Enjoyable short story with Poirot telling Hastings about one of his case failures when Hastings mentions his belief that Poirot had never known failure in his professional career. A rare story in which Poirot doesn’t guess the culprit. ( )

Poirot tells of a case to Captain Hastings which was for him a 'failure'. Virginie Mesnard asks Poirot to investigate the sudden death of her cousin by marriage of M. Paul Deroulard.
Another short enjoyable mystery ( )

This Hercule Poirot short story was first published in the UK in The Sketch magazine on May 23, 1923. US publication followed in The Blue Book magazine in February 1925.

One day while they are relaxing in front of a comfy fire, Captain Hastings asks Poirot if he ever made a mistake that had a bad effect on a case. Poirot then tells him a story about a suspicious death and deadly box of candy.

Very entertaining story! This is a bit of a flashback to Poirot's time as a Belgian detective before World War I caused him to come to England.

The television show Agatha Christie's Poirot adapted this story into an episode (Season 5, episode 6). The story is well done as usual, with changes made to main characters and events to lengthen the story into an 45 minute episode. It remains relatively true to the original story,with some embellishments.

I am having the best time reading through all of these Poirot stories! Each story is relatively short...only a few pages. The plots are varied and Poirot is his usual fussy but lovable self. I am reading each story while listening to an audio book recording as well. There is just something about hearing Poirot's dialogue in the correct accent that makes it so much more enjoyable! Plus, I don't know french....so nice to have the names and phrases contained in these stories read correctly, rather than my butchering of them when I read silently in my own head. :)

On to the next story: The Adventures of the Egyptian Tomb! ( )