Book Club

Poirot Stories

Poirot is Agatha Christie's most famous and popular detective.  No doubt he would agree that he deserves that accolade!

Here is the place to discuss all of his stories in detail with other fans.  The most insightful comments will be added to the Stories pages.  But remember to beware spoilers!

If you can't find your favourite Poirot story here, don't worry - we'll be adding them all soon.

Warning: These discussions may contain spoilers!

Appointment with Death

Jemma 05 Sep 09 at 11:13 a.m. GMT

Set in the Middle East, Appointment with Death allowed Christie to indulge her love of the exotic. Strong female characters are at the root of the story. The overbearing Lady Westholme was based on a woman who Christie had once met in the Middle East. Despite this the public identified her as Nancy Astor, Britain's most famous MP. Sarah King also demonstrates a strong female role - being a Doctor at a time when few women were. Is this sense of feminism seen elsewhere in Christie's work?

In this novel we see hints of Christie's understanding of mental illness. The character of Ginny is portrayed as vulnerable and in need of help and support. Could this be a reference to Christie's own experience when she suffered a breakdown? It certainly shows her awareness of changing attitudes to humour nature.

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Tommy_A_Jones 01 Oct 09 at 2:23 p.m. GMT

I really enjoyed this book which I was surprised about as I prefer the Books where Poirot stays in England although I did like Murder On The Orient Express I bought the DVD bafter reading this one. It would have beden nice though if the Murderers past crime had been totally explained.

Puffinjill 01 Oct 09 at 7:12 p.m. GMT

I love this book!! I love the atmosphere, the setting (I so want to go to Petra!) and (most of) the characters. It's Poirot at his most precise, working from personal statements not his own personal experience. The way he sifts through all the differing information to find the truth is fabulous. It's very similar to Five Little Pigs in that respect, and I love that too.

One stightly jarring note is AC representation of Ginny. I know she herself had personal experience of breakdown, but I find it rather superficial, almost as if she was afraid to show mental problems in any more detail. Perhaps I'm being harsh; I read Christie for escapism and a fantastic story and don't expect gritty realism. 

I agree, tommy, I would love to know what had happened in the past!

Read more about this story: Appointment With Death

Tommy_A_Jones 02 Oct 09 at 4:41 p.m. GMT

Puffinjill, That is exactly why I read Christie, for nthe escapism, If I want gritty realism there is alot to choose from both on TV and in Books although I don't read those books, I read Authors that vare just as Cozy as Christie but most are Modern Authos; Hazel Hoilt, Betty Rowlands, etc. If this book has a down side I would have loved to have had the Female Doctor and the Male Psychiatrist working together as the sleuths and have the book without Poirot like The Moving Finger didn't need Miss Marple but that is just a very minor point and as the book is it produced the question of how the Doctor knew about the solution to Murder On The Orient Excpress (Have you read the interesting blog about it?)  

Puffinjill 02 Oct 09 at 7:12 p.m. GMT

No, I haven't read that. Is it on this site?

I quite agree about The Moving Finger not nesseccarily needing Miss Marple (as I think Jerry Burton May have got there in the end...possibly!) but I think Appointment with Death needs Poirot. I love the style of the book, the way Poirot uses his knowledge of people and psychology to piece together the strands of evidence. As much as I love the characters of Sarah King and Dr Gerrard, I don't think it would have worked as well having them do this.

Cosy is good and so is realism. Different things for different moods or stages in ones life. I was ill for a few years and solely read and reread all my Christies as I found them comfortable and reliable. Now, I enjoy something with a little more bite at times (huge Ian Rankin fan too) but still find an awful lot of enjoyment and engagement with my Christies. Its like coming home...

Tommy_A_Jones 03 Oct 09 at 3:25 p.m. GMT

Yes The Blog is on the site also is an interesting piece by someone talking about the 'Poirot and 'Marple' series's making really good suggestions of what the Makers should do, I should take a look.

I haven't read the Ian Rankin Books although my brother gave me a book with some in for christmas 1 year but I do watch 'Rebus'

I thought Jerry Burton is a Great Character although I dissagree with you about Sarah King and Dr Gerrard (Thankyou for reminding me of his name) AC obviously thought they were up to it as Poirot is not in the Play.

I am sorry you were ill I hope you are fully recovered now. Afew years ago My Mum read to me The Mysterious Mr Quinn (except for the Final Chapter ) and a Simon Brett Book when I was in Hospital

I went away from AC for a while and read Betty Rowlands, Dorothy Simpson and Simon Brett Books but like you came back To AC now I alternate between AC and others. 

Puffinjill 03 Oct 09 at 7:13 p.m. GMT

I tend to do that too. But I always return to AC time and again.

3rdGirl 03 Oct 09 at 11:20 p.m. GMT

I absolutley loved this book. It's one of my favourites and I thought that Lady Westholme was absolutely vile.  She was a  villain that you loved to hate and were really happy was murdered. Isn't that terrible? Petra was the other 'character' here and AC really made the most of the exotic locale and isolation of everyone. Pure escapeism.

Puffinjill 04 Oct 09 at 8:25 a.m. GMT

Terrible but very human, 3rdGirl!! And with fiction we can all wish those sort of characters dead and cheer if it happens. Aren't we lovely!!

Yes, you are right. Petra was the extra character in the novel. Placing all these people in such an alien landscape adds to the tension and provides a wonderful contrast between the beauty of the surroundings and the hate festering away. I simply think it's a wonderful book.

