It’s interesting to note the way that Hercule Poirot dominated Christie’s bibliography right from the very start. This short-story collection is her fourth published book and of those first four books, Hercule Poirot is the central figure in three of them. These stories were all published initially in magazines and so these stories take place prior to The Murder on the Links, Christie’s second Poirot novel, because this book finds Hastings playing the Dr. Watson to Poirot, having not yet decamped to South America as he does at the climax of Murder on the Links. Regardless, the stories here are somewhat variable as is often the case with these kinds of collections. Some of them, The Tragedy at Marsdon Manner being a prime example, are downright silly. Some of them, though, are very good. I particularly like The Adventure of the Cheap Flat, which has exactly the kind of mundane set-up I love. The story revolves around Poirot becoming curious when a very expensive flat is rented to two of Hasting’s friends for an insanely low price; yes, Christie manages to spin an intriguing story out of this and I really love the simplicity of the premise and the way the story morphs into a complicated mystery. The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb has a set-up to die for as well as it revolves around the supposed curse visited upon a group of explorers after they open a tomb. This one though suffers a bit from being compressed into a short story; this one, quite honestly, could easily have sustained an entire novel as entire characters live and die entirely off the page. And, seriously, you’re going to have a mysterious figure with the head of a jackal appear in your story and then have him just show up one time? There’s some nice quasi-supernatural mileage in this story. But even at its silliest and weakest, this collection is entertaining and fun. It’s no masterpiece and it’s still early days in Christie’s career, but it’s a quick, easy, entertaining read. 3 stars.
tl;dr – collection of short stories is variable, but never less than fun. 3 stars.