First published
1924, a year after The Murder on the Links, but not necessarily set chronologically after it, since there's no mention of Hastings being in love or getting married or going to South America. All the stories had previously appeared in the magazine The Sketch, a society magazine which also included short stories and printed many by Christie.
Good title?
Does what it says on the tin
The plot(s) Eleven short stories in which Poirot, as advertised, investigates cases from a jewel robbery to an abducted Prime Minister (and most mysteriously of all, a suspiciously cheap London flat) and Hastings bumbles along in his wake, misunderstanding things and barking up the wrong tree.
The little Belgian has by now acquired a degree of celebrity in London:
"Oui, my friend, it is true - I am become the mode, the dernier cri! One says to another: 'Comment? You have lost your gold pencil-case? You must go to the little Belgian. He is too marvellous! Everyone goes!"
Not only has Poirot become a "pet society detective", his renown is such that even the British government calls him in to investigate when the Prime Minister is kidnapped. Hard to imagine that happening today. (I mean, who'd want Boris?)
All the familiar elements are here; the gentle ridicule directed at Hastings brain power or the lack of it:
"Poirot," I said. "Am I quite demented?"
"No, mon ami, but you are, as always, in a mental fog."
and the mystery-solving brilliance of Poirot's little grey cells. Indeed, in The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge, Poirot solves the whole thing from his sickbed, having dispatched Hastings to the scene to gather information. Other stories, though, take him further afield.
The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb allows Agatha an early opportunity to exercise her interest in Egyptology, and also offers the enchanting spectacle of Poirot on a camel:
'He started by groans and lamentations and ended by shrieks, gesticulations and invocations to the Virgin Mary and every saint in the calendar. In the end, he descended ignominiously and finished the journey on a diminutive donkey.'
Interestingly, in a story called The Disappearance of Mr Davenheim, Christie once again foreshadows her own much-talked about "disappearance" a couple of years hence in 1926, with Poirot listing three types of disappearance, of which the second is "the much abused 'loss of memory' case - rare, but occasionally genuine". A couple of books earlier, The Secret Adversary also included such a case.
Acceptable in the 20s? Dodgy references to “Chinamen" in the first story (complete with pigtails and embroidered gowns), reference to superstitious "natives" in the Egypt one.
Verdict Poirot Investigates is Christie's fourth published book, the third to feature Poirot and Hastings, and the first short story collection. I generally prefer her full length novels - the short story form doesn't really give space for the development of plot and character, presenting instead a puzzle to be solved. (Some people view all Christie's work like that, but those people are wrong.)
That said, I liked the final story, The Case of the Missing Will, although it certainly fits into this "pure puzzle" category and although the story is slight and the title uninspired. In this story a young woman of intelligence and independence (Hastings, naturally, remarks that "I am not a great admirer of the so-called New Woman myself") employs Poirot to solve a conundrum regarding her uncle's will.
Worth a read, nevertheless, and I'll end with a favourite, quintessentially Poirot quote which I really need to find a way to work into my daily life.
"Strange." [Poirot murmured.] "We all have the little grey cells. And so few of us know how to use them."
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