Reviews

Una delle migliori storie di Poirot! Mi è piaciuto tantissimo.
Stavolta la storia non si apre con un omicidio, ma un tentato omicidio alla signorina Nicky Buckley che rende la vicenda una corsa contro il tempo e contro l'assassino.
Il colpevole è davvero difficile da individuare, anche perché il cast è ricco di personaggi, molti dei quali antipatici e colpevoli passabili. Però penso che il nome del colpevole diventi chiaro nel momento in cui lo capisce anche il mio amato investigatore belga - o almeno, mi piace pensare che lo abbiamo capito più o meno insieme.
Adoro tutte le storie in cui è presente il povero caro Hastings, che narra la vicenda dal suo personalissimo punto di vista, descrivendo tutte le stramberie di Poirot.

book_concierge's review against another edition

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3.0

Hercule Poirot mystery # 8 has the “retired” detective on holiday with his friend Hastings at the Cornish seaside town of St. Loo. A mystery lands in their laps when a young heiress, the current owner of the once magnificent End House, admits that she’s had several near misses in the last few days. Nick Buckley can’t imagine why anyone would try to kill her, but Poirot insists she is in grave danger, and, indeed, there are several more attempts. Unfortunately her cousin is shot instead when she’s mistaken for Nick while wearing Nick’s Chinese shawl.

This is a fine example of the kinds of puzzling cases Christie is so good at crafting. We have a large cast of interesting characters – a sullen housemaid, a sweet ingénue, a suspicious Australian couple, a best friend (who’s married to a drunk), an aviator who has gone missing during an around-the-world mission, an art dealer, and a penniless former Navy commander. There are considerable plot twists, and just when you are sure you have it figured out, Christie throws another curve at you.

On the whole an entertaining summer read.

ketutar's review against another edition

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4.0

It was irritating that I still remember the episode of Poirot :-D
Yeah, it was the butler. Sure, the butler did it. Yeah, yeah, Hercule, it was the butler. But of course, there's a reason, the butler did it. You know.
(No, it wasn't the butler. There isn't a butler in the book. Wasn't the maid, either. Stop trying to spoil the book for yourself. :-D)

Devious little story. Who is lying? The thing is that we are dropped hints all the time, but one doesn't see them as that, when one doesn't know the secret. I could see them so clearly, because I knew what they were revealing.

It's a good story.