Poirot Investigates (Paperback)

"The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan" - (14 March, 1923) Locked-room theft. Hastings, having had a windfall, persuades Poirot to join him on holiday at the Grand Metropolitan in Brighton. When a fellow guest's pearls are stolen, nobody seems to have had opportunity both to steal and conceal them.

"The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim" - (28 March, 1923) Locked-room disappearance: the senior partner of a financial firm went for a walk, just before meeting a competitor in his own home - but Davenheim was never seen again. Japp bets Poirot a fiver that he can't solve it without leaving his flat, even if he gets all the information Japp does.

"The Adventure of 'The Western Star'" - (11 April, 1923) Movie star Mary Marvell has been receiving mysterious letters, saying that her husband's wedding gift to her - a fabulous diamond - is actually one of a pair, the stolen eyes of an idol. And now she and her husband, Gregory Rolf, are negotiating a deal to film at Yardly Chase - where the Star of the East is the most famous gem of Lord Yardly's collection. (Incidentally, the Valerie Saintclair and Lord Cronshaw cases mentioned in passing can be found in _The Under Dog_).

"The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor" - (18 April, 1923) An insurance company hires Poirot to check on the death of a man who, on the verge of bankruptcy, had taken out a lot of life insurance just before his death. (Poirot, with his love of psychology, actually stoops so low as to test suspects with word-association games here.)

"The Kidnapped Prime Minister" - (25 April, 1923) Set during WWI, after _The Mysterious Affair at Styles_ but before Hastings became Poirot's roommate. The kidnapping occurred just after an assassination attempt and just before a major peace conference; the government is afraid that without him, they'll get "a premature and disastrous peace." Poirot wonders why, after trying to shoot him, the kidnappers are now making an effort to keep him alive. Contrast this case with another kidnapping much later in Poirot's career: "The Girdle of Hyppolita" in _The Labours of Hercules_ (Christie's ability to flesh out characters and make the reader care about the victim had increased greatly by then).

"The Million Dollar Bond Robbery" - (2 May, 1923) Poirot would have loved to investigate the theft of the London & Scottish Bank's bonds during their transfer to New York, if it hadn't happened on an ocean liner (he's prone to seasickness). Fortunately, the problem has come to *him*.

"The Adventure of the Cheap Flat" - (9 May, 1923) Hastings and his friend Gerald Parker (who continually makes real estate deals in London, constantly moving about) meet the Robinsons at a dinner party, and the question is, why is their landlord virtually giving them a furnished flat in fashionable Knightsbridge?

"The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge" - (16 May, 1923) Locked-room. Poirot, laid up with influenza, solves this from his sickbed as Hastings and Japp provide him with data; Roger and Zoe Havering have called on him to investigate the death of Roger's rich uncle.

"The Chocolate Box" - (23 May, 1923) Though narrated by Hastings, this time he is merely relaying the story that Poirot is telling *him*: a story from Poirot's career as a policeman in Belgium, before WWI.

"The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb" - (26 September, 1923) Soon after the discovery of Tut's tomb, another excavation near Cairo found the tomb of an 8th dynasty pharaoh (much earlier than Tut). And when members of the expedition begin dying tragically, and the papers pounce on the idea of a curse, one of the widows hires Poirot to sort out fact from fancy, since her son has now taken his father's place.

"The Veiled Lady" - (3 October, 1923) Just as Poirot laments that the criminal underworld fears to do anything interesting with him around, a blackmail victim (hence the veil, for discretion) engages him to retrieve a compromising letter. The story plays out in a way inviting comparison with Doyle's "The Case of Charles Augustus Milverton".

"The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman" - (24 October, 1923) Dr. Hawker, a neighbour, is summoned from an evening at Poirot's by an emergency call from Count Foscatini, but nobody at his apartment building knows of anything wrong - and when the manager lets them in with a passkey, the Count is found dead in the empty flat, hit from behind by a marble statue.

"The Case of the Missing Will" - (31 October, 1923) Miss Violet Marsh's uncle disapproved of book-learning, especially for women. But she was his only relation, so upon his death, his will offered a sporting challenge: his house is at her disposal for a year, before going to charity. She engages Poirot to find the missing will. I also recommend Dorothy L. Sayers' "The Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will" (see _Lord Peter Views the Body_), in which an uncle chose to attack a quite different characteristic.

"The Lost Mine" - (21 November, 1923) As with 'The Chocolate Box', Hastings is relaying a story that Poirot has told him: the story of how Poirot came to earn a fee paid with 14000 shares in the Burma Mines, Limited.