“Events come to people, not people to events. Why do some people have exciting lives and other people dull ones? Because of their surroundings? Not at all. One man may travel to the ends of the earth and nothing will happen to him. There will be a massacre a week before he arrives, and an earthquake the day after he leaves, and the boat that he nearly took will be shipwrecked. And another man may live at Balham and travel to the City every day, and things will happen to him. He will be mixed up with blackmailing gangs and beautiful girls and motor bandits. There are people with a tendency to shipwrecks–even if they go on a boat on an ornamental lake, something will happen to it.”
A dinner party of famous actor Sir Charles Cartwright, which hosts thirteen guests, turns out to be particularly unlucky for Reverand Babbington. His death comes on suddenly after a drink from his martini glass, however any initial suspicions are disapproved after an analysis reveals no trace of poison in the glass. After all, who would ever want to harm the well liked Reverand? The event doesn’t sit well with a couple of key individuals, and another death under similar circumstances leads to an investigation that catches the interest of Poirot himself.
“But yes, exactly that. Think! With thought, all problems can be solved.”
Oof, this one was a challenge to get through. The story moves quite slowly and feels disjointed. There are three characters that are the main focus and guide us through the events and act as investigators, with Poirot becoming a key fixture much later in the book. I liked one of these characters, was indifferent about another, and could not stand the third. There are Poirot books I have read where he is absent for portions of the story and it works, but here I really missed his presence. With every page I was hoping that he would hop on the scene and take over. I usually breeze through Agatha Christie books, but I kept putting this one down and if I had not been doing a read through all Poirot books, I would have not bothered to finish it. The last quarter of the story does pick up and Poirot works his magic. I especially liked the way the story concludes with such a classic Poirot thing to say. The actual conclusion to the mystery is not really satisfying and seems fairly ridiculous in terms of motive. While there are some bright spots, this one was a miss for me and my least favourite Poirot book so far.
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