From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Curtain (Hercule Poirot, #44)

Agatha Christie

Start date: January 1, 2021

Finish date: January 31, 2021

Discussion: Archive: Poirot Buddy Reads

Why we're reading this: The very last in our long series of Poirot buddy reads.
[close] The very last in our long series of Poirot buddy reads.

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Archive: Poirot Buddy Reads

* Reading Order for the Unofficial Poirot Buddy Reads
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last updated Dec 27, 2020 08:20AM

Poirot Buddy Read 40: SPOILER THREAD Curtain
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last updated Feb 05, 2021 06:12PM

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What Members Thought

Jun 16, 2016 Kavita rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mystery, uk

Gosh, I am bawling my eyes out! Poirot is dead, and it is the end of an era. :'( Christie wrote this book during World War II and hid it away in a safe vault since she was not sure she would survive the war. But she wanted to be sure that Poirot had his finale the way she wanted and she did not want anyone else to appropriate her character (are you listening, Sophie Hannah?). The book was later published in the 70s.

Poirot is back at Styles and so is Hastings, back to the place where they first m ...more

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Dec 30, 2017 Teri-K rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-golden-age

I first read this many years ago, before I became a Poirot fan. (Thank you David Suchet.) At that time I found Poirot affected and boring and Hastings a bumbling idiot, though I loved Miss Marple and enjoyed Tommy and Tuppence, as well as her other books. I remember not liking this book much.

This time around I have a greater appreciation for Poirot and Hastings. Though this book could really be called Hasting's last case, as Poirot plays only a very small part. I enjoyed getting to know more ab I first read this many years ago, before I became a Poirot fan. (Thank you David Suchet.) At that time I found Poirot affected and boring and Hastings a bumbling idiot, though I loved Miss Marple and enjoyed Tommy and Tuppence, as well as her other books. I remember not liking this book much.

This time around I have a greater appreciation for Poirot and Hastings. Though this book could really be called Hasting's last case, as Poirot plays only a very small part. I enjoyed getting to know more about Hastings and his family and watching him cope with the world that is changing quickly around him. If Poirot has only a few scenes, his presence is still throughout the book as he's the one who sets everything in motion.

Here we come to one of the points that I really enjoyed. This book doesn't open with a particular crime, instead Poirot is concerned with several past crimes, all of which have been solved by confessions or convictions. But he is not happy. Instead he believes that these unrelated cases were all perpetrated by "X", who has entirely escaped notice. And Poirot believes "X" will strike again. So he calls Hastings back to Chimneys, where their first case together occured, and uses him as his eyes and ears.

Unfortunately Hastings isn't a deep thinker and he jumps to many wrong conclusions. Most of the book consists of him bumbling around suspecting the wrong people and generally making a mess of things. However, Christie is fair to her reader and everything we need to know to solve the crimes is in the story; you just have to remember not to believe everything Hastings thinks.

I felt that Poirot went too far in not explaining the heart of the case to Hastings. It was totally unreasonable of him to expect his friend could figure it out on his own, and Poirot knew that but as the reader had to be kept in the dark so did Hastings. Still, I wished Christie had come up with stronger motivation for that part. (Hastings own life would have been at risk, perhaps?) I had to rate the book down for this, as it's was very annoying for me that Poirot refused to explain things to his friend. That part just didn't really work.

Also the book felt modern to me - discussions of divorce and such, while I prefer the books that are firmly set in pre-modern times. So be prepared for that. Since Christie wrote this during WWII and set it aside for publication after her death it's a tribute to her writing skills.

I listened to Hugh Fraser narrate this, (he played Hastings opposite Suchet), and enjoyed it very much. I like his narrations or Suchet's for these books, they are excellent actors and convey the stories well. ...more

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Apr 03, 2017 dmayr rated it liked it

Shelves: crime-detective-series, crime-in-vintage, murder-in-lodging

An average finish for an otherwise utterly delightful series, although you really couldn't have another ending from this. ...more

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Sep 27, 2017 Jinx rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Not a fan of this book. I have liked some of the other Poirot books, but this one I could not get in to.

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Feb 03, 2018 Paperbackreader rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: my-library, all-collections, read-and-owned, british, classic, mystery, detective, hercule-poirot

Enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I have had this book for thirteen years now. I began reading it back then but somehow could not bring myself to go on. Life has finally managed to push me to finish it. Poirot is Poirot. And the plot is so unlike anything! Christie really was a conventional and at the same time a very unconventional writer. Now, the murderer's motivations, because it goes against everything we have been told about them thus far, I found hard to swallow. Hastings is as anno ...more

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