“Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories” by Agatha Christie

This book was a gift from Sam along with all the Miss Marple mysteries (which I’ve already read and blogged about). I’ve really enjoyed reading this Poirot book as bedtime stories over the past few months. 

Surprisingly, it was not love at first glance; somehow at the beginning I found the stories a bit too tricksy. I think I was overly focused on solving the puzzles, and there was a bit of frustration as almost always it seemed I wasn’t given all the information needed to find the solution. But a few stories in, I relaxed and found it was better when I just sank into it. 

I must admit, I think I have discovered that I prefer Miss Marple to Hercule Poirot. The demure old lady is a more appealing character to me, and I prefer her humility (even if it’s a bit false) to Poirot’s overweening pride. In all my years of reading Agatha Christie, I don’t think I’d ever made this distinction before. This is probably because I’d never before read either group of stories concentrated into such a short period of time without intermingling.