Hercule Poirot Month! The Lemesurier Inheritance

[Nicole]

And so we proceed with our third story this month, The Lemesurier Inheritance. A centuries old curse haunts the Lemesurier family, and the first-born son shall never inherit, which has unfortunately led to the death of quite a few first-born sons in this family! From the time that Hastings and Poirot meet Vincent and Hugo at the Carlton two years have passed and in that time several Lemesurier heirs have died under mysterious circumstances. When Mrs. Hugo Lemesurier appeals to Poirot for help, desperate to save her eldest son, he and Hastings immediately arrange to visit her home and investigate.

Did you predict the outcome? Did you believe in the curse? Did you like the story?

At the beginning, with talk of reuniting with acquaintances from the war I was reminded of the beginning of The Mysterious Affair at Styles, did anyone else feel the same?

[Mark Pghfan]

Like many of the short stories, this one seems to have been written early in the Christie Canon. So yes, I thought of Styles, when Hastings talks about catching up with Poirot.

I did like the story. All the names and the deaths were a bit confusing, given that they all had the same last name! One little tweak I may not have noticed in previous readings of this story: Mrs. Hugo is an American. Christie must have chosen this to emphasize that Americans are less likely to believe in curses, or at least she (Christie)thought so!

[Nicole]

Mark Pghfan wrote: "Like many of the short stories, this one seems to have been written early in the Christie Canon. So yes, I thought of Styles, when Hastings talks about catching up with Poirot.

I did like the stor..."

I agree! We don't have the history to back up the belief in curses, I guess. ;-)

[PugMom]

Yikes! That was some story. I agree that there were lots of people with the same name to keep track of but I guess I followed along pretty well. Poirot sure is observant. I thought something was odd about the brothers have such different colored hair LOL