Friday October 06, 2006

Poirot's early cases

A book of short stories featuring the Belgium detective Poirot penned by Agatha Christie. Most of these have been televised into one hour shows featuring the excellent David Suchet in the lead role. All these shows have had to embellish the less than ten page stories from this book to make a decent one hour program. My favourites from the book are:

The Affair at Victory Ball, where Lord Cronshaw and Coco Courtenay are murdered during this celebratory ball. The link to Commedia Dell 'Arte is that Cronshaw's party at the ball were all wearing costumes from the china collection which depicted the old Italian comedy.

The Cornish Mystery, where a wife meets Poirot and tells him she thinks she is being poissoned, he agrees to travel to Cornwall to investigate but finds when he arrives that she has died. The husband is later charged but Poirot finds out who really did the nasty deed.

The Plymouth Express where the daughter of Ebenezer Halliday is murdered is excellent and the chance spotting of the daughter by a paper boy on the platform is a vital clue to what happened to her.

The Chocolate Box is an old case of Poirot's that he investigated when he still lived in Belgium is discussed with Hasting's his friend and the victims love of chocolates was his undoing but the fact there were two boxes of different colours is the clue Poirot needs but it was a case he never officially solved .

Problem at sea finds Poirot on holiday on a ship in the Egyptian area and a much disliked wife is found murdered when they all return from a day trip. One of the holidaymakers has an unusual talent which helped them disguise the fact the woman was dead before they all left for the day out..

How does your garden grow is the last story, and the sudden death of an old woman is solved by Poirot spotting decorative shells in her garden which he saw spoilt the symetry of it.

Very good book I like the short stories that are quick to read ideal for reading one or two before going to bed.