Picked this up because I realized that despite my love of
mysteries, I haven't really red much Agatha Christie. Also I'm a huge Sherlock
Holmes fan, so this seemed like it'd be up my alley.
To be honest, I was kind of confused by the selection of
stories. They don't seem to be sequential, they definitely don't start at the
very beginning, and there isn't really an order to them (besides the ending,
which I'll get to). The result was that the whole thing seemed like a Homesian
spin-off with the similar setting, partnership, and similar attitude to the
police. I'm a little disappointed because to be honest I couldn't pin down the
differences. Hastings is portrayed as a bit of an idiot next to the genius
detective who consults for the police in the same way that Watson is. I guess
Sherlock is British while Poirot is Belgian and Poirot is more OCD than
Sherlock and doesn't do drugs but can't say much beyond that.
I do think that it was a nice touch to end with a case that
Poirot would describe as a failure. (It isn't really much of a failure, the
killer isn't so much as let free as Poirot doesn't press charges.) For much of
the book he is trumpeting how smart he is so it's a good note to end on and
contrast the rest of it. It also shows how Poirot is not the police, he can
follow his own conscience above the law, an aspect that I love about Sherlock
and him.
So I don't know, I guess this compilation is for those who
either want a very light introduction to crime stores, or for those who are
Poirot fanatics and want to hear all of the small stories as well. I just don't
think it was a great fit for where I am, a Holmes nut wanting a lil something
different from Poirot. I'll see if I can find other works by Christie to flesh
this out a little.
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