One of the main reasons I love Poirot’s short stories is that you never quite know what you’re going to get. It could be a short but gripping tale of robbery or murder. Or it could be drawn-out, dull, uneventful, and unsatisfying.
Guess which one today’s is.
With the war winding down, a peace conference between countries will soon be held. But not long before the proceedings begin, the Prime Minister of Britain is kidnapped! Now it’s up to Hercule Poirot to find him in time for the conference.
This one is really boring. It had all the pieces to be really cool, but it just isn’t. Rather than a thrilling mystery and a race against the clock, we get lots of walking around, meaningless talking, and then poof! the mystery is solved.
Was it a good mystery at least? No, not really. The whole puzzle revolves around characters that aren’t even introduced until the puzzle is solved. You literally can’t figure it out because Christie withheld the information you needed to do so.
It doesn’t even go out with that big of a bang. Poirot just sort of says the mystery is solved, it turns out it is, and then things end. That’s it. No satisfying ‘aha!’ moment, no cuffing the kidnapper, nothing.
But hey. Poirot got seasick. That was kinda fun.
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