Read more about this story: Appointment With Death

Lone_Wolf 16 Oct 09 at 4:24 p.m. GMT

I usually dislike it when the victims are too unlikable, but I liked Appointment with Death. Actually, my main motivation for reading more was wanting to know what will happen to the Boynton family, not the identity of the murderer.  

Puffinjill 16 Oct 09 at 6:52 p.m. GMT

If Mrs Boynton had been an unlikeable character terrorizing and unlikeable character, then I doubt ANYONE would care who did it or why. But because the rest of the Boyntons are so sympathetically written, their plight makes the reader want to know. So it was the same for me, Lone Wolf, although I thought Mrs Boynton got her just desserts, I was really didn't want to find another Boynton guilty.

misskeats 20 Oct 09 at 2:47 a.m. GMT

I loved this story! I just reread it for the second time (the first time I was a teenager and I will just say it was quite a while ago when I read it). This is a good story. I will say I agree with Tommy that it was disappointing that you didn't find out about the person's previous crimes.

TheCandyDetective 08 Nov 09 at 7:27 p.m. GMT

Personally, I thought this one was a bit off compared to other AC books. Not to say I didn't like it--I did. I wish the culprit's (trying to avoid spoilers) other crime had been more explained, as has been said before, but I do partiuclarly love the ending. Poirot was brilliant throughout theentire thing, exacting and precise and using the little grey cells to unravel the liiiees...

Ginny's mentality adding an interesting element. As has also been said before, I read AC for an escape, for the mystery--but I can't complain, because I think this added even more to it.

Attica76 04 Jan 10 at 4:23 p.m. GMT

This is one of the novels where I'm glad that the victim was killed. I imagined what life with such a person must have been like...awful, awful!

I also agree it's a pity we didn't find out what Lady Westholme had been in jail for... but I don't think it was murder. Probably theft or something like that. 

sjoerdbol 06 Jan 10 at 6:54 a.m. GMT

Yes, it probably wasnt murder, but it is a shame that such an important clue wasnt told, but it is the best for everyone that she dies.

Tommy_A_Jones 06 Jan 10 at 1:34 p.m. GMT

At the start of the Ustinov version Mrs Boynton has something on Jefferson Cope who has clearly don Criminality which he wasn't punished for and he has an accompliced I like to think Lady Westholme is the Accomplice ass that would solve the riddle.

MissQuin 02 Feb 10 at 3:37 p.m. GMT

This one was quite good. There was a real tension with the Boynton family, but I found the solution really obvious. It seemed so much like one of her family were driven to murder, that it couldn't be one of them!

I liked Ginny's characater. She was so happy after her mother had died, she needed to be set free. I liked her happy ending. I think her and the doctor were well matched.

The TV adaptaion was for me at times unbearable and disapointing.

I would also have liked to know more about Mrs Boynton. Did she have an unhappy childhood? etc.. In the Suchet TV version she was even more warped, which just wasnt needed. Isnt it bad enough her grown up children were isolated prisoners?

anonymoose_au 02 Jul 10 at 2:06 a.m. GMT

I finished reading this one just recently and it was so gripping I couldn't put it down! Mrs. Boynton sounds like the thing of nightmares! You shudder to think what sort of pyschological torture she inflicted on her stepchildren and own child. And the image of her sitting in her chair like a fat idol malovently gazing on the camp, eek.

The Epilogue was really nice too, a really happy ending for all involved.

After reading it I watched the Ustinov version which I thought was pretty faithful (although they did turn Jefferson Cope into a total sleazebag and the Boynton children didn't seem to be pyschologically imprisoned by Mrs. Boynton).

I also saw the Suchet version before reading the book, which means I wasn't spoiled at all! I'm shocked they changed the plot so completely for that, particuarly since the book itself was so good and the characters compelling.

xrysoula 02 Jul 10 at 4:06 p.m. GMT

Well it seems I was the only one who didn 't like this book-I read and read, just to get it over with, and at the end I felt sorry for the time and money I had spent on it.The characters seemed to me so unreal and the whole story so unconvincing.OK, there might be monstrous and tyranical mothers, but, with all the children being young and healthy, WHY was it so impossible for even one of them to break free?And HOW could any woman in her right mind fall so suddenly in love with a neurotic?Then the old witch dies and, miraculously, everything falls into place:THe psychological problems vanish, the weak become strong and succesful, everyone finds their mate and they all live happily ever after...spare me, please.

Puffinjill 03 Jul 10 at 7:41 a.m. GMT

OK, OK, I can see you found this a bit trite and, obviously, not to your taste. But, ignoring the happy endings and the other bits that irked you so, can't you appreciate the brilliant way in which Poirot arrived at his solution? I think his reasoning and his logic is brilliant. He is away from the scene of the murder, wasn't even there when it occured and yet, by the use of talking to them all, he can identify the truth and the lies, and see what must have happened. Many a time Poirot tells us conversation is a dangerous thing because everyone gives themselves away and here, by comparing the characters narratives, he shows us how true that is.

MissQuin 03 Jul 10 at 8:48 a.m. GMT

xrysoula

 HOW could any woman in her right mind fall so suddenly in love with a neurotic?

Who do you mean xrysoula? Do you mean Dr Sarah and Raymond?? Because I didn't see Raymond as neurotic, just someone a victim of abuse and under an unbearable amount of strain.

The books last chapter was set several years later, so I don't see why they haven't recovered without Mrs Boynton around. Also I don't know how the boynton's could have escaped, no money, no job, no friends or realtives to stay with...