Poirot's Early Cases

The sheer variety of stories that sprang from Agatha Christie's fertile imagination always amazes me. This is a collection of eighteen cases from Hercule Poirot's early career. I enjoyed them all, more or less, though some of course work better than others. I noticed, for example, that 'The Plymouth Express' bears more than a passing resemblance to The Mystery of the Blue Train, while 'The Lost Mine' feels more like a Sherlock Holmes pastiche than a short story involving the famous Belgian detective; though Poirot, who's narrating the story, doesn't mention it, there is the suggestion that he resorts to crawling on his hands and knees along the floor to follow his companion – imagine the indignity! Sadly often Christie neglects to show more plant subtle clues for the reader to enable them to solve the mystery themselves, a feature I always enjoy in the novels; in these cases, Poirot draws the solution neatly out of a hat more often than not, supplying the reader with clues he had picked up on but that hadn't been communicated to the reader.

Trigger warning: be prepared for depictions of casual racism that made me repeatedly screw up my face: there are some awful depictions of Chinese pidgin English in 'The Lost Mine' and a casual reference to someone needing a 'black slave' in 'How Does Your Garden Grow?' show less

I was looking for a Poirot short story for my kindle when I ran into this compilation for a bargain ninety-nine cents. Worth it? Sure. You can taste the flavor of Poirot in perfect lunch break-sized chunks, or moments in the car waiting for an appointment, or even when you just want a little something-something. Or perhaps you find the full-length books tedious with all their descriptions of little grey cells, the sending of telegrams, and the multitude of housekeepers and lady's maids; well, these stripped-down versions save those mentions to once per story, perhaps even less. Still, for the serious Christie fan, there's often something missing. Mostly atmosphere, along with the parade of characters that comes with a full-course show more investigation.

Contents:

The Affair at the Victory Ball
The Adventure of the Clapham Cook
The Cornish Mystery
The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly
The Double Clue
The King of Clubs
The Lemesurier Inheritance
The Lost Mine
The Plymouth Express
The Chocolate Box
The Veiled Lady
The Submarine Plans
The Market Basing Mystery

I did enjoy these quick little cases, but a few felt almost like outlines, they were so short. In those cases (haha), it felt like the story rested on the twist. 'The Chocolate Box,' 'The Veiled Lady' and 'The Market Basing Mystery' all fell into this category. Literally, there is the case; Poirot reflects; he solves. The first, 'The Affair at the Victory Ball,' reads like an introduction to the character of Poirot and Hastings, and is fun for that, although the case itself ridiculous. 'The Submarine Plans' is published elsewhere and is a very realized short. Still, not a bad little grouping, and a nice way to spend a few minutes here and there. show less

Convenient collection of several familiar cases solved by Poirot, sometime with, sometimes without Hastings.
They are all wonderfully intriguing and clever. It always interests me how sexist and racist were the attitudes of perfectly respectable people in these stories.

This is a collection of 18 short stories which had previously been collected in other editions. As usual in collections, the quality varies from story to story. There are kidnappings, a spy story, and more usual murder mysteries.
Several plot lines presented here are used to advantage in full length murder mysteries. All sorts of devices are used: mistaken identity, the client as the criminal, the least obvious person—a Christie trademark.
Most of the stories are told by Hastings, who is truly a very nice man. It’s fun to see Poirot use his “foreignness” to bamboozle people into thinking that he’s a bit dim.
Among my favorites are Wasps Nest, Problem at Sea, The Veiled Lady (lifted from a Holmes story), and The Adventure of the show more Clapham Cook. show less

An enjoyable collection of eighteen short stories featuring Poirot (and often narrated by Captain Hastings), primarily published in magazines in the 1920s and 1930s. These are light, fun and a quick read. They have the flavour of their era, and most have been adapted for television. Several contained the kernels of later novels and novellas (Market Basing Mystery / Murder in the News, How does your garden grow / Dumb Witness, Problem at sea / Death on the Nile). A good introduction to Poirot, or a nice reacquaintance with an old friend.

This collection illustrates very well what is meant by the term "a cozy mystery." The stories in this book are like little puzzles, and they are a pleasure to read. Poirot is strong here, exercising his "little grey cells." I found it interesting that there are a couple of stories where Captain Hastings is not present. In the last story, we meet Poirot's secretary, Miss Lemon, who is passionate about filing systems but not so much about human interaction. The collection featured a story I had read before, the one about the Veiled Lady. I can't recall where I read it, likely in some other anthology, but it was nice rereading it in this collection. The neat thing about the book, for me, is that the stories were short. This makes for a show more nice sampler, and if you really like Poirot, it may encourage you to seek out the longer novels featuring the Belgian (not French, get it right) detective. In addition, for me, I find the time period where the tales take place, right after World War I and into the 20s, to be a fascinating time period, and Christie captures it well. Even something as simple as traveling by train, which we can't imagine as much today (certainly not in the U.S.) seems very romantic in Christie's work. Overall, this was a nice leisurely read for me. show less

Agatha Christie's short stories are usually very easy to digest and the eighteen of them in this book is no exception. As hinted by in the review, this is early stories, and combined with being short stories mean that they lack in depth. On the other hand they are each interesting small and amusing puzzles so I don't miss the depth at all.

A nice book to have by the bed, for consumption one short story at a time.