The Under Dog and Other Stories

Rating:
Summary: fun little ride
Review: Entertaining little collection including the very funny title story; one of Poirot's most hilarious cases. As stated in another review, the Cornish Mystery is identical to another tale in the Labors of Hercules (with a few slim changes)while the Plymouth Express is a very close prelude to Christie's longer story (in novel form) The Mystery of the Blue Train (again with almost identical similarities.) Some of the tales are in third person then abruptly turn to first person when Col. Hastings takes over to round out the remaining adventures. Overall: a nice, diverting addition to the Christie library, if only to compare the stories to their different versions. P.S> The Submarine Plans was also published in Murder on the Mews under the title the Incredible Theft; again with some slight modifications.

Rating:
Summary: Poirot's early career in London
Review: The stories herein first appeared in various magazines; they're sorted here by original publication date rather than order of appearance in the book.

"The King of Clubs" - (March, 1923) Valerie Saintclair, the famous dancer, has just been all over the papers, having discovered the murdered body of Henry Reedburn. Prince Paul of Maurania comes to Poirot, since he proposes to marry her, saying (in one breath), "We are living now in more enlightened days, free from the old caste prejudices," while *also* saying that 1) it'll be a morganatic marriage (i.e., the children would be out of the succession), and 2) it doesn't matter because she's actually the daughter of a Russian grand duchess. (He says that she's bound to secrecy, but has let him guess that much).

In other words, Prince Paul is a pompous idiot, who half-suspects Mlle. Saintclair of murdering Reedburn, based on her reaction to a fortuneteller's card reading turning up the king of clubs (a fearsome man holding her in his power), and he's hiring Poirot to find out what really happened. (If you have even a passing acquaintance with that method of fortunetelling, incidentally, don't let Christie's misuse of terms distract you from the facts of the case.)

"The Affair at the Victory Ball" - (March, 1923) The Victory in question was the end of WW I. Young Lord Cronshaw and his fiancee Coco Courtenay attended the ball with several friends, all dressed as characters from the Italian Comedy, he as Harlequin, she as Columbine, and both died that night, she from a cocaine overdose in her flat, he with a table knife through his heart at the ball. (There are no Quin or Satterthwaite appearances, incidentally, despite the Harlequin references.) This story is that rare animal, a Christie creation that pauses and offers a challenge to the reader before revealing the solution.

"The Plymouth Express" - (April, 1923) Flossie Halliday Carrington, soon-to-be ex wife of the Honourable Rupert Carrington, who married her for her father's money, was found murdered during a train journey, and her father has hired Poirot to find the killer (he wants his own man, not just the usual police investigation). This story strongly resembles _The Mystery of the Blue Train_, but the actual puzzle (i.e. who/how/why) isn't really the same, so don't be misled.

"The Market Basing Mystery" - (October, 1923) Japp, Hastings, and Poirot are spending a weekend on holiday in Market Basing, and Japp is called in on a local locked-room mystery. This case bears a striking resemblance to another locked-room case, "Murder in the Mews"; see the book of the same name if you'd like to compare them.

"The Adventure of the Clapham Cook" - (November, 1923) The cook in question, a middle-aged, respectable, plain woman working in a private household, quit without a word of warning; no formal complaints, no quarrel with the only other staff member. She just went out on her day off, never came back, and sent for her trunk (not even formally resigning). Her now-ex employer wants to find her, since it's *very* fishy, and good cooks are hard to come by.

"The Cornish Mystery" - (November, 1923) Mrs. Pengelley, a plain, ordinary woman of about 50, is afraid that her husband is slowly poisoning her - whenever he's away, her 'gastritis' gets better, the weed-killer is running low, and he's got a young blond hussy of an assistant. (He's the one with the money, though.) Poirot finds it interesting, partly because of Mrs. Pengelley's unusual reaction to her suspicions; but his arrival in Cornwall the day after she hires him, it turns out, is too late. The general framework of the story resembles at least 3 other Christie stories, one quite strongly (each for a different detective), but they differ in detail, so don't jump to any conclusions.

"The Submarine Plans" - (November, 1923) - Same story as "The Incredible Theft" in _Dead Man's Mirror_; Christie did a little revision, but not enough to make it a different story.

"The Lemesurier Inheritance" - (December, 1923) This case begins with a chance meeting during WWI between Poirot, Hastings, and Captain Vincent Lemesurier, on the night that Vincent receives word that his father is dying of injuries received in a riding accident. The family has a tradition, dating back to the middle ages, that no eldest son of a Lemesurier will ever inherit - and sure enough, Vincent takes a misstep on the train home, and the next in line inherits. Several times over the next few years, one member or another of the family dies: an allergic reaction to a wasp sting here, a shooting accident there. Finally, Mrs. Hugo Lemesurier comes to Poirot and Hastings: her husband, now terminally ill, has a morbid belief that his eldest son won't outlive him. For her part, she doesn't believe that a curse could saw through a vine under the nursery window that the kids like to climb out of. Compare this one with "The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb" in _Poirot Investigates_, as 2 examples of Poirot's theory of the power of superstition.

"The Under Dog" - (October, 1926) Mercifully, in my opinion, we don't have Hastings narrating this one, although he relates all the other stories in this volume. Hot-tempered Sir Reuben Astwell has been found murdered in his country home, his head smashed with a club in his own study. (Some of the family have travelled in Africa; the club was part of the decor). His fortune is divided between Lady Astwell and his ineffectual nephew Charles. Charles, a failure in business who drinks, is the prime suspect, but Lady Astwell insists that Owen Trefusis, the browbeaten little secretary, did it, and engages Poirot to uncover the truth.