Is Poirot retired at this point? He certainly was in Peril At End House, but here there’s no mention of it here, apart from one character referring to him as an ex-sleuth hound. I can’t say too much about that thought without lapsing into spoilers, but the notion of Poirot being lured out of retirement by a pretty woman twice in two cases is odd.Īnd retirement? Now there’s a question. To start with, it shares a lot in common with its immediate predecessor, Peril At End House – perhaps too much, in fact. The seventh Poirot novel and this one is an odd one. Poirot senses a clever hand behind the deaths, and is unwilling to accept the truth that seems to be presented to him.

Poirot quickly realises that Carlotta Adams may well be involved, as Jane has an airtight alibi – but alas he is too late, as she lies dead from an overdose of veronal. Odder still, when Jane Wilkinson is apparently seen walking into Lord Edgware’s house and committing the murder.

Poirot is persuaded to speak to her husband on her behalf, only to find, oddly enough, that there is apparently no barrier to the divorce being granted.

Amongst the audience one evening were both Hercule Poirot and the American actress Jane Wilkinson aka Lady Edgware, a woman in desperate need of a divorce from her husband. Carlotta Adams dazzled everyone by her ability to mimic the great and the good – and the less so great and less so good.

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