Poirot Investigates

Lots of enjoyable short mysteries, and many laugh-out-loud chuckles ( )

Jan. 2020 reread:
First a note about this 1967 Bantam edition - it contains 14 short stories unlike the original British edition which only had 11 stories. The 3 "extra" stories are:

The Veiled Lady
The Lost Mine
The Chocolate Box

I haven't read this book since I entered it here in 2012 and probably it had been quite a while before that - I would guess it is closer to 2 decades since I last read this early collection of Poirot short stories. However, each of the stories was immediately recognizable to me from the wonderful TV series featuring David Suchet. I was a bit surprised by some of the differences between the original stories and those adaptations - the adaptations had clearly been made more exciting (pandering to the tastes of the modern audience?) though the essentials were only changed in one story - The Prime Minister.

I enjoyed all the stories but I am a fan of Christie & Poirot. They aren't her best work but I don't think they are her worst either... ( )

Poirot Investigates is a collection of short stories featuring the Belgian detective and his powerful, little grey cells. First printed in the UK in 1925, the book included 11 stories. The US edition added three additional stories. I read a US edition from 1970.

These first few Poirot short stories were written in 1922 while Christie was on an around the world tour to publicize the British Empire Exposition. The stories in Poirot Investigates plus 11 more were published in a collection, The Early Cases of Hercule Poirot, published in 1974. The 25 stories were first published in The Sketch magazine in the UK in 1923 and in The Blue Book magazine in the US in 1924/25.

I love these short, entertaining Poirot cases. Because the tales are all so short, they don't feature the twists, complex reveal moments, and character development found in Christie novels....but they still showcase Poirot's amazing wit and Christie's stellar writing. Much like writers today who pen short stories or novellas to bring attention to their books and characters, Christie published these stories to bring attention to her detective fiction. It worked! Poirot books became quite popular. When she published The Man in the Brown Suit in 1924, some readers and reviewers complained because Poirot wasn't in the book!

The stories included in this collection (US edition) are:

The Adventure of the Western Star
The Tragedy at Marston Manor
The Adventure of the Cheap Flat
The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge
The Million Dollar Bond Robbery
The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb
The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan
The Kidnapped Prime Minister
The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim
The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman
The Case of the Missing Will
The Veiled Lady (US Editions)
The Lost Mine (US Editions)
The Chocolate Box (US Editions)

My favorite is The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb. The story is about a supposed curse on those who opened a tomb. Poirot investigates to see if the curse is real, or imagined. Since King Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered in 1922 about the time Christie was writing this story, I think she was thinking about the sensational journalism at the time reporting a curse causing deaths of those who had opened and entered the tomb. It made for a great Poirot story!

The long running (and wonderfully awesome) television series Agatha Christie's Poirot adapted each of these stories into episodes. The characters and plots are changed somewhat to lengthen them to fill an hour episode, but most stay very true to the original story.

All in all, a very entertaining short story collection! One must keep in mind the fact that these stories were short on purpose because they were originally printed in magazines. A bit of very smart marketing to get readers hooked on her writing and characters so more novels would sell! :) ( )

Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie is a 2001 Harper publication- originally published in 1925



A clever and lively group of eleven short stories by Agatha Christie, featuring Hercule Poirot!

Short stories are a hard sell for me, normally, but this book was a perfect fit for me right now. The stories in this collection are very short and I could read one or two a night a feel a sense of accomplishment. Not only that, the mysteries were so entertaining and fun I felt my mood lighten with each session with Agatha’s brilliant detective!

4 stars! ( )

Poirot Investigates is an interesting collection of short stories featuring Hercule Poirot, the brilliant detective and his sidekick Hastings. I don't really like short stories but I totally enjoyed this one.

The collection consists of stories that feature a dubious insurance claim, a cheap apartment in an expensive part of London that piqued Poirot interest, a possible Egyptian curse, a missing prime minister, the case of a missing will(my favourite), and more.

I was actually able to solve one of the cases when I put my "grey cells to use" ( )