Poirot has retired, so there's very little of him in this book. We only meet him in three occasions, when he's presented with the case, when he's told all the details, and at the end when he gives us the solution.
Personally I prefer when we see more of him, it's more fun, but I'm still happy enough because I can say I got two mistery out of three solved in this case (the easiest ones, of course). Not bad.
I don't pay enough attention , otherwise I would have spotted the clue to the third mistery, it was right there.
PLOT
Secretary Sheila Webb is sent to Wilbraham Crescent n. 19 for a job, she goes there and finds a dead man on the floor that the owner of the house has never met - an old blind woman. Colin Lamb works for Secret Services, and he's around there looking for a spy he thinks might live in that road, house n. 61 because he saw a piece of paper with the number on it. He gets involved in the murder from the girl running out of the house out of her senses in fear. The second victim is a collegue of Sheila, Edna Brent, and we know there was something on her mind keeping her worried, that she went to Sheila's house looking for her advice but didn't find her, and the second she tried to talk to the detective but was told by a policemen to come back next day because the Inspector was busy at the moment I knew she was a walking dead, and not walking for long I was sure. Poor thing.
Now to the things I got:
SPOILERS just to warn you!
So I was saying, the things I got right: First thing first, the obvious one, that the 61 was actually a 19 and he was reading it upside down, and the spy was miss Millicent Pebmarsh, cold rational and very smart woman; the second thing was who killed poor Edna. When she said she didn't understand 'what she said', it was obvious to me that she wasn't talking about Miss Pebmarsh (they had nothing to do with each other), nor she was talking about Sheila. The only reason to go to her house instead of speaking to her at the office was that she had to talk about her boss, Miss Martindale. What could she had said so strange that Edna wouldn't stop thinking about it? Miss Martindale only talked about the phone call she had received at 13:59 asking to send Sheila to that house. During office hours it was Edna who always answered the phone, what if that day she had stayed in the office during the break instead of going out, and had heard no phone calls? I thought it was the only possible thing and I was right, so I have guessed right who killed Edna and who was the spy, but I had no idea whatsoever on who killed the man or about who he was.
Of course, as usual I don't stop to give my grey cells time to work as Poirot does, I simply go on reading. Had I done that, or if I had a better memory, or if I were able to actually concentrate I would have spotted that, at least a big part of it, because the story of that woman heiress to a fortune that doesn't want to leave England because 'all her friends and her sister are there, everybody they know is there' was a big big clue. I didn't notice, but it's true that the inspector talking about her had said that she had received a lot of money because she was his only relative. !! So that sister she just talked about shouldn't exist. This is one of those things we should all have spotted; had I paid more attention, had I acted like all good detectives and taken notes ! Even Columbo writes everything down! I don't, I never do. I just go on reading.
As always I love Christie's writing!!
It may be a bit too much that Colin recognizes in Miss Pebmarsh the mother Sheila thought had died when she was little. He said it was because of her eyes, and we can't see them obviously. Honestly, even if I could see them I doubt very much I could be able to tell that two women have the same eyes therefore must be mother and daughter, but afer all Colin in a secret agent, and his work consists on looking at people in a different way from mine (although he never realised till the end that a 61 could also be a 19!!)
ITA sfida a Poirot
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