Rating: Summary: Poirot Relies on "Elephants" to Solve Long-Ago Mystery Review: Twenty years before this novel opens, a tragic double-death has occurred. Alistair Ravenscroft and his wife Margaret were found shot to death near their home. The deaths were declared suicides at the time. Now, years later, their daughter Celia is engaged to be married. Her future mother-in-law wants to know more about the cirumstances of the death and if the wife killed the husband or the husband killed the wife. She does not want some inherited proclivity to murder to affect her son. Celia turns to her godmother, Ariadne Oliver, who once again enlists the help of her old friend Hercule Poirot. Together they track down a list of "elephants," people with long memories who never forget past events. The officer who had been in charge of the case, a wig stylist, two French governesses, and a family friend each remember some piece of information that Poirot can collect and assemble as he uncovers secrets long buried and brings the truth to light. This is Mrs. Oliver's final appearance in a Christie novel and also the last Poirot book Agatha Christie wrote, although readers will see him again in "Curtain" which she wrote during the 1940's but was not published until 1975.
|