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Hercule Poirot #4, 10, 16, 20

Poirot: The Perfect Murders

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A brand new Poirot omnibus, featuring four of the world-renowned detective's most challenging cases: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Murder on the Orient Express, Murder in the Mews and Hercule Poirot's Christmas. It seems Hercule Poirot can never escape murder -- and in this collection, the crimes are probably the finest he has ever had to solve. Locked rooms, wealth and jealousy -- outwardly all very similar, but when the detective begins to dig, the motives and solutions couldn't be more different. . . The Murder of Roger Ackroyd In the quiet village of King's Abbot, a wealthy widower is found stabbbed to death in his study. . . Murder on the Orient Express A wealthy American dies of multiple stab wounds on a train bound for Paris. . . Murder in the Mews A widow is murdered in her apartment. . . Hercule Poirot's Christmas A sadistic old man is brutally murdered in his locked study. . .

640 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2004

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About the author

Agatha Christie

5,802 books75.4k followers
Agatha 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)

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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
Profile Image for Anne.
4,747 reviews71.3k followers
July 24, 2025
Four of Poirot's best cases.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
It starts with the suicide of Ackroyd's girlfriend.

description

When the widowed Mrs. Ferrars admits that she not only killed her awful husband but is being blackmailed by someone in the village to keep it a secret, Roger Ackroyd is understandably upset and backs away quickly.
When she kills herself and mails a letter naming her blackmailer, though, he feels it is his duty to avenge her.
However, before he can do so, he's stabbed to death in his study.

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Murder on the Orient Express
I'm not gonna bore you with a plot synopsis, but if you're a fan of stories that take place on trains, child killers getting shanked, and plenty of stereotypes thrown in for good measure...then this is the book for you!

description

Murder in the Mews
Poirot and Japp investigate a murder that has been made to look like suicide.
Badly made to look like suicide. Poirot has to untangle quite a few knots to unravel a blackmailer's scheme gone wrong.
But unravel them he does.

description

Hercule Poirot's Christmas
Not especially Christmas-y. <--for those of you looking for a seasonal read

description

The gist is that Poirot is staying with his friend Colonel Johnson during the holiday. As they discuss the particulars of a case they were both involved with (Three Act Tragedy), a knock sounds on the door.
What can it be other than news of a brand new murder just asking to be solved?!

description

There are links to longer reviews for each story if you are interested, but the main thing to take away is that this is a fun collection of Poirot stories.

Recommended.
Profile Image for Preetam Chatterjee.
7,022 reviews377 followers
August 13, 2025
I bought Poirot: The Perfect Murders in February 2007, in the middle of one of the strangest, most dramatic chapters in the history of the Kolkata Book Fair.

It wasn’t at the Maidan, where I had strolled year after year with the comforting smell of trampled grass underfoot and the winter sun soft on my face. That year, the High Court slammed its gavel on the tradition, citing environmental damage. The Maidan was suddenly off-limits, and the book fair — that sprawling annual bazaar of words — was exiled to the Salt Lake stadium grounds.

It felt like a Poirot setup already: a beloved institution disrupted, strong emotions running high, suspects aplenty — bureaucrats, activists, environmentalists — and a crowd of furious yet oddly festive intellectuals staging a symbolic inauguration at the Maidan itself, as if to prove that the spirit of the fair could not be cordoned off by legal decree.

Sunil Gangopadhyay, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Samaresh Majumder, Suchitra Bhattacharya, Buddhadev Guha — they were all there, alongside cine legend Mrinal Sen and even the mayor, like characters in a Christie novel who all know each other’s secrets but won’t confess until the final chapter.

When the rescheduled fair finally opened in Salt Lake on 9 February, it had less space, less footfall, and more of an air of forced adjustment than celebration.

Yet there I was, wandering between narrower aisles, and there it was: a fat paperback collecting four of Poirot’s cases — numbers 4, 10, 16, and 20 in his long career of sniffing out human frailty.

I remember the faintly glossy cover, the whiff of fresh ink, and the reassuring presence of the little Belgian with his fastidious moustache.

Reading it later, I was struck by how Poirot: The Perfect Murders mirrored the Book Fair’s own predicament that year. In each of those tales, order had been disturbed, appearances were deceptive, and the solution came not from force, but from the delicate art of piecing together motive, opportunity, and human nature. Poirot, like Kolkata’s book lovers, refused to let chaos dictate the ending. He restored order with elegance, just as the fair — battered, displaced, but alive — restored some measure of joy that February.

