Poirot Investigates

• Read: 8 May 2026 - 11 May 2026

• Author: Agatha Christie

• Year: 1924

• Pages: 287

• Remarks: Hercule Poirot Series Book 3

• Synopsis:

  • The renowned Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and his loyal companion Captain Hastings tackled a diverse series of perplexing mysteries across England and abroad. Throughout their investigations, the brilliant sleuth relied on his little grey cells to unravel highly complex cases, which ranged from audacious jewellery thefts and baffling disappearances to sinister murders and political kidnappings. Even when faced with seemingly impossible crimes and devious adversaries, the dynamic duo consistently uncovered the hidden truth to ensure that justice prevailed.

[11 May 2026] ‘Poirot Investigates’ (1924), by Agatha Christie.

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Reading Background:

• Took me only a few days to finish this book, even though I spent a lot time over the last few days watching IndyCar races and playing F1 25 over the weekend.

• Continuing on from 'The Murder on the Links', I was initially thinking that I would take a break reluctantly from the Hercule Poirot Series to continue some other book series after finishing this book. However, I have changed my mind now. Will be moving on to another series happily! 

What I enjoyed about the book:

• The short stories compiled in this book are bite-sized. 

• The different methods that Poirot used in each of the short stories to solve the crimes were interesting. 

What I found less enjoyable about the book:

• The series of bland and soulless stories that followed the same blueprint and with revelations requiring huge logical leaps. 

  • Each of the stories essentially followed the same formula - some crime took place, Poirot was enlisted to help, Poirot interviewed the few individuals involved in the case, Poirot's questions or actions seemed illogical and he was mocked by Captain Hastings or Inspector Japp or whoever, lots of misdirections, then Poirot solved the case by identifying the criminal who seemed the least plausible one at the start.

  • It didn't help that the stories felt absolutely mechanical. I didn't get to learn more about Poirot as an individual, or the friendship between Poirot and Hastings, etc, all that kind of character development stuff.

  • One couldn't really be an armchair detective too, because the revelations in many of the short stories required such big leaps of logic or highly specific and extreme deductions. After a while, rather than being positively impressed, one just start to feel frustrated with lots of eye-rolling (or at least for me).  

  • Three-quarter of my way through the book, I just got so sick of the stories, that I skipped the last few! 

My overall thoughts:

• I confess that I didn't finish the book. There were 11 short stories in total, and I only finished 8, and even then I mostly skimmed through and asked Gemini for a short summary of them. 

• It's not that they were totally unenjoyable. I got through the first few fine, found the bite-size mini-stories easily digestible, and delighted in how Poirot used different methods to solve the crimes. However, after a while, it started to get more and more repetitive, mainly because they all followed a certain mystery crime blueprint. Furthermore, as the stories were short, the pages were dedicated to presenting the case, mystery, suspects, and revelation, that none contributed to character development. As they felt more and more mechanical, I gradually lost interest in the book completely. Was so happy to finally decide to skip the rest of this book and move on to another. 

• This book left a slightly unpleasant taste, and almost ruined the positive impression I had from the Hercule Poirot Series from the first 2 books. To be fair, the fault lies in compiling the short stories that were meant for a magazine column and to be read individually weeks apart, into a full book that forces readers to "binge-read" the stories all at once which induces fatigue.

• Shall move on to another series for the time being, and revisit Poirot when this undesirable aftertaste has faded.

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• Story 1: The Adventure Of The Western Star

  • Mary Marvell, a famous American film star, visited Poirot. She had received threatening letters demanding she return her magnificent diamond, the Western Star, to where it came from. Her husband, Gregory Rolf, had bought it 3 years prior. She planned to visit Lord and Lady Yardly at Yardly Chase. Lady Yardly owned the twin diamond, the Star of the East. Poirot advised Mary to leave the diamond with him, but she refused. Lady Yardly also visited Poirot, revealing she had received similar blackmail letters. Poirot and Hastings visited Yardly Chase. While there, the lights went out, Lady Yardly was attacked, and her diamond was stolen, supposedly by a Chinese man. The next day, Mary Marvell's diamond was stolen from her hotel by a man resembling her husband. Poirot soon deduced that there was only 1 diamond, originally belonging to the Yardlys. Gregory Rolf had stolen it 3 years ago, blackmailed Lady Yardly into substituting a paste replica, and then orchestrated the theft of his own Western Star to collect 50,000 pounds in insurance. Poirot forced Rolf to return the diamond to Lord Yardly and covered up the scandal.

