Literacy 2024: Book 6: Poirot Investigates

Book
Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie

Synopsis
A collection of short stories about Hercule Poirot’s various cases, all narrated by his friend Captain Hastings.

Pros

The variety of stories shows that Christie was a master at finding variation in a shared formula.

The stories don’t feel particularly rushed, and still manage to capture most of the characterization and personality of the full-length mysteries.

Often feels as if Christie didn’t consider the mystery aspect much of a challenge, and she was far more interested in the personalities of Poirot and Hastings.

No one would mistake this for a feminist work, but it does subtly reinforce the intelligence and capabilities of women while still staying mostly within its boundaries as classist, sexist, early 20th century England.

I always like it when Christie introduces elements of Egyptology and ancient Egyptian history into her stories, because it’s clear she dearly loves the subject.

There’s a delightful couple of afterwards written by Christie, talking about her love/hate relationship with Poirot.

Cons

Jarringly racist, in particular against the Chinese.

The gimmick doesn’t always work; a couple of the stories are entirely in the form of Poirot telling Hastings a story that had happened years previously, and the lack of immediacy makes it difficult to follow.

Some of the stories end abruptly.

Verdict
Light and mostly fun, especially good for establishing Poirot as a long-running character, with more presence than the full novel-length mysteries.

Side Note
My modest goal was to read 12 books this year, and I’m clearly not going to make it. It’s not been a great year, and maybe reading challenges are dumb?