Even now, the book is less just a set of Christie mysteries and more a bookmark in my own memory: the year the fair moved, the city protested, and I carried home a detective who thrived in troubled settings.
Profile Image for Rita .
4,025 reviews92 followers
June 10, 2018
THE PERFECT SOLUTIONS

"Gli omicidi perfetti"... Ma lo è ancora di più il modo in cui Poirot svela i misteri che si celano dietro di essi!

***

"L'assassinio di Roger Ackroyd" è, per dirla con le stesse parole dell'autrice, "estremamente affascinante. Ogni fatto nuovo che succede è come la scossa che si dà a un caleidoscopio, il quadro cambia totalmente". Mi ha tenuta incollata alle pagine fino al colpo di scena finale... Quando mi è quasi venuta voglia di buttare il libro fuori dalla finestra, tanto ero infuriata per essere stata raggirata in tal modo! Per poi, ovviamente, recuperarlo e cantarne le lodi a chiunque mi si avvicinasse. Sì, è vero, qui la Christie gioca davvero sporco... Ma è un inganno piacevolissimo. Merito comunque del romanzo nella sua interezza, che è non solo un trionfo di suspense, ma anche di psicologia e, grazie a Poirot, d'ironia!

"Ma come sarebbe stato meglio se Hercule Poirot non si fosse ritirato dalla professione, per venire proprio qui a coltivare le sue zucche!"

***

"Assassinio sull'Orient Express" (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) e "Il Natale di Poirot" hanno unito il piacere del colpo di scena ad atmosfere particolarmente suggestive, quella "spaziale" del famoso treno e quella "temporale" del periodo natalizio. Un Natale, però, che non avete visto mai... O avete fatto finta di non vedere.

"A Natale impera lo spirito di "buona volontà". Vecchi litigi vengono dimenticati, coloro che si trovano in disaccordo fanno la pace... Sia pure provvisoriamente, le famiglie che sono state separate per tutto l'anno si raccolgono ancora una volta... In queste condizioni, amico mio, deve ammettere che i nervi possono venir sottoposti a dura prova. Persone che non hanno alcuna voglia di essere amabili fanno uno sforzo per apparirlo... C'è in essi molta ipocrisia, a Natale, onorevole ipocrisia, senza dubbio, ipocrisia pour le bon motif, ma sempre ipocrisia. [...] lo sforzo per esser buoni e amabili cre[a] un malessere che può riuscire in definitiva pericoloso. Chiudete le valvole di sicurezza del vostro contegno naturale, e presto o tardi la caldaia scoppierà provocando un disastro."

"Sono proprio le persone più miti e tranquille che, d'improvviso, si rivelano capaci delle peggiori violenze. Quando perdono il controllo di sé, lo perdono completamente."

***

Quattro stelle, infine, per "Quattro casi per Hercule Poirot", perché si tratta comunque di una raccolta di racconti che non riesce ad avere lo stesso impatto dei romanzi.

★★★★✰: "Delitto nei Mews", "Il furto incredibile", "Lo specchio del morto"
★★★✰✰: "Triangolo a Rodi"
Profile Image for Neil Larrisey.
36 reviews
October 26, 2019
Excellent collection. I'd have given it 5 stars for Roger Aykroyd alone.
It's 90 years old and still left me picking my jaw off the floor.

Orient Express is very famous and for good reason, it's excellent. The other two are great but don't quite live up to the first two.

All in all, a great omnibus to start reading Christie with.
Profile Image for Helen.
993 reviews2 followers
June 20, 2015
Read the first two tales in 2006/7
Profile Image for Gustavo Braga .
33 reviews
January 11, 2022
Perfeito. Que viciante. Ela realmente sabe prender o leitor. O último murder eh perfeito. Recomendo muito.
Profile Image for Eustacia Tan.
Author 15 books293 followers
April 29, 2012
A few days ago, I shared a teaserfrom this book. Well, I had some free time (and this book is addictive), so I've finished it earlier than planned. If you haven't heard of this book, it's simply an omnibus of the four most (supposedly) difficult cases ever encountered by Hercule Poirot.

The first book was The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It was also, for some reason, the story I took the longest to finish. But to be fair, it's also the longest story. The story is quite "Miss Marple" in setting, a small town (lots of gossip) and murder.

I was very amused to see that they played Mah-Jong, although I cannot recognise the words that they spoke at all.

But with regards to plot... well, the book is rather winding at time. And -spoiler alert- I thought that the plot was very unfair to the reader due to the choice of the narrator. There is maybe one hint (told to us at the end), but the reader doesn't have any chance of figuring out the murderer at all.

The second book was Murder on the Orient Express. I really enjoyed reading this one. The clues, taken individually are so puzzling, but as a coherent whole, it makes a lot of sense. And this book invoked some 'deeper thinking' as it considers the idea of justice. What is justice? Is it the Law? Or something entirely different?

