Agatha Christie Lovers discussion

Originally published 1975. Features Hercule Poirot (#39) and Captain Hastings.

The house guests at Styles seemed perfectly pleasant to Captain Hastings; there was his own daughter Judith, an inoffensive ornithologist called Norton, dashing Mr Allerton, brittle Miss Cole, Doctor Franklin and his fragile wife Barbara , Nurse Craven, Colonel Luttrell and his charming wife, Daisy, and the charismatic Boyd-Carrington. So Hastings was shocked to learn from Hercule Poirot's declaration that one of them was a five-times murderer. True, the ageing detective was crippled with arthritis, but had his deductive instincts finally deserted him?

The novel features Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings in their final appearances in Christie's works. It is a country house novel, with all the characters and the murder set in one house. Not only does the novel return the characters to the setting of her first, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, but it reunites Poirot and Hastings, who last appeared together in Dumb Witness in 1937.

I used to think that "Curtain" will be the last Poirot book I'll read. But after Suchet's "Poirot and Me" I changed my mind. And book of the month was perfect opportunity. However, I can't say that I liked the book.

A war was mentioned in the book and that confused me a bit. Sometimes characters talked about the previous war, which is definitely World War I. So the other war was World War II? That doesn't seem to match with Poirot life timeline. Was Britain in another war (I am not very familiar with its history) worth mentioning by the characters?
Later I noticed a comment that the book was written around 1940 and published only in 1975. So the war mentioned definitely was World War II. Now when I am thinking about Poirot's age in the first and last novels the timeline seems more plausible.

Hope everyone is enjoying this month's group read. I just finished the book, an actual hardback published in 1975. I was so excited to get my hands on this copy! If you like, you can read my no-spoiler review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Valerie, Book Valkyrie wrote: "Hope everyone is enjoying this month's group read. I just finished the book, an actual hardback published in 1975. I was so excited to get my hands on this copy! If you like, you can read my no-spo..."

I'm almost finished and am loving it. Hastings is such a good old chap.

I read your review and your comment "the charming civility of a bygone era" is spot on.