Peril

by Frank Howell Evans

Detective Jules Poiret falls ill. From his hospital bed he and his assistant Miss Sarah Long have to solve the murder of the lady on the bus.

Genres: Mystery, Ebooks, Crime

27 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 21, 2014

Reviews

[Charlotte · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not get into this!! This was no depth to the characters, no real story line to follow, the MC was not engaging in any way or form!! I'm sorry, but though Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot is said to have been based on the MC there is no comparison - Hercule Poirot's character beats this flat non-entity of a character hands down. The only saving grace for this book is the excellent cover, though what it has to do with the book is a bit of a mystery in and of itself :). If you truly enjoy a juicy mystery with cunning twists and turns DO NOT read this book. For those who cannot turn down a challenge - you have been warned!

[M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jules Poiret is very similar to the well-known Hercule Poirot; in appearance, manners and even his choice of residence and of friends (Haven, as opposed to Hercule's good friend Hastings). Therefore, having met Christie's Hercule Poirot long before I heard of and was presented to Jules I would've been tempted to think of the latter as a flat-out imitation... had I not taken the time to read Evans' page on Amazon, where I discovered Jules Poiret came to life (was published) years before Hercule Poirot did.

Despite knowing that, it was impossible not to compare the two of them -- and I can't shake the feeling that I didn't do it justice due to Hercule Poirot being so famous and this such a short story. But I found Jules growing on me as I turned the pages. I liked his particular way of speaking (will it become annoying in time, though, I wonder) and the other characters and the mystery itself too. And despite not being surprised by the twists in the plot I believe they might've been quite the novelty for someone reading it at the time it was first published.

Peril is listed as the first in the series, yet it felt as if some history was already in place and the cases mentioned in the story might have their own books. It will be interesting to find out whether that's true. For such a short story it was very entertaining and kept my interest. Definitely made me want to read the next one.

[Leslie Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would probably give this book a 2.5 out of 5 rating. It was okay to likeable. I've never read any of the Poiret mysteries (by Christie?) so I don't know how this compares. The mystery part was good, but there were a lot of things I found annoying - Poiret always referring to himself in the third person, the idea that a court would change it's decision because someone listening to the trial on the radio said they had it wrong, the personalities of the other characters in the book, and so on. I don't know if I would read any more of these. At least they're short and I got it for free. Maybe if I was a die-hard Christie fan, my rating would be different.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not Poirot

Had I never read Agatha Christie's creation this would have been a better read. It is said that imitation is the greatest form of a compliment... not always.