This was Agatha Christie’s first full length novel and it established many of the tropes of the genre - an Edwardian country house, a dastardly murder, a large cast of characters all hiding secrets, plenty of clues and red herrings, and of course a quirky detective who calls everyone to the drawing room to solve the case.
The book is narrated by Hastings, an Army officer invalided out during the latter stage of the First World War, who is invited by an old friend called John Cavendish to convalesce at his step mother’s grand stately home in Essex. We are introduced to Cavendish’s wife Mary, his younger brother Lawrence, his mother Emily Inglethorp and her new husband Alfred, 20 years her junior. So, what first attracted to the owner of a stately home, Mr Inglethorp?
We also meet Cynthia, a young woman who is working in the dispensary of a nearby hospital, Evelyn, Mrs Inglethorp’s personal assistant, Dr Bauerstein - an eminent toxicologist who seems overly friendly with Mary, Mrs Raikes - a saucy widow farmer, and Dorcas the house maid with a knack for listening at locked doors.
The state is set for a carefully plotted murder involving poisoning by strychnine (something that Christie seems to know a worrying amount about) with everyone seemingly having a motive based around jealousy or money. It’s fortunate that Hastings’ good friend the eminent Belgian detective Hercules Poirot is living as a refugee in a nearby village, and is on hand to investigate.
Poirot himself is a most entertaining character, with what seems like (to a modern reader) an extreme case of obsessive-compulsive disorder which gives him an eye for each clue and object out of place. There is a fair amount of humour to be had in his fussy neatness and occasional manic outbursts as he sifts the clues and builds his case, leading to a satisfying denouement.
I particularly enjoyed Christie’s eye for detail, including maps of the house, the murder scene, a scrap of a burned will and another crucial document, allowing the reader to play detective with exactly the same information as Poirot himself. Some elements are a little far fetched and the obsession with poison is a little jarring, as are the instances of unfortunate racism as well as class snobbery.
On the whole though, thoroughly enjoyable and accessible for a modern reader, and the inspiration for a hundred years of detective fiction that followed.
