Hi Reader Friends!
I’m going to have a meeting with myself this month and try to set out some sort of posting schedule. We’ll see how well that goes. School started this past week and it was basically get up, go to work, come home, and be a zombie until bed. My only hope is that I will get back into the rhythm of teaching life sooner rather that later!
Up today, we have Poirot Investigates, Agatha Christie’s first set of 11 short stories featuring Hercule Poirot, published in 1924–in between The Murder on the Links and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. While ultimately I do prefer Christie’s novels, her short stories are enjoyable and perfect if you want to get a quick dose of mystery. I have a large omnibus containing all of the Poirot short stories (shown) below and to help myself keep track, in the table of contents I wrote “PI” next to each short story title that appears in Poirot Investigates. This is primarily because the stories were not laid out in order…which I found annoying but oh well! I read these stories. both from the physical book and over audiobook (also shown below). Also yes, I still have an Audible subscription…my plan is to switch to Libro.fm before the year is over.
Overall, I really liked reading these stories, but unfortunately I had watched most of the David Suchet Poirot series and couldn’t help but compare the stories to the on-screen versions. Weirdly, I think the show made the stories better, but that could be because David Suchet’s portrayal of Hercule Poirot is actually perfect. I’m a huge fan and currently lamenting the fact that series 7 and 8 of the show is absent from BritBox and Acorn. WHY?!? Anyways, back to the stories. None of the stories need to be read in a particular order, and it is also not required to read all of the stories in the collection. This isn’t like more modern short story collections that tend to have interwoven storylines, characters, and themes.
Below is my ranking of these 11 stories with #1 being my favorite and #11 being my least favorite! Obviously, this is based on my opinion only. Since which stories belong to which collection is unclear in my omnibus, I used the info page for Poirot Investigates found on the official Agatha Christie website.
My Ranking of the Short Stories in Poirot Investigates:
#1: The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb
#2: The Adventure of the “Western Star”
#3: The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim
#4: The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge
#5: The Case of the Missing Will
#6: The Adventure of the Cheap Flat
#7: The Kidnapped Prime Minister
#8: The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman
#9: The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor
#10: The Million Dollar Bond Robbery
#11: The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan
I’m looking forward to reading more Poirot short stories in the future! Until then, be on the lookout for more Christie reviews…I have a lot on the docket. š
Have a great Saturday Reader Friends!
The Bookish Bird 