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    Peril at End House: B2
    Peril at End House: B2
    Peril at End House: B2
    Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

    Peril at End House: B2

    Written by Agatha Christie

    Narrated by Roger May

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners.

    Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully abridged versions are shorter with the language targeted at learners of English.

    Hercule Poirot, the famous detective, is on holiday in the south of England when he meets a lady called Nick Buckley. Nick has had a lot of mysterious ‘accidents’. First, her car brakes failed. Then, a large rock just missed her when she was walking, and later, a painting almost fell on her while she was asleep. Finally, Poirot finds a bullet hole in her hat!

    Nick is in danger and needs Poirot’s help. Can he find the guilty person before Nick is harmed?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateOct 13, 2016
    ISBN9780008210427
    Peril at End House: B2
    Author

    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.

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    Reviews for Peril at End House

    3.5/5

    923 ratings31 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Poirot gently uncrossed his knees, withdrew his gaze from the ceiling, and looked the young man full in the face. “My name is Hercule Poirot,” he said quietly, “and I am probably the greatest detective in the world.Christie, Agatha. The Mystery of the Blue Train: Hercule Poirot Investigates (Hercule Poirot series Book 6) (p. 149). William Morrow Paperbacks. Kindle Edition.I love Hercule Poirot. It's hard not to. Not only is he a fantastic detective he's a total character. In Peril at End House, Poirot and Hastings are on holiday when