Comment

Feb 27, 2013Liber_vermis rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
This is Christie's first Poirot story where the detective's colleague is Lieutenant Hastings (later promoted to Captain). The story has a startling opening with Hastings participating in aversion therapy for shell-shock (now known as PTSD) in the penultimate year of World War 1. Poirot appears in an English village leading a group of Belgian war refugees. The cinematography is memorable for its portrayal of the contrasts between invalided soldiers and the landed aristocracy; horse-drawn vehicles and horseless carriages; and a murder in a country mansion against the slaughter on the Western Front. The plot features the usual large cast of suspects and a surprise twist ending with special appeal to chemists and pharmacists.