Poirot doesn’t impress in his first story

Fortieth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge.

I like mysteries and thrillers, but this one didn’t impress me much. It might be because Agatha was such a pioneer in this genre that a lot of other writers must have borrowed from her and so, this particular story (the first perhaps, in her famous Hercule Poirot series) appears to be far too familiar.The plot was quite simple. I was even able to guess the most likely culprits. However, as soon as Hercule starts to unravel the mysteries one by one, it becomes hard to follow how he comes up with his conclusions. The revelations were few and tantalizingly far in between and sometimes I honestly lost my patience in certain places.

Unlike Sherlock, I felt that Poirot was far too patronizing and his sidekick Hastings, unlike Watson was too dumb. But that might just be me, having read a mystery novel of this kind after a long time.

I did like the twists and all that, but there was very little to hold me back to the story. The story was quite linear and descriptions quite drab. The beautiful English countryside was not even mentioned! I hope I pick a better story by Agatha next time so that I realize her true genius. I’m open to suggestions in the comments.

Meanwhile, check out some quotes from the book.