The Scotsman of Apsaid, 'It might have been thought that the possibilities of the super-detective, for the purposes of fiction, had been almost exhausted. With The Mysterious Affair at Styles and this volume to her credit (to say nothing of others) Miss Christie must be reckoned in the first rank of the detective story writers.' Poirot is infallibly and exasperatingly omniscient, well, that is the function of the detective in fiction.' Unlike The New York Times, the reviewer favourably compared some of the stories to those of Sherlock Holmes and concluded, 'We hope that the partnership will last long and yield many more narratives as exciting as these. All of them have point and ingenuity, and if M. There is no doubt about Miss Christie's success in the eleven tales (why not a round dozen?) published in this volume. But to pack mystery, surprise and a solution into three or four thousand words is to achieve a feat. With ample space almost any practised writer can pile complication upon complication, just as any man could made a puzzling maze out of a ten-acre field.

The Observer of Masaid, 'The short story is a sterner test of the 'detective' writer than the full-grown novel. But its appeal is disarmingly modest, and it will please the large public which relishes stories of crime, but likes its crime served decorously.' He began, 'Agatha Christie’s hero…is traditional almost to caricature, but his adventures are amusing and the problems which he unravels skilfully tangled in advance.' He did admit that, 'it is to be feared that some of the evidence collects would fare badly in criminal courts' but concluded, 'Miss Christie’s new book, in a word, is for the lightest of reading. The unnamed reviewer liked the book but seemed to consider the stories to be somewhat clichéd and not totally original, making several comparisons to Sherlock Holmes. The New York Times Book Review chose to review the 1924 UK publication of the novel in its edition of April 20 that year, rather than wait for the 1925 Dodd, Mead publication. The review further described Poirot as 'a thoroughly pleasant and entertaining person'. But we have no right to do so, for the story is quite original'. Poirot's adventures, we find a famous diamond that has been the eye of a god and a cryptic message that it will be taken from its possessor 'at the full of the moon' we are inclined to grow indignant on behalf of our dear old friend the moonstone. The review in the Times Literary Supplement of Apbegan with a note of caution but then became more positive: 'When in the first of M. The American version of the book, published one year later, featured an additional three stories which did not appear in book form in the UK until 1974 with the publication of Poirot's Early Cases.

The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan.

5.1 Hercule Poirot (The Disappearance of Mr.

Poirot investigates