And, I thought the character of M. Bouc was very endearing. I don't think we're given enough of the other characters, so in this book, it is the character of Poirot and M. Bouc that stands out. Even though the doctor accompanies them throughout the story, I found myself forgetting his presence quite frequently.

Murder in the Mews is the third and shortest book of the four; I finished it in one go. But even though it's short, the twists and turns of the story is ingenious. But also because it's short, the characterisation is woefully lacking, unless you count on learning more about characters you already know.

Finally, Hercule Poirot's Christmas. This book, and Murder on the Orient Express, tie for the favourite novel of this omnibus. There is a diverse cast of characters and the book is sufficiently long for the reader to get to know all of them. In fact, I liked all the characters except George and his wife Magdalene. Those two were irritating >.<

I can actually visualise this story as a movie/episode in a series. In fact, I think a show might be better, because of certain visual details that could be included (this is only if the casting is done right though! Or if this was animated, then we won't have to worry about casting choice).

I highly recommend this omnibus. In fact, if you're moving and have to limit the number of books you bring along, buy this book. It counts as one book (physically) but has the content of four. ^^

First posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile
Profile Image for Peter.
72 reviews2 followers
March 30, 2011
This is a good collection of Poirot stories, mostly showing Agatha Christie on fine form. Having said that, only the first two stand out for me as 'must read'.

The first novel in this collection ("The Murder of Roger Ackroyd") is one of my favourite crime stories. It is told from the point of view of a local village doctor, and so in some ways it is mirroring Sherlock Holmes stories, but with a very British sense of irony. The characterisation is excellent, and the conclusion is thrilling. Excellent story; very well written.

The second novel in this collection ("Murder on the Orient Express") is a well known story by now. I had seen bits of a film adaptation a long time ago, so I had a rough idea of how the plot would turn out. Nonetheless, it was a very enjoyable story which kept me reading steadily to the end. An interesting side note, it seems to have been written with a slightly greater focus than usual on Poirot's thought processes, probably because the action takes place in a more constrained environment.

The third novel ("Murder on the Mews") is a comparatively brief but quite unexpected story. It's certainly a clever plot, but stretches the bounds of possibility a little too far in my view. Worth reading, but definitely not up to the same standard as the others in this collection.

The fourth novel ("Hercule Poirot's Christmas") is a good example of how Agatha Christie liked to play around with narrative structure. The whole story centres around family issues, and the structure reflects that complexity in many ways. There are several key characters involved, and lots of information and back-story. I found it quite hard going at times, but ultimately enjoyed it. The mystery had a very unexpected and interesting explanation, although part of it relied on some fairly major coincidence (which Poirot does not tend to believe in!).
Profile Image for Huma.
462 reviews125 followers
October 27, 2013
Some of the best cases of Hercule Poirot are collected in this omnibus. However, do not be fooled by the title. The murders were almost perfect, since Poirot solved them all. However, whether they were arrested by the police or not, is an entirely different matter. It's been such a long time that I frankly do not remember now. I guess you will just have to read them to find out!

SPOILERS Ahead. Consider yourself warned!!

1. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is perhaps the most famous of Christie's novel and also the first one I read back when I was at school in 2001. Ever since, I have been hooked to Christie's books and specifically Poirot. What sets this books apart

2.Murder on the Orient Express is also unique in the sense that .

3.Murder in the MewsDon't remember much about this one, though I'm sure I loved it. Then again, I love each and every Poirot mystery I have ever read.

4. Hercule Poirot's Christmas was also fun since it was a closed room murder mystery.
Profile Image for Ipeh Alena.
543 reviews21 followers
Read
April 8, 2015
Akhirnya selesai juga, menikmati kasus demi kasus pembunuhan yang diselesaikan oleh M. Poirot. Seorang detektif asal Belgia. Dalam empat cerita yang ada di buku ini, keseluruhannya adalah pembunuhan yang sangat sempurna rencananya dan prakteknya. Sehingga bahkan pelakunya memiliki alibi yang kuat. Kalaupun ada di salah satu cerita seorang pelaku yang memunculkan kecurigaan saat membacanya, tetap saja akhirnya berbeda.
Profile Image for Maria.
239 reviews9 followers
February 22, 2014
Oh the incomparable Murder on the Orient Express!! one day, I too shall travel in style, although perhaps without the murder. Malheureusement, there would be no Hercule Poirot to come to an ingenious conclusion for me!!
Profile Image for L.J..
Author 57 books477 followers
April 17, 2010
I enjoyed this book (if I remember correctly :)
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews

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