• Story 2: The Tragedy At Marsdon Manor

  • An insurance company asked Poirot to investigate the death of Mr Maltravers, who had insured his life for 50,000 pounds for his young wife's benefit shortly before his death. He was found dead in his grounds with a rook rifle nearby, and the local doctor diagnosed an internal haemorrhage due to a gastric ulcer, noting blood on his lips. Poirot and Hastings visited the widow, who claimed her husband had a premonition of death. They encountered Captain Black, a young man who had visited the house on Tuesday, the day before the death. Through a word-association test, Poirot discovered that Black had told a story at dinner about a man in East Africa who committed suicide by shooting himself through the roof of his mouth with a rook rifle, which left no external marks except blood on the lips. Poirot arranged a charade using an actor to pose as the ghost of Mr Maltravers. Terrified, Mrs Maltravers confessed that she had used Black's story as inspiration. She had playfully put the rifle in her husband's mouth to see how it worked and then pulled the trigger herself to collect the insurance money.

• Story 3: The Adventure Of The Cheap Flat

  • Hastings and Poirot heard from friends about a young couple, Mr and Mrs Robinson, who rented a magnificent flat in Knightsbridge for a suspiciously cheap price of 80 pounds a year, while other applicants were turned away. Poirot discovered that the real rent was 350 pounds. Intrigued, he rented another flat in the same building. Poirot and Hastings broke into the Robinsons' flat via the coal-lift at night. They intercepted a man who was trying to assassinate the occupants. Poirot deduced that the cheap flat was a trap set by Elsa Hardt, an international spy who had stolen American naval plans and was fleeing an assassin after her associate Luigi Valdarno was murdered. She and her accomplice rented the flat under the common name Robinson and then sublet it cheaply so that another Mrs Robinson would move in and become the target for the assassins. Poirot captured the assassin and then took the police to St John's Wood to arrest the real spies, recovering the stolen documents hidden inside a velvet cat.

• Story 4: The Mystery Of Hunter's Lodge

  • Poirot was ill with influenza, so Hastings travelled to Derbyshire alone to assist Mr Roger Havering, whose uncle, Harrington Pace, had been murdered. Pace was shot in the gun-room of Hunter's Lodge by a mysterious bearded man who escaped through the window. Hastings investigated alongside Inspector Japp. Mrs Havering and the new housekeeper, Mrs Middleton, provided each other's alibis, stating they were together in the hall when the shot was fired. The murder weapon, 1 of Havering's revolvers, was later found discarded in Ealing, London. Hastings reported the details to Poirot via telegraph. Poirot immediately realised that the housekeeper, Mrs Middleton, was entirely fictitious. Mrs Havering, a former actress, had played both roles, disguising herself as the middle-aged housekeeper. Roger Havering had taken the other revolver to London to establish a false trail, while his wife shot her uncle to inherit his fortune. Although Poirot solved the case, Japp lacked the evidence to convict them. However, the murderers were later killed in an aeroplane crash, satisfying Poirot's sense of justice.

• Story 5: The Million Dollar Bond Robbery

  • Miss Esmee Farquhar consulted Poirot regarding her fiance, Philip Ridgeway, who was in charge of transporting 1,000,000 dollars in Liberty Bonds to New York for the London and Scottish Bank. The bonds were secured in a portmanteau with a special lock, but upon arrival in New York, the trunk was found forced open and the bonds missing. The bonds were sold in New York within half an hour of the ship docking. Poirot interviewed the bank's joint managers, Mr Vavasour and Mr Shaw, learning that Mr Shaw had ordered the lock and had been off sick with bronchitis. Poirot deduced the incredibly simple truth: the bonds were never on the ship. Mr Shaw had created a duplicate package, mailed the real bonds to New York on a faster ship, the Gigantic, and had a confederate on the Olympia break into Ridgeway's trunk to discard the dummy package and fake the robbery.

• Story 6: The Adventure Of The Egyptian Tomb

  • Lady Willard consulted Poirot after a series of deaths associated with the excavation of the tomb of King Men-her-Ra. Her husband, Sir John Willard, died of heart failure, his financier Mr Bleibner died of blood poisoning, and Bleibner's nephew shot himself in New York. Lady Willard feared for her son, Sir Guy, who had continued the excavation. Poirot and Hastings travelled to Egypt. Upon arrival, they learned that another team member, Mr Schneider, had died of tetanus. Poirot investigated the camp and spoke to Dr Ames and Mr Harper. That night, an apparition of the jackal-headed god Anubis appeared. Poirot pretended to drink a cup of camomile tea brought by a servant and feigned a seizure. When Dr Ames tried to intervene, Poirot revealed he had preserved the poisoned tea for analysis. Realising he was caught, Dr Ames swallowed a lethal capsule. Poirot explained that Dr Ames had murdered Bleibner to inherit his fortune, as the nephew had jokingly made a will leaving everything to the doctor. Ames then faked the curse, poisoning Schneider and attempting to poison Poirot to maintain the illusion of a supernatural killer.

• Story 7: The Jewel Robbery At The Grand Metropolitan

  • While staying at a hotel in Brighton, Poirot and Hastings met a wealthy stockbroker, Mr Opalsen, and his wife, who owned a famous pearl necklace. One evening, Mrs Opalsen discovered her pearls had been stolen from a drawer in her room. Her maid, Celestine, and the hotel chambermaid blamed each other. The police searched the room and found a pearl necklace hidden in the maid's mattress, arresting Celestine. Poirot, however, realised the found necklace was a fake. He deduced that the chambermaid and the valet next door had collaborated. The chambermaid had slipped the jewel case to the valet in the adjoining room, who opened it with a duplicate key, extracted the real pearls, and passed the case back. Poirot proved this by noting the chambermaid used French chalk to make the drawer slide silently, and the valet left a square mark on a dusty table in the empty room. Poirot travelled to London, identified the thieves through fingerprint analysis, and recovered the real pearls.

• Story 8: The Kidnapped Prime Minister

  • During a critical period of the war, the British Prime Minister, David MacAdam, was kidnapped in France while en route to a vital Allied Conference in Versailles. His car was hijacked, and a bogus car took its place. The real car was found with the driver and aide-de-camp gagged. Prior to this, an assassination attempt was made on the Prime Minister in England, which resulted in a minor cheek wound. Poirot investigated and deduced that the kidnapping actually took place in England, not France. The Prime Minister's multilingual secretary, Captain Daniels, had chloroformed him, and they were switched with a disguised substitute who travelled to France. The substitute then vanished, creating a false trail. Poirot located the real Prime Minister in a house in Hampstead, held by German agents posing as Daniels's family. Thanks to Poirot's deductions, the Prime Minister was rescued and flown to the conference just in time.

• Story 9: The Disappearance Of Mr Davenheim

  • Inspector Japp challenged Poirot to solve the disappearance of a wealthy banker, Mr Davenheim, without leaving his chair. Davenheim had walked out of his house to post letters on Saturday and never returned. His safe was robbed, and a rival named Lowen, who was visiting that evening, was suspected. Billy Kellett, a known thief, was arrested after pawning Davenheim's ring, claiming he saw a man throw it over a hedge. Poirot considered the facts: Davenheim's passion for acquiring portable wealth, his purported trip to Buenos Aires the previous year, and the fact that he and his wife had slept in separate rooms for 6 months. Poirot deduced that Davenheim had orchestrated his own disappearance to escape the imminent collapse of his bank. Davenheim had created the persona of Billy Kellett months beforehand. On the day he vanished, he robbed his own safe, disguised himself as a tramp, threw away his ring to be found by himself, and got arrested on purpose to hide securely in a prison cell at Bow Street.

• Story 10: The Adventure Of The Italian Nobleman

  • Dr Hawker and Poirot were alerted when Count Foscatini telephoned for help, crying out that he had been attacked. They rushed to his flat in Regent's Court and found him dead, his head crushed by a marble statue. The table was set for 3, with food consumed and black coffee served. Foscatini's valet, Graves, claimed his master had been blackmailed by an Italian named Ascanio, who had dined there that evening. Ascanio was arrested but later released because the Italian Ambassador provided an alibi. Ascanio admitted to Poirot that he had visited Foscatini the morning before to pay him off for blackmail materials but had not returned. Poirot deduced that the valet, Graves, was the murderer. Graves had killed his master before the supposed dinner, then ordered food for 3, ate it all himself, dirtied the plates, poured coffee, and faked the phone call to the doctor at 8:47 to establish an alibi for himself while creating the illusion of dinner guests.

• Story 11: The Case Of The Missing Will

  • Miss Violet Marsh consulted Poirot regarding the will of her late Uncle Andrew. He had left a strange will challenging her to prove her wits within 1 year to inherit his fortune, otherwise it would go to charity. Her uncle, who disapproved of her higher education, had apparently hidden a secret will. Poirot and Hastings searched the house, finding a hidden cavity in the wall built by workmen 2 years prior, but it contained only a charred piece of paper. Initially defeated, Poirot realised his mistake on the train ride home. They rushed back to the manor, and Poirot examined the dirty envelope tied to the key of the uncle's desk. Heating the envelope over a fire, Poirot revealed a will written in disappearing ink on the inside surface. The uncle had tricked his servants into signing the paper, then got a confectioner and his wife to sign as actual witnesses to his hidden will. Miss Marsh successfully inherited her fortune because she used her education and wits to hire an expert.