An urgent cry for help brings Poirot to France…

An urgent cry for help brings Poirot to France. But he arrives too late to save his client, whose brutally stabbed body now lies face downwards in a shallow grave on a golf course.

But why is the dead man wearing his son’s overcoat? And who was the impassioned love-letter in the pocket for? Before Poirot can answer these questions, the case is turned upside down by the discovery of a second, identically murdered corpse…

I feel almost stupid for not realising that the Poirot series of books is told from Captain Hastings’ point of view. I didn’t get a true sense of this when I listened to “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” because it was a full-cast production, which read like a play rather than a narrated book. Hugh Fraser narrates this on audible and he is the actor who played Captain Hastings for 25 years. He knows what is required to narrate, and he does a fantastic job at narrative Poirot. His accent is on point, second only, in my mind, to David Suchet and vastly better than Peter Dinklage’s attempt in the first book.

I noticed that while listening to this, I had to focus extra hard to make sure what I was hearing actually went in. I primarily listened to this during my workday, when I was neck-deep in spreadsheets, losing the will to live, and blurring the lines. So, perhaps, I was too far gone to attempt to listen to anything!

I have come back to listening to this, and it has probably been about 2 weeks since I last listened. Life, as usual, happens. I admit, when I put it on to listen this morning, I had to rewind as the first couple of minutes went straight in one ear and out the others and I was listening but not taking in the words. I had to remind myself of what I was listening to with the book blurb.

So, as I have said before, this book is narrated by Hugh Fraser, who played Captain Hastings in the TV series. He does an excellent job of capturing not only Captain Hastings but also Poirot. Before listening to this book and the first in the series, I didn’t realise that they were from Captain Hastings’ point of view. It has allowed me to view the characters in a different light and to gain a different perspective on them.

In this case, Poirot and Hastings travel to France to meet the mysterious Paul Renauld, who has requested help. They arrive and are greeted with the news that Renauld is dead, stabbed in the back with a knife and left in a newly dug grave on a local golf course. Herein lies the mystery Poirot must unravel. It is, even to my processing abilities, a difficult narrative to follow. I don’t know whether to blame this on my passive listening or on the web being too tangled. I suspect it was a bit of both.

Poirot notices four key facts about the case.

1. A piece of lead piping is found near the body.
2. Only three female servants were in the villa as both Renauld’s son, Jack, and the chauffeur had been sent away.
3. An unknown person visited the day before.
4. Renauld’s immediate neighbour, Madame Daubreuil, had placed 200,000 francs into her bank account over recent weeks.

Listening from Hastings’ point of view, I had to make a conscious effort to avoid falling into the pitfalls of his own crime processing. Hastings is more of an ‘obvious answer’ man who takes things at face value rather than investigating the reasons behind. He, unlike Poirot, doesn’t use many of his grey cells. I think because the narrative is told from Hastings’s perspective, I was more inclined to write off any character that he was suspicious about, like the ‘lovely lady from the train’. I was definitely more cautious when piecing things together.

The complete Poirot TV series is currently on Netflix, and I am working my way through it. So, as I listen, I have a clear visual of what is happening. I think it is also adding to my overall listening.

It is, like many crimes, both fictional and real-life, motivated by money. A complicated motive for money that makes little sense, but to those involved. Over the course of the listen, it is revealed that Madame Daubreuil and Paul Renauld are both chosen names for people running from their past lives. Enter a plot of blackmail and mistrust. It would have been easy to concoct the plot around these two characters alone, having them kill each other, but that would have undermined the characters and been a waste of Poirot’s intelligence.

No, the plot is more devious. It is those who learn from their elders who are motivated by money. It is devious the lengths to which people go to claim what they believe is rightfully theirs. It is a lot of upheaval for a small amount of wealth.

I am trying to write without giving too much away. Of course, you’d have to be a Hermit not to have heard of Poirot or Agatha Christie, but I am under no illusion when it comes to how many people have actually read the books. Take me, for example: I have watched the TV show for years and listened to adaptations on the Radio and on the screen. I have never read the books, despite the first 4 Poirot books sitting on my TBR shelf for over 4 years. I felt almost daunted whenever I thought about reading them. Like I had an expectation to live up to. Live up to what? I do not know.

The ending of this book, in my opinion, is a bit haphazard. It is a complete ending if you squint really hard. But I think because the plot was a complicated tangle of wires going here, there, and everywhere, I wanted more of a concrete ending to what I was listening to, and the fact that it wasn’t a complete ‘done, dusted, and put in jail’ ending almost irked me.