I expect that reading these chronologically will make them read a little differently. It will be interesting to look at Christie's development of the continuing characters. In this book, the first one, Poiret is almost ludicrous, a parody of something, but I'm not sure what. It would almost seem that Christie is indulging in the "everything not British is ridiculous" attitude that raises American hackles, but she has also made Hastings, Poiret's "Watson" a whiny self-important character who typifies that precise attitude with a vengeance.
Hastings, of course, narrates and spares us no possible observation of the un-Britishness of Poiret - and in every chapter details a fit of pique of his own at being shown up by the absurd little foreigner. An absurd little foreigner who, by the way, he considers a close friend. It rather reminds me of certain nameless individuals toward whom I feel a mild pity because I do not consider them quite bright, but who in turn are condescending to me for the same reason.
This book introduces the Christie take on several things which, if they were not cliche at the time she wrote, have become considered cliche. But, again, I wonder if they are considered cliche because no one else has been able to reproduce them more successfully. The British country house mystery is virtually Christie's personal property. It has the virtue of limiting the suspect pool while providing a setting of luxury and privilege which many of us enjoy "experiencing" - if only through the vehicle of a well-written story. This is also a "locked room" mystery. I think most mystery writers try that on at some point.
We are led from character to character in the role of "suspect of the moment" only to loop back to the original and obvious suspect - with the surprise lying in identity of the murderer's accomplice. Good fun. I'm looking forward to reading my way through them again.
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