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Hercule Poirot #0.10
The Cornish Mystery: a Hercule Poirot Short Story
A wife is convinced that her husband has been trying to poison her and run off with a younger woman, and she begs Hercule Poirot to save her. Poirot and Hastings act quickly but, was it fast enough?
Librarian's note: this entry is for the story, "The Cornish Mystery." Collections of short stories by the author can be found elsewhere on Goodreads. Individual entries, including the characters and settings, for all 51 Poirot short stories, plus a 52nd, "Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly" which was discovered in 2014, can be found by searching Goodreads for: "a Hercule Poirot Short Story."
Librarian's note: this entry is for the story, "The Cornish Mystery." Collections of short stories by the author can be found elsewhere on Goodreads. Individual entries, including the characters and settings, for all 51 Poirot short stories, plus a 52nd, "Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly" which was discovered in 2014, can be found by searching Goodreads for: "a Hercule Poirot Short Story."
21 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 28, 1923
About the author
Agatha Christie
6,463 books79.5k followersAgatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.
Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.
Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 152 reviews
August 19, 2019
Relationship experts say that the most brutal pain a human being will have to endure in their life is cheating by their better half. What will happen if your partner tries to do a little more than it by trying to kill you by poisoning?
Hercules Poirot is dealing with a similar case in this book. Is the husband trying to poison his wife to run off with a younger woman? Is someone playing in between? Are all these just imaginations of the wife? Is there any hidden agenda for the lady who came with the complaint against her husband? Agatha Christie will answer all these questions through this book.
“That’s my idea. I’ll admit frankly that I’m selfish about it. I’ve got my way to make — and I’m building up a good little business as a tailor and outfitter.”
Hercules Poirot is dealing with a similar case in this book. Is the husband trying to poison his wife to run off with a younger woman? Is someone playing in between? Are all these just imaginations of the wife? Is there any hidden agenda for the lady who came with the complaint against her husband? Agatha Christie will answer all these questions through this book.
July 29, 2020
Good mystery about a lady (Mrs. Pengelley) who asks for Poirot’s help when she thinks her husband is trying to poison her.
September 14, 2022
Agatha, you sneaky devil.
This has the same basic plot as Death on the Nile: A Parker Pyne Short Story, but Christie swapped Pyne for Poirot.
In both stories, a wealthy woman comes to the detective (be it Poirot or Pyne) and tells him that she thinks her husband may be poisoning her. Every time he is in town, she gets sick, but when he has to leave for business, she gets better.
Both women have a niece who is engaged to a handsome young man. Both women also have a falling out with their nieces because they think the young man is in love with them not their niece.
In both, the women die of poisoning. And in both cases, the husbands are the eventual suspects. Again, in both stories, the killer is the same person.
The difference is really in the setting as Death on the Nile happens (obviously) on the boat on the Nile.
The other difference is
This was published first in The Sketch magazine in 1923.
Read as part of the short story collection The Early Cases of Hercule Poirot.
This has the same basic plot as Death on the Nile: A Parker Pyne Short Story, but Christie swapped Pyne for Poirot.
In both stories, a wealthy woman comes to the detective (be it Poirot or Pyne) and tells him that she thinks her husband may be poisoning her. Every time he is in town, she gets sick, but when he has to leave for business, she gets better.
Both women have a niece who is engaged to a handsome young man. Both women also have a falling out with their nieces because they think the young man is in love with them not their niece.
In both, the women die of poisoning. And in both cases, the husbands are the eventual suspects. Again, in both stories, the killer is the same person.
The difference is really in the setting as Death on the Nile happens (obviously) on the boat on the Nile.
The other difference is
This was published first in The Sketch magazine in 1923.
Read as part of the short story collection The Early Cases of Hercule Poirot.
March 8, 2020
One of my reading goals this year is to enjoy Agatha Christie's works in publication order. Christie has been my favorite author since the age of 9 when I read my first Poirot novel. I have always wanted to read everything she wrote...but never had the time. I decided to dedicate a portion of my reading time in 2020 to finally start this monumental task!
