Sad Cypress (1940)
Blurb:
My review:
One of Agatha Christie's simplest books, almost an exercise in minimalism: the reader should be able to deduce the murderer's identity without much difficulty, but will be puzzled as to how the crime was committed. Elinor Carlisle, on trial for the murder of the protégée of her elderly aunt, also murdered, is believed innocent by Dr. Peter Lord (a reference to Dorothy L. Sayers' detective and to the 1930 novel, Strong Poison), who calls in Poirot. Since this is a character-driven drama rather than an orthodox detective story, Poirot plays a much smaller part in this story than in others, appearing only in Part II and at the very end of Part III; his detection is workmanlike, if routine and rather pedestrian; all the clues are given, and the solution hinges on the identity of the next-of-kin, a falsehood and a scandal buried in the past. The scientific method is worthy of John Rhode.
Note also discussions of euthanasia, as much of an issue then as today; John Rhode's The Murders in Praed Street, Dorothy L. Sayers' Unnatural Death, Gladys Mitchell's Speedy Death and When Last I Died all concern euthanasia.