THE BOOK  Fontana, 1979 pp 222

The Tom Adams cover featuring a bee, jewel’s and a ventriloquist’s dummy – references three of the stories in the collection. Fontana had changed their template for cover design by the time this book emerged and it is a pity – Tom Adams’ original looked much better than this and would have worked very well as an ‘old’ cover.

THE STORIES

There are eighteen stories in this collection. They were written in the 1920s/30s. Many had appeared in magazines but never in a collection in the UK until this book came out shortly before the author’s death. Hastings narrates all but three of them, and the final story features the first appearance of Miss Lemon as Poirot’s confidential secretary.  

The Affair at the Victory Ball 
Six people attend a fancy-dress ball in the guise of characters inspired by the Commedia dell’Arte; one is murdered. Agatha Christie had a set of these figures in her childhood and used them a few times in her stories.

The Adventure of the Clapham Cook 
Poirot is hired to investigate the disappearance of a cook. He receives a cheque for one guinea for his pains

The Cornish Mystery 
Mrs Pengelly contacts Poirot and says that she thinks she is being poisoned. Poirot goes to Cornwall the following day and finds that she has died.

The Adventure of Johnny Waverley
 Kidnappers announce that they intend to take away a young boy at a particular date and time. In spite of the precautions taken to prevent this, the time arrives and the boy disappears. An example of Poirot allowing the culprit to escape justice.  

The Double Clue
Poirot’s first encounter with Countess Vera Rossakoff. A jewel theft enables him to display his command of the Cyrillic alphabet. Once again, the culprit is allowed to evade exposure.

The King of Clubs 
An odious man is found dead at his home. The person who caused his death is allowed to escape the workings of the law.  

The Lemesurier Inheritance 
The inheritance in this story refers to both the genetic make-up of an eldest son and also the title and country house which he is apparently doomed not to inherit.

The Lost Mine 
Poirot tells Hastings a story involving Chinamen in Limehouse. His rendering of their reported English speech consists of the addition of -ee as a suffix to each noun and verb. Very unlike Poirot – a dreadful story.

The Plymouth Express 
This mystery set on the train to Plymouth was later to provide the core plot for The Mystery of the Blue Train, a full-length story written a couple of years later (when the author was recovering from a breakdown).

The Chocolate Box 
Poirot tells Hastings another story, this time set in Belgium when he was a policeman there. For the first (and last) time, he makes a mistake in his deductions; most certainly NOT for the first (or last) time he allows the culprit to go unpunished.  

The Submarine Plans 
Poirot investigates the disappearance of some plans at the home of a future prime minister. Yet again, what he finds out when he gets there he allows to be hushed up. Re-worked as a longer story, The Incredible Theft, in the Murder in the Mews collection.

The Third Floor Flat
Four young people find themselves locked out of their flat. Two of them try to break in using the service lift, only to find themselves in the wrong flat with the body of the dead woman. Poirot investigates and solves the case, allowing the culprit to get away in the process.

Double Sin 
Poirot and Hastings take a coach tour and find themselves involved in a hunt for some stolen antique miniatures. Agatha Christie’s titles are usually pretty apposite but I’m blowed if I know what this one refers to.

The Market Basing Mystery
Market Basing appears a few times in swigathas. This particular story has a plot that was re-used almost exactly for the slightly longer ‘Murder in the Mews‘. I’m surprised that Japp and Poirot, who appeared in both, didn’t notice.  

Wasps’ Nest
Poirot prevents a ‘murder’. This is an excellent story, one of her best; there is no Hastings, so I would think that this was written later than most of the others.

The Veiled Lady 
Poirot is hired to steal some jewels. The plot, involving a blackmail letter, just does not bear close scrutiny.

Problem at Sea
A classic story, with a perfect setting for the 1990s TV series that featured all these stories. Featuring ventriloquism, hence the dummy in Tom Adams’ painting. No Hastings or Japp in this one, so no quips from the latter about Hastings being ‘Poirot’s dummy’.  

How Does Your Garden Grow? 
Poirot is contacted by Mrs Barrowby, who is frantically worried about something that she does not specify. He goes to visit her and finds that she has died. An ok short story that assumes a greater significance as far as Dame Agatha’s readers are concerned in that it is the first time he is seen working with Miss Lemon. No Hastings in this story – not surprisingly as he and Miss Lemon never actually met.

SWIGATHA RATING 6/10

This is a stronger (and longer) collection of stories than the previous group narrated by Captain Hastings (Poirot Investigates, 1924). This volume was first published in the UK 50 years later, which allowed some of Dame Agatha’s later stories to be included.

On no fewer than six occasions, Poirot allows the culprit to go unapprehended by the forces of the law.

WHERE IT LED

Three of these stories were re-used in longer formats and published under different titles between 1928 and 1937, which may explain why this collection took so long to see the light of day.

Hastings would only narrate one more published short story – The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest, which appeared posthumously in the 1997 collection While The Light Lasts. Exactly the same story, except this time with Miss Lemon rather than Hastings, had appeared already, with the only noticeable difference being that the chest was Spanish.

In the 1930s, Agatha Christie started working on what some people consider her finest set of short stories – The Labours of Hercules. The stories appeared in The Strand magazine and come out as a book in 1947. Those were the last short-format stories featuring Poirot that she wrote, although some earlier ones were not first published until later.    

ADAPTATIONS

All of the stories in this collection, with the exception of, for some reason, The Lemesurier Inheritance, were covered in either their shorter or longer format by the ITV Poirot series. All are worth watching with Wasp’s Nest, in particular, standing out.