From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Poirot's Early Cases (Hercule Poirot, #43)

Agatha Christie

Start date: April 3, 2018

Finish date: April 30, 2018

Discussion: Buddy reads

Why we're reading this: The latest in a series of Poirot buddy reads.
[close] The latest in a series of Poirot buddy reads.

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What Members Thought

May 20, 2018 Adrian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: det-agatha-christie, zz-paper-books, detectives-challenge-hp-2018-20, zz-audiobook

Audiobook Listen November 2021
An enjoyable listen whist laying Oak flooring. It was a real surprise to discover stories read by both Hugh Fraser (Hastings) and some by David Suchet (Poirot himself !). In fact it was difficult to decide who was the more enjoyable. All in all, a excellent listen.

Read May 2018
Another 4 star review for Agatha and Hercule (I feel I know them both well enough to be so informal ) although that said, it did only scrape into the 4 star category. Now whether that is bec ...more

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Aug 20, 2016 John Frankham rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-detective

Poirot short stories. The ones used for the early ITV David Suchet series.

Very, very reminiscent of Conan Doyle. For Holmes and Watson, read Poirot and Capt.
Hastings.

Good, solid plotting and manipulation of rather stock characters, but enjoyable fun and puzzles.

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Apr 10, 2021 Rosario rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A nice collection, published late (1974), but containing stories written pretty early on (in the 20s and early 30s).

There's no unifying theme, apart from the stories being early cases, but that in itself is quite interesting. In some stories we see Poirot not yet as famous as he will be, while in other stories as newly very famous and celebrated. We even see him investigating a case while not famous at all and still working for the Belgian police, in a story being narrated by himself to Hasting A nice collection, published late (1974), but containing stories written pretty early on (in the 20s and early 30s).

There's no unifying theme, apart from the stories being early cases, but that in itself is quite interesting. In some stories we see Poirot not yet as famous as he will be, while in other stories as newly very famous and celebrated. We even see him investigating a case while not famous at all and still working for the Belgian police, in a story being narrated by himself to Hastings.

In general, the Poirot-ness is really amped up, not quite too much, but almost. His speech is very Frenchified, with him searching for the English words in a way that he doesn't quite do in later books. His fussiness and passion for order and his moustaches are there all the time, in a very fun way. It's great. And Hastings is extremely Hastings-ey as well, and it's hilarious. In these stories we really get why Poirot likes him, whereas in some later stories he's a bit of a boor.

The stories themselves are mixed, with some really good ones, and some ok ones. There's only one real dud. That is The Lost Mine, where the anti-Chinese prejudice is impossible to overlook, and it's not a very good story anyway (the only high point is Poirot's outrage at the suggestion that he shave off his moustaches to disguise himself!). The others are all fun, even if the quality varies. Some highlights for me:

- The scene with the lady wanting to hire him to find her missing cook in "The Adventure of the Clapham Cook". She immediately gets his back up by wondering if the nice things being said about him by the papers are true, or whether he paid them to write them as advertising, and his outrage is hilarious. And then when he sputters that this is not the kind of case he would take, she calls him out on his snobbiness: "a servant's every bit as important as a tiara to a woman in my position". And instead of doubling down, he laughs and realises she's right and takes the case. That sense of humour is why I love the fussy old dear.

- A story ending with the fantastic line "I do not approve of murder", delivered beautifully in the audiobook (even though it could be argued that Poirot has just murdered someone himself!).

- The two stories where Poirot sets himself up as the defender of foreigners, one a suspect, one a victim. In one of them, he even explicitly states that this is because he's a visitor himself.

- The very strange and creepy tone of Wasp's Nest. Very effective.

- The adventures of the young people going up and down in the coal lift in The Third-Floor Flat. The solution is a bit convoluted, but there was something I really liked about it.

I'm loving these Christie short stories. I may read another one next! ...more

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Sep 19, 2021 Tahlia Fernandez rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

This is an enjoyable collection of Hercule Poirot stories. Some of them are repeated in other collections (such as "Poirot Investigates" or "Double Sin"), but this is definitely one of Agatha Christie's more enjoyable short story collections. Usually I prefer her full-length novels, since Christie's great strength is character building and it is hard for her to do that to her full capacity in the short story format. This collection contains some of her best short stories, all in one place. ...more

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