Peril at End House: Poirot Tries to Prevent a Murder That Has Not Yet Been Committed
On holiday, Poirot and Hastings meet Miss Buckley, a beautiful young woman whose life is anything but ordinary. First, the brakes of her car failed on a dangerous bend and she escaped by a whisker. Then a huge boulder almost crushed her. Finally, an oil painting fell from the wall of her bedroom and nearly killed her in bed. Poirot’s doubts about how accidental all this is vanish when he sees a bullet hole in her hat.
Author: Agatha Christie (1890–1976)
Title: Peril at End House (1932)
Format: English paperback (HarperCollins), 252 pages
Series: Hercule Poirot, with Captain Hastings and Inspector Japp
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/0008129525 (ASIN 0008129525)
A Murder Not Yet Committed
So Poirot sets out to solve the mystery of a murder that has not been committed. It is an interesting story of mystery and suspense: the disturbing string of attacks on the young woman’s life within a few days, and the bullet that missed, set Poirot’s ingenious mind to work.
Protecting Nick
The apparent target of the bullet does not seem to take it very seriously until Poirot steps in. Poirot makes protecting her his top priority in life, but that does not stop someone else from dying in the process. Now he has two priorities: to go on protecting her and to find the murderer.
St Loo and Its Visitors
The story is set in St Loo, a fictional resort on the Cornish coast, where Poirot is supposedly on holiday with Hastings at the Majestic Hotel. Nick Buckley’s crumbling house on the headland, End House, is surrounded by an odd group of friends and neighbours: an Australian couple, the Crofts, who seem a little too interested in her; the charming but evasive Frederica Rice and the art dealer Jim Lazarus; a naval officer, Commander Challenger; and Nick’s quiet cousin Maggie, who comes to stay at Poirot’s urging. Each of them has something to hide.
Poirot’s List
One of the pleasures of the book is watching Poirot work methodically. At one point he draws up a lettered list of everyone who could be behind the attacks, with notes on each, and Hastings, as usual, tries and fails to keep up. The plot also brings in a famous aviator lost on a round-the-world flight, a box of poisoned chocolates and a fortune that may or may not exist. Christie scatters the clues fairly, and an attentive reader has a real chance of beating Poirot to the answer, though few do.
Christie in 1932
The novel appeared in 1932, when Christie was at the height of her early powers, between The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) and Lord Edgware Dies (1933). She dedicated it to Eden Phillpotts, the Dartmoor novelist who had encouraged her when she was starting to write. Arnold Ridley adapted it for the stage in 1940, and it opened the second series of the ITV Poirot in 1990, with David Suchet.
Who Will Enjoy It
Readers new to Christie looking for a classic Poirot with Hastings and Japp, and anyone who likes a seaside setting. It is short, briskly told and has one of her neatest twists.
The Reviewer’s View
The original review enjoyed Poirot’s vanity as much as his deductions, and rightly: few books show his self-satisfaction, and the reasons for it, so entertainingly.
Tip
Make your own list of suspects as you read.
Why Read It
And Poirot considers himself a genius, a star in the firmament, a superior intelligence... does anyone doubt he can solve the mystery? The Cornish seaside setting and the playful rivalry between Poirot and Hastings make this one of the most enjoyable of the early Poirot novels, with a solution that fooled me completely.
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