which ups the humorous content delightfully.

This collection is a very accessible way into the Poirot stories, if you prefer shorter tales that wind up quickly. I polished them off in double quick time, and listened to the audio book narrated by Poirot himself, David Suchet, too, for the ultimate comfort-read experience.

This is my February choice for #ReadChristie2024, as one of her books written in the 1920s, and it was really interesting to reread them and view them through the lens of when Christie wrote them, which is not something I would normally do. 

Poirot Investigates is available in various formats.

About the author:

Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.