It is always such great fun to read a Dame Agatha. This one had a nice twist! I am pleased to be able to get hardbacks for such a low price. They seem to be well-made.

Captain Hastings and Hercule Poirot are on holiday when they learn that several attempts have been made on a local girl's life. Poirot seeks to stop a future murder, with mixed success.

This is the 8th published work featuring Poirot (6th novel), and while not the finest (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, perhaps? I have not read them all...yet), it made for a pleasurable travel diversion while waiting in Brazilian airports. As the New York Times Book Review said of this novel in 1932, "With Agatha Christie as the author and Hercule Poirot as the central figure, one is always assured of an entertaining story with a real mystery to it" [1].

[The previous Poirot works are - in order - The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Murder on the Links, Poirot Investigates, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Big Four, The Mystery of the Blue Train, and Black Coffee (a play later adapted as a novel).]

Note on potentially objectionable content: Sexist protagonists (Women, they are impatient!) and murder as entertainment.

[1] Isaac Anderson, March 6, 1932, p20. Quoted in the wikipedia entry for this book.

As a hardcore Christie fan, I was disappointed by this book. For one thing, it was the first time I ever successfully predicted the ending of one of her mysteries. Partially, it's just a function of the fact that I've been reading a lot of her books lately, but it just seemed quite obvious, almost from the beginning. (Also, the table of contents gives it away to a smart reader!) The other problem was Poirot. He was excessively demeaning and cruel to Hastings throughout the novel, to such an unreasonable extent that I was mentally urging Hastings to tell Poirot where he could shove his mustaches, and get the heck out of there. Also, perhaps I was reading too quickly or simply got a badly edited edition of the book (I have the 1942 Pocket Mysteries edition), but parts of it were almost incomprehensible. She wrote it when she was fairly young, so I'm inclined to blame shoddy editors at the publishing house.

Overall, this is a quick and distracting read, nothing more. Christie fans may not enjoy it as much as her other real masterpieces, but it may impress a novice. However, I would not recommend it to a novice, because the portrait it paints of Poirot is extremely off-putting.

Fastidious Hecule Poirot, the great and somewhat immodest detective from Belgium, finally chooses the sea resort of St. Loo to relax and let his impeccable mustaches down. However, in true Christie fashion, the young damsel in distress arrives, but seeminging not in any distress at all. Nick Buckley is a free-spirit who owns the small estate near the hotel where M. Poirot and his ever astonished sidekick, Hastings, are staying. A series of near-miss "accidents" are immediately suspect in Poirot's mind after a bullet misses Nick by a fraction of an inch. Who could be so avaricious and dastardly to harass such a sweet heiress? Could it be the overly sweet neighbors from Australia? Could it be the ever ethereal Frederika? What about the sturdy and trusted servant Ellen or her slow and lethargic husband, the gardener? Who has killed good and sensible Cousin Maggie who was wearing Nick's shawl at the time of the murder? Is there a secret panel somewhere in the house and who would know of its existence? Our proud detective is puzzled and frustrated but cleverly stages a small bit of drama to entice the murderer into the light. I was very surprised by the solution to this mystery and I'm sure other readers will be surprised, as well! I highly recommend this wonderful whodunit! With PERIL AT END HOUSE, Agatha Christie offers the reader one of her best examples of mystery writing.

When I first read Agatha Christie's "Peril at End House" many years ago, I was disappointed. I thought there were serious flaws in the plot and that Poirot was practically a caricature of himself. Later I watched a PBS Mystery version, and the flaws seemed even worse. I believe this is one of the books that Agatha Christie in her autobiography admits she couldn't even remember writing.

So it was with some misgivings that I approached rereading "Peril at End House". Yes, the flaws are still there, and it is certainly not one of Miss Christie's best. Nevertheless, it is very good. The plot despite some weak spots is quite clever. The characters are good even with Poirot being "over the top". The Christie humor is there but not as apt as in most of her other works.

I never cease to be impressed with the way in which Miss Christie lays out the clues for the reader. It is always "fair play". One critic compared her to a magician in that she is a master at misdirection. "Peril at End House" is a beautiful example of her use of misdirection -- if 15 or so paragraphs had been printed in bold-face type, almost every reader would have figured out the solution.

Not Agatha Christie at her best, but "Peril at End House" is still a winner.