by 
Title and Author: Hercule Poirot #8-Peril at End House
by Agatha ChristiePublication Date: February 1932
Print Length (Paperback): 270
Language: English
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, British Detectives, Classics
My Review:
Hercule Poirot is now retired and enjoying his holiday in St. Loo with his faithful friend, Captain Hastings when he comes across a bubbly, carefree and recklessly modern Magdala Buckley aka Nick Buckley who in her careless and carefree style tells Poirot about her recent accidents and her own near escapes from death.
“I’ve had three escapes from sudden death in as many days..”
What Nick takes as just accidents leaves Poirot feeling alarmed and with foreboding. But how can he help when the victim is not ready to believe that someone is trying to kill her?
So when he finds a bullet hole in Nick’s sun hat, he decides to help her even if she doesn’t like it!
Can Poirot convince Nick of the gravity of the situation and make her accept his help?
Will he be able to find the perpetrator before it is too late?
Is Nick truly so naive and carefree or is she hiding something?
What does her best friend, Frederica Rice mean when she says,”She’s the most heaven-sent little liar that ever existed..”?
When you couple Agatha Christie with the little Belgian Detective, Hercule Poirot, the reader is assured of a mystery so ingenious that it will leave him dumbfounded and completely in awe of the creativity of the author and her skill in bringing unconventional and unique plots to written form. Deserving of the title of the ‘Queen of Crime’, Agatha Christie gives a yet another mind boggling mystery where there are so many layers of intrigue and suspense and people have multiple shades. This book presents a great study of human nature and perhaps is the first where Poirot is completely stumped and at one point it looks like the culprit will get away with his crime.
The plot is as usual ingenious and expertly conceived and implemented. Seemingly simple initially, this story takes a more serious and deadly turn as the story progresses. We meet the characters in all their glory. Nick is our reckless, flamboyant, full of life and drama heroine who according to her friends exaggerates and is “the most heaven-sent liar that ever existed..”. Frederica or Freddie looks weary of life like a “Madonna” and according to Poirot, is a mystery but Nick is very devoted to her.
“Is she good? Is she evil? Is she merely unhappy?
One cannot tell. She is a mystery. She is, perhaps, nothing at all. But I tell you, my friend, she is an allumeuse.”
Jim Lazarus is an art dealer with no sense of art because he offers fifty dollars to Nick for a painting which is not even twenty dollars worth! Captain Challenger wears “his heart on his sleeve” and is totally in love with Nick. Lawyer Vyse, Nick’s closest cousin is a man of law and as dry as they come and finally there is the Croft family and Ellen, Nick’s respectable housekeeper. Mr. and Mrs. Croft are Australians staying as tenants at End House. Very jovial they don’t look the murdering type but then normally murderers are people who look the least murderer types! 🙂
‘You liked them?’
‘Didn’t you?’
‘They were very pleasant-very friendly.’
‘Well, what is it then? There’s something, I can see.’
‘They were perhaps just a shade too “typical” ‘, said Poirot, thoughtfully.
Ellen, Nick’s respectable housekeeper, is impassive and very respectable but is she as respectable as she seems?
Strong story, great characters and exotic descriptions of events and atmosphere that makes one feel like one has gone back in time to the 1930s, make Peril at End House
A super dazzling 4.5 out of 5 to Peril at End House
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