So far, I have read The Mysterious Affair at Styles, The Secret Adversary, The Murder on the Links, The Man in the Brown Suit and I'm finishing up The Secret of Chimneys. But, I had to backtrack a bit as I forgot about short stories. Oops! :) I jumped back in her bibliography a bit and started to read the first Hercule Poirot short stories Christie wrote in 1922. She wrote the stories while on a tour of the British empire related to the British Empire Exhibition. The 10-month trip is detailed in a book, The Grand Tour. So....my enjoyable trip through Christie's writing has already added to my TBR pile because once I learned of this book, I bought a copy immediately!
Ok....on to the story I'm reviewing. I do get to the main point eventually....
The Cornish Mystery is a Hercule Poirot short story first published in the UK (Sketch Magazine) on November 28, 1923. US publication followed in Blue Book Magazine in 1925.
Mrs. Pengelley comes to see Poirot. She says she thinks her husband has been trying to poison her. Poirot agrees to investigate, and the case soon becomes much more complicated than a woman being afraid.
Great story! I love how Christie always manages to tell such an interesting tale in only a few pages! :)
The long-running television show, Agatha Christie's Poirot, based an episode on this story (Season 2, episode 5). The episode sticks pretty closely to the original story, but fleshes things out a bit to stretch it to episode length.
On to the next Poirot story -- The Double Clue! :)
So far, I have read The Mysterious Affair at Styles, The Secret Adversary, The Murder on the Links, The Man in the Brown Suit and I'm finishing up The Secret of Chimneys. But, I had to backtrack a bit as I forgot about short stories. Oops! :) I jumped back in her bibliography a bit and started to read the first Hercule Poirot short stories Christie wrote in 1922. She wrote the stories while on a tour of the British empire related to the British Empire Exhibition. The 10-month trip is detailed in a book, The Grand Tour. So....my enjoyable trip through Christie's writing has already added to my TBR pile because once I learned of this book, I bought a copy immediately!
Ok....on to the story I'm reviewing. I do get to the main point eventually....
The Cornish Mystery is a Hercule Poirot short story first published in the UK (Sketch Magazine) on November 28, 1923. US publication followed in Blue Book Magazine in 1925.
Mrs. Pengelley comes to see Poirot. She says she thinks her husband has been trying to poison her. Poirot agrees to investigate, and the case soon becomes much more complicated than a woman being afraid.
Great story! I love how Christie always manages to tell such an interesting tale in only a few pages! :)
The long-running television show, Agatha Christie's Poirot, based an episode on this story (Season 2, episode 5). The episode sticks pretty closely to the original story, but fleshes things out a bit to stretch it to episode length.
On to the next Poirot story -- The Double Clue! :)
September 23, 2019
A woman thinks her husband is trying to poison her... but is she paranoid, or is she right? Poirot finds out.
January 27, 2021
30th book of the month,January. My yearly reading goal is sixty books and 50%of that has already been achieved.😂😂😂.(congratulations Himi)
Now, I think, I should reset my reading goal.😩😩
Btw, didn't like this book inspite of being a huge Agatha Christie fan. It was boring.
Now, I think, I should reset my reading goal.😩😩
Btw, didn't like this book inspite of being a huge Agatha Christie fan. It was boring.
October 18, 2021
Nothing out of common. A middle-aged woman believes that her husband, a dentist, is going to poison her, so she tells about her fears to Poirot.
If you ask me, these short stories are a pastiche of those involving Sherlock Holmes, but the Englishman was just slightly better.
If you ask me, these short stories are a pastiche of those involving Sherlock Holmes, but the Englishman was just slightly better.
January 3, 2023
Agatha Christie Book Reading Challenge
3 Stars
BOOK 50 :- January 2023
3 Stars
BOOK 50 :- January 2023
December 20, 2020
3 Stars. Good, but over too quickly. This one brings back a lesson I learned early in my elected career as a municipal councillor. People only tell you their own version of a story. There's very likely another. Don't act until you've heard both! Here rests the crux of the story. Poirot and Hastings are visited one day by Mrs. Pengelley of Polgarwith in Cornwall. She took the day tripper just to see them, "I don't want anything to do with the police." The 12-pager appeared in Sketch in 1923; mine was in Hercule Poirot The Complete Short Stories of 1999. She fears she is being poisoned by her husband. "There's a bottle of weed-killer, never used, .. and yet it is half-empty." Our detectives travel to her town the next day, only to find that she has died less than an hour earlier. There are many questions to explore. Why did her husband's niece, who had been living with the couple for years, leave suddenly? Is her husband, a dentist, involved with Miss Marks, his assistant? Is it true that Mrs. Pengelley was infatuated with the niece's fiancé? Instead of probing deep into these matters, the two soon return to London to await "the voice of the people." And they get it three months later! (De2020/Se2026)
November 8, 2020
Real Rating: 3.25* of five
Oh, really. This wasn't awful, but it sure wasn't Dame Agatha's best. Poirot is at his most insufferable in this story. He no more claps eyes on his victim than it's "curses, foiled again," some mustachio-twirling, and hey presto there's the end.
