Rating: 
Summary: Agatha Christie's 1st Book!!!
Review: This is the first Christie and the first Hercule Poirot novel. The action opens with Hastings describing his first adventure with Poirot. They become involved in solving a death in a locked room with the most obvious suspect being the husband. Many twists and turns later Poirot prevails and justice is served.Hastings circumstances (invalid army officer alone in the world) are very like Dr. Watson. The relationship between Hastings and Poirot is similiar to Watson and Holmes in that Hastings is the bumbler, always leaping to the wrong conclusion while Poirot, like Holmes, drops little hints but by in large keeps his companion in the dark until the last minute. Christie began her pattern here of going against established mystery conventions (most obvious suspect being innocent) while playing fair, (all clues are fairly laid out for the reader). The trademark Christie twists and turns are here as well. This novel was originally published in 1920 and many of the details show its age. There are references to things that the modern reader will not be familiar and some comments are absolutely not politically correct but these do not detract from the story and in fact enforce the WWI English country house setting. This is a 'must read' for any Christie fan, and highly recommended for any fan of 'cozy' mysteries.
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