My first anthology of the year, and my first Christie or Poirot anthology. It also marks the start of a run of four anthologies in my reading list. Anthologies are a difficult thing to get right. Apart from the need to manage the theme of the anthology, there's nearly always a couple of weaker stories in the mix. Somehow a weaker story in an anthology is that much more noticeable than a weaker chapter in a novel. This collection, Poirot Investigates, represents the first collection of Christie's Hercule Poirot short stories. Initially published in the UK with only eleven stories, I read an ebook of the US edition which came with an extra three stories.Opening with The Adventure of the "Western Star" and we're straight into the first Poirot story I already know from TV. Poirot has become fashionable. A disappointing ending and some casual 'chink' racism aside, it's a good opening story. Short stories don't give Christie as much scope to build a complex narrative, and many of these stories are simpler to fathom out once you assume that the obvious suspect is innocent (after all what would be the point of Poirot if he agreed with everybody else). The Adventure of the Cheap Flat is a clever little story, and also our first introduction to the venerable Inspector Japp. Having decided she likes Japp he appears again for no real reason in The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge – these top policemen seem to get assigned well our of their jurisdiction.The sadly weaker stories providing some padding included The Tragedy at Marson Manor which is a very simple, and generally too long, story about a suicide; The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb seemed unusually confused; and The Kidnapped Prime Minister and The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman continue to play on the hackneyed "don't trust the foreigner" line.Some of the stand-out stories for me were The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan (another one I'm sure I'd already seen on TV), and The Disappearance of Mr Davenheim – a classic Poirot vs. Japp bet where Poirot has to solve the case with only his little grey cells and without leaving his apartment. The two ending stories would both have been perfect finishes – The Case of the Missing Will is a game of clever hide and seek with no crime to solve to finish the UK edition, and the final The Chocolate Box is especially poignant as it highlights Poirot's failure, reminding us that under that smug exterior that constantly loves to rub Hastings' and the Police's noses in their shortcomings, he is also human like the rest of us.
مجموعة قصص بوليسية بطلها المحقق بوارو ، تشبه في تكوينها كثيرا شيرلوك هولمز. محقق عبقري يسكن في إحدي البيوت بلندن ولديه ال "سنيد" أو صديق المحقق الذي يساعده في كثير من القضايا ، بينما صاحبة المنزل تعني بهم من آن لآخر وتخبره بقدوم أحدهم ليستشيره في جريمة قتل أو سرقة. ما علينا...المهم أن المحقق بوارو هنا كان شديد الغرور والاعتداد بنفسه ، وكثير السخرية والاستختفاف بصديقه "هستنجز" علي عكس هولمز ، وقد كان بوارو نسخة ذكرية من الآنسة ماربل (إحدي شخصيات أجاثا كريستي المشهورة) في طريقة البحث عن الحقيقة. إذ أنه كان - بعد أن تعرض عليه قضية ما - يسأل سؤالين أو ثلاثة ، ثم تسري الأحداث كما قدرت لها الكاتبة أن تسري ، وقد تتطور أو تتعقد وأبقي أنا في حيرة من أمري لا أعرف كيف سيحل بوارو هذه العقدة ، وكثيرا ما ألحق الحيرة بالحنق عليه لأنه قلما يبدي أي ردة فعل تجاه هذه التطورات ، وقبل نهاية القصة بصفحة أو اثنتان أجد بوارو قادما من لا مكان ل "ينحشر" وسط الأحداث ، وفجأة ومن دون مقدمات أجده قد ظهر بالحل الكامل المكمل الذي لا يقبل النقاش ، بل وقد قدمه ملفوفا في قصة مقنعة جديدة نوعا علي مسامعي ، وقبل أن أتبادر بالسؤال: كيف عرف كل ذلك؟ أكاد أتخيل أجاثا كريستي تنظر لي شزرا وكأن الإجابة واضحة وضوح الشمس متمثلة في حقيقة كون بوارو محققا ، والمحقق عالم بكل شئ حتي أسرار الفنانة اكس وما تخفيه في درج الكومود!الحقيقة أن أول تعليق أطلقته علي هذا الكتاب كان: الراجل ده شكله قرا الكتاب قبل ما يبقي فيه!بعض القصص كانت مثيرة ولكن أطفأها بوارو بأسلوبه المنفر.
Watching the many episodes of the TV adaptation of Poirot mysteries I was puzzled to see “based on a story by Agatha Christie” in the credits of many of them. I had read all of Agatha Christie’s novels and these stories were definitely not among them.Now I know where they came from. Poirot Investigated, which I borrowed from the library thinking it was a novel, turns out to be a book of short stories and I hadn’t read it so I was in for a treat. The mystery stories originally appeared in a magazine in the early 1920s. The stories are as varied as the novels. There’s a locked room jewel robbery in a grand hotel in the summer resort of Brighton. Timing is everything. There's a movie star with a diamond of unique and unparalleled beauty. Or is it? There's a delightful tale in which Poirot helps a potential heiress find a will hidden in her uncle's old house. She has one year to find it or she inherits nothing.One of my favorites in this collection is “The Kidnapped Prime Minister,” published in 1923, in which a major peace conference is jeopardized by the disappearance of the prime minister. Poirot traces him from Downing Street through a series of adventures, including a mysterious shooting.Another unusual story is “The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge,” in which Poirot is in bed with the flu and Hastings and Japp have to solve the mystery, which has an interesting twist, by reporting back to the ailing detective.And of course there’s the famous mystery about a box of chocolates, in which Poirot relates a story about his days as a Belgian police detective.There are 14 mysteries in all and Christie has managed in short story form to keep us guessing just as she does in her novels. All of the stories are told by Captain Hastings, a voice I particularly enjoy. His bumbling, continual falling in love, and unwitting assistance to the great detective are all delightful.2011 No 121
—Mary Ronan Drew
As Investigações de Poirot é uma colectânea de 11 historias, 11 mistérios resolvidos graças às células cinzentas do peculiar Monsieur Poirot.Desde o desaparecimento do primeiro ministro britânico ao homicidio de um conde italiano, estas pequenas histórias, contadas do ponto de vista do fiel amigo de Poirot, Hastings, traz a luz a capacidade de dedução de Poirot, bem como a sua dinâmica com o amigo.Confesso que sempre fui fã de Poirot, de todas as suas excentricidades e peculariedades, muitas vezes levada a acabo para não o levarem tão a sério...e bem, já sabia que ele tem muita tendência para ser arrogante (e vá, na maioria das vezes com razão), mas achei que a sua arrogância ainda era maior neste livro, especialmente em relação a Hastings.Mas não deixa ser sempre interessante ler as aventuras de Poirot, embora por serem bastante curtas, havia bastante manobra para aprofundar mais.
—Joana
Meh. I was really quite surprised to find that I did not enjoy these stories one bit. For some reason Poirot just does not work for me in short story form. Christie leaves something to be desired in these vignettes. They are of course authentic Poirot and i believe him in the situations presented, but the charm usually found in her novels is lacking here. There are fewer moments where you find yourself in awe of Poirot, perhaps because we as readers are never offered the opportunity to play detective ourselves. The clues are concealed and rather than try to guess at Poirot's methods we have to guess at his actions as well. Where at least his actions and suspicions are accesible in the novels, we are completely blind to them in nearly every story of this collection.
—Lauren