It's a story, so there's just not room to develop the usual string of incidents that lead the crime to occur, but what there was made this reader long for it to be explained. What does the small-town setting do except cause lovely, lush gossip-forests to spring up, connecting and misdirecting attentio at the same moment? The Pengelley ménage was ever so perfectly Christiean in its components; the absolutely delicious beauties of Cornwall could've been bigged up; heck, even Hastings had a Moment in this one. He never got that many.
There is also the Agatha Christie's Poirot episode from 1990 to consider. Suchet is, to my mind at least, the most perfect embodiment of Poirot. Here, however, both he and Hugh Fraser as Hastings were leaden and humorless, Miss Lemon and Inspector Japp were barely used as props, and the victim was a complete washout. Honestly, there was no thing to cause one to care if she lived or died. So the entire experience of this story was Failure to Launch in both media.
Then my rating is a bit generous, you'd be forgiven for thinking; there are two reasons for it: I Ching as read by Hastings and the aforementioned Moment he has in the obligatory confrontation scene. So good work, Hastings, you added an entire stars'-worth of entertainment to an unsatisfactory outing with Dame Agatha.
Oh, really. This wasn't awful, but it sure wasn't Dame Agatha's best. Poirot is at his most insufferable in this story. He no more claps eyes on his victim than it's "curses, foiled again," some mustachio-twirling, and hey presto there's the end.
It's a story, so there's just not room to develop the usual string of incidents that lead the crime to occur, but what there was made this reader long for it to be explained. What does the small-town setting do except cause lovely, lush gossip-forests to spring up, connecting and misdirecting attentio at the same moment? The Pengelley ménage was ever so perfectly Christiean in its components; the absolutely delicious beauties of Cornwall could've been bigged up; heck, even Hastings had a Moment in this one. He never got that many.
There is also the Agatha Christie's Poirot episode from 1990 to consider. Suchet is, to my mind at least, the most perfect embodiment of Poirot. Here, however, both he and Hugh Fraser as Hastings were leaden and humorless, Miss Lemon and Inspector Japp were barely used as props, and the victim was a complete washout. Honestly, there was no thing to cause one to care if she lived or died. So the entire experience of this story was Failure to Launch in both media.
Then my rating is a bit generous, you'd be forgiven for thinking; there are two reasons for it: I Ching as read by Hastings and the aforementioned Moment he has in the obligatory confrontation scene. So good work, Hastings, you added an entire stars'-worth of entertainment to an unsatisfactory outing with Dame Agatha.
November 22, 2014
First published in 1923, this short story sees Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings visited by a middle aged lady, called Mrs Pengelley. She looks, to Hastings eyes, unremarkable – yet she claims that her husband is trying to poison her. When Poirot and Hastings arrive in her hometown to investigate her claims, they find they are too late. Poirot feels responsible and decides to discover the truth behind Mrs Pengelley’s claims. Of course, the obvious solution is that Mr Pengelley is the murderer, but Poirot has a responsibility to his client and he will not rest until the truth is found. This is a good read, with an interesting plot and the added bonus of Hastings as narrator. I know some people find Hastings rather an irritation, but I enjoy his ‘voice’ telling the tale.
December 30, 2021
3.5 stars
This was yet another well set, engaging, aptly written short Poirot story by Agatha Christie.
Poirot's patience and grey cells are indeed remarkable! His fondly treatment towards his moustache always cracks me up.
These Poirot short stories are very enjoyable.
This was yet another well set, engaging, aptly written short Poirot story by Agatha Christie.
