by Agatha Christie
Published 1972
In this Poirot case, our intrepid hero is once again called into action by his friend Mrs. Oliver. However, this novel follows one of my least-favorite types of Christie’s mysteries–a mystery from the Past. As Poirot and Mrs. Oliver do their research (mostly by interviewing ‘elephants’–people who were around at the time of suspected murder), the plot becomes to become entangled with loads of extraneous and contradictory information. As with most of Christie’s novels that focus on a past history, it is difficult to relate to the individuals involved, mostly because most of them are dead, or we hear of them only through hearsay. Also, Christie spent a lot of this novel complaining about modern society (much as she did in Hallowe’en Party) through the voices of her characters, and that gets rather dull after a while.
All in all, while it was a fine mystery, it is not up to the caliber I expect from Christie. 3/5.
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