It constantly amazes me how hazy even a really good mystery can become in my mind in the course of four years. Christie, even upon re-read, managed to lead me around by the nose. This time, there was no Hastings to share my confusion. Instead, Poirot's friend, M. Bouc, fills the role of bamboozled sounding board. Poirot treats him much the same, giving him all the facts and encouraging him to think. Sadly, real thought is not something that many people practice regularly. There are people in my circle who mistake feeling emotion or ruminating for reasoning, so I have sympathy for M. Poirot.
This is an ingenious mystery! Not a solution that a reader would readily anticipate, but one that makes perfect sense when laid out in the end by Poirot. I love the way that Christie does the unexpected. This is another of those instances where she is lenient with the criminal. I'm amazed at how often she is sympathetic to the law breaker.
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