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I’ve read this book several times, and can’t believe I haven’t reviewed it! Anyway, I don’t really have anything new to say about this classic. It was Agatha Christie’s first full length Hercule Poirot mystery, and it’s quite impressive for a first outing. It shows us the meeting between Captain Hastings, newly invalided home from the front (WWI), and Belgian refugee Hercule Poirot.

Hastings is visiting old friends as he recuperates from his war injuries, and Poirot is living with several other Belgian refugees in a house in the village. They had met previously years before in the war, and Hastings was very impressed with the Belgian police detective’s acumen.

This time Hastings brings his old friend a case of poisoning. The matriarch of the family Hastings is visiting, a formidable Lady Bountiful who has recently married her much younger male secretary, wakes the family early one morning with her dying fit. She has been poisoned with strychnine and it is up to Poirot, ably assisted by Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard, to untangle this devious plot. There are red herrings galore, and unusually and not often repeated, Poirot gets it wrong before he finally gets it right. Very enjoyable and assured first outing for Christie and her longtime detective hero.

I look forward to reading on with the Reading the Detectives group in the new year - our 2025 challenge will cover the first six mysteries of Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, Christie’s two most popular detectives.