Review: Very like Hercule Poirot but in this story at least a little more human
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 14, 2014
In a review of a companion story, I've described some of the main similarities between the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and the French detective (and perhaps inspiration for the Poirot character) Jules Poiret. In this short story Poiret and his friend Harry Haven are faced with the unexpected murder of a personal friend and former love interest of Poiret's. This adds a more human emotional dimension to the character that is not very evident in the other two stories (available on Amazon) and is mostly lacking in Agatha Christie's stories too. It accounts for the additional star that I have given this story. Poiret's unusual emotional upset and the fact that few of the suspects seemed to have actually liked the victim probably explains why at the end he seems to take some delight in showing up the various failings and shortcomings of several of these suspects before proclaiming the innocence of most of them in the murder and fastening the guilt on the actual perpetrator.