Poirot's patience and grey cells are indeed remarkable! His fondly treatment towards his moustache always cracks me up.
These Poirot short stories are very enjoyable.
April 30, 2016
That feeling of satisfaction when you read an Agatha Christie short story for the first time; and solve the mystery! *cheers* :)
July 8, 2021
This started out really promising — I was excitedly following all the clues and the characters. But I felt like the story really ended too fast, and the ending didn't play out in a satisfying way.
July 26, 2020
What a delightful and clever little mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it! This was my very first read by Agatha, but I can say that it surely won’t be my last. Looking forward to reading more of her works!
November 26, 2025
Average.
August 1, 2024
One of the more enjoyable short stories by Christie.
Everything is explained with no rushing and the ending is satisfactory yet unusual.
Also, this story is “ suffered” very little in the TV adaptation, which is also telling. With few important additions to fill the running time it is almost completely the same.
Recommended!
4/5
Everything is explained with no rushing and the ending is satisfactory yet unusual.
Also, this story is “ suffered” very little in the TV adaptation, which is also telling. With few important additions to fill the running time it is almost completely the same.
Recommended!
4/5
June 19, 2022
I felt bad after reading this one. That poor woman.
April 13, 2018
Plot twist, easy to follow deduction and cleverness on Poirot's part. These are the parts I really enjoy about Agatha Christie's writing and I was not disappointment in this one.
May 3, 2019
I missed Agatha and her Poirot ❤️
December 31, 2022
This one had what I think is the most unusual solution by Hercule. As always well written and quite intriguing.
Read
February 11, 2024Very nice and short. A Cornish lady comes to see Poirot because she thinks her husband is poisoning her. The next day she has been murdered by poison. Very nice resolution !
August 12, 2024
another short story by Agatha Christie
I love her 📚
I love her 📚
September 20, 2013
The Cornish Mystery is a short story in the anthology, Poirot's Early Cases. It is also available as a standalone e-book.
Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings are on the case again. This time a Mrs Pengelley turns up concerned that she is being poisoned. She believes her husband is poisoning her with weed killer. However she has no proof and asks Poirot to investigate. By the time Poirot and Hastings turn up at her cottage the next day, she is dead. Even though their client is dead, Poirot and Hastings start to investigate and ask a few questions.
So who killed Mrs Pengelley? Her husband that she suspected was having an affair with his secretary? Her niece with the hot temper? Her nieces fiance? There are a few solid suspects in this short story, and I had fun trying to guess who it was that wanted Mrs Pengelley dead and what their reasoning for it was.
I like Agatha Christie's short stories. She writes in such a concise manner, that the stories never waffle on and are a very satisfying read. This was another great story featuring Hercule Poirot and his affable sidekick, Captain Hastings.
Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings are on the case again. This time a Mrs Pengelley turns up concerned that she is being poisoned. She believes her husband is poisoning her with weed killer. However she has no proof and asks Poirot to investigate. By the time Poirot and Hastings turn up at her cottage the next day, she is dead. Even though their client is dead, Poirot and Hastings start to investigate and ask a few questions.
So who killed Mrs Pengelley? Her husband that she suspected was having an affair with his secretary? Her niece with the hot temper? Her nieces fiance? There are a few solid suspects in this short story, and I had fun trying to guess who it was that wanted Mrs Pengelley dead and what their reasoning for it was.
I like Agatha Christie's short stories. She writes in such a concise manner, that the stories never waffle on and are a very satisfying read. This was another great story featuring Hercule Poirot and his affable sidekick, Captain Hastings.
March 19, 2020
In this short Christie story, Poirot is asked to help a Cornish woman who believes she is being poisoned by her husband. When he arrives at her estate, he is surprised to find she has already died. It is a captivating mystery and interesting case and is told by Hastings as the narrator. Poirot solves this case with ease.
December 10, 2016
Nice one. Guessing the culprit was quite easy. :)
March 26, 2020
Short story Read 2020
May 14, 2026
Greedy stupid men.
May 15, 2026
مع انها صغيرة بس اللغز حلو بجد والصراحة اتصدمت في النهاية متوقعتش اللفه دي ولا توقعت القاتل بس استمتعت 🫡💗
Displaying 1 - 30 of 152 reviews