Poirot Investigates By Agatha Christie

ISBN: 0007265204

Published By Harper Collins

This facsimile edition published in Nov 2007

This is the first set of Poirot short stories, narrated once again by his good friend Captain Hastings. There are eleven stories in all covering robbery, kidnapping and murder all of which Poirot solves, of course! 

We once again see the Belgian detective's massive ego as he solves these cases, but we do see a glimmer of appreciation of Captain Hastings as Poirot admits that Hastings has a good heart. Perhaps he is starting to soften.

There were a couple of very strong stories in this book. The Adventure Of The Egyptian Tomb reflects the interest in Egyptology which was very high at the time this books was written in the 1920s. Poirot is hired by a lady worried that her son will die due to a curse of an Egyptian king who appears to have already caused the deaths of three other people.  There is a lovely description by Hastings of Poirot traveling to Egypt in totally inappropriate clothing and having to ride on a camel.

A couple of other stories which caught my eye were The Case Of The Missing Will and The Mystery Of Hunters Lodge, both of which felt like classic English mysteries, similar to Jonathan Creek and I wondered whether they had influenced David Renwick who wrote the Creek stories. 

The stories themselves are not as intricate has her longer novels and in some cases very easy to solve, but that doesn't distract from them. It is nice to be transported back to the era of afternoon tea for the ten or fifteen minutes it takes to read them. I am also glad to see that Christie seems to be back on form after the struggle that was Murder On The Links.