4 out of 5 stars
2022 Re-Read
It's been 3 years since I read this and I thought I would remember the solution to this mystery. Nope! I got fooled again. Arthur Hastings and I should form a Clueless Club. At least when he's not in Argentina. Somehow I can't picture him as a successful rancher. But I digress….
I loved when Hastings declared that he didn't notice what people wore! Is this the same man who is always cognizant of the social status of the people he meets? He's always giving upper class folk the benefit of the doubt, right along with attractive women. It made me smile when Poirot told him that he should join a nudist colony!
Madame Christie introduces a new, snooty policeman in this novel. Crome, like Japp, would like to dismiss Poirot as old and foreign. And like Japp, he learns that his attitude is unwarranted. Christie has got the goods on her countrymen, knowing how insular and xenophobic the English were at this time. And, of course, there is still a tendency to discount older folks. Ageism has never really gone away.
A very pleasant diversion, allowing me to shirk my reading responsibilities towards a huge historical fantasy tome. Now I must return my nose to that particular grindstone!
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