PERIL AT END HOUSE
UK publication: 1932 (Collins)
US publication: 1932 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Hercule Poirot
Genre: Novel
Plot
summary and comments: Set in the resort town of St. Loo on the south coast
of England (modeled after Torquay). Poirot and Hastings (who is again
visiting England from his home in Argentina) are staying at a hotel, and
meet a young woman, Nick Buckley, who lives above the town at End House
and has recently had several narrow escapes. Poirot thinks someone is
trying to kill her, and she too is convinced after her cousin is killed
at End House, perhaps mistaken for her. Most of the characters are friends
of Nick's, including the Jewish art dealer Jim Lazarus and a mysterious
Australian couple. The story was produced as a play in London in 1940.
::READERS REVIEWS::
"This
mystery is less a who-done-it than it is a who's-gonna-do-it. Attempts
are being made on the life of Nicky Buckley, the pert proprietress of
End House. Poirot sets out to foil the would-be murderer, but feels that
he's failed miserably when Nicky's cousin dies instead. Poirot redoubles
his efforts to save Nicky and to solve the cousin's murder, but he finds
himself in a quandary. As Poirot fruitlessly attempts to discern a motive
and discover the murderer, Nicky has another narrow escape from a poisoning
attempt. Poirot finally decides that the only way to flush the murderer
out is to fake Nicky's death. The denouement is both surprising and satisfying.
Another nice thing about the story is the glimpse into the mind of Poirot
as he sorts out the clues. In this case he does not keep his thoughts
and surmises secret from Captain Hastings, and we follow him step by step
as he winnows through the evidence to come to his conclusions. He does,
however, hold back enough to surprise the reader in the final chapter.
Now for the critique: [1] Christie either knows nothing about the behavior of bullets or expects her readers to know nothing. Her description of the near fatal shooting of Nicky is as full of holes as Nicky's hat. Poirot took no notice of the fact that there was no noise from the report of the pistol, no noise from the ricochet of the bullet, and no scuff mark on the wall. No mention was made of the bullet being deformed by striking the wall. This is not the first time Christie has betrayed such ignorance. In the short story "Dead Man's Mirror", a bullet struck a gong without denting the gong, deforming the bullet, or depositing a lead scuff on the gong. [2] Although Poirot twice stated that the simplest explanation was the best, the final explanation was not simple. It was so complex and convoluted that such a series of events could never have converged to produce Christie's result. [3] Again we see Christie borrowing from Arthur Conan Doyle. One of Sherlock Holmes' favorite maxims was "When you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Poirot paraphrases Holmes thus: "when you have eliminated other possibilities you turn to the one that is left and say - since the other is not - this must be so." I can't say Poirot improved on Holmes' proverb."
"I
think this was a good Agatha Christie book. I agree that the beginning
was a bit slow...but it got more interesting. And like always, theres
an interesting, unexpected twist at the end..."
"This
book did not easily catch my attention in the beginning. However, after
a few chapters, I finally caught on. Even though it may be rather easy
to understand, it's not one to put you on the edge of your chair. I am
not saying that it is a bad book, but I have read better ones."
"I've
only read about 11 Agatha Christie books, but this one was one of the
worst that I have read so far. I'm not saying it is bad, but it's not
that great compared to some of her other books. The middle was slow, and
it started out slow. The ending was sort of surprising, but I had figured
out who the murderer was because it was pretty obvious. If you want to
read some really good Agatha Christie books, I suggest And Then There
Were None, or The Murder of Roger Acrkoyd."
::YOUR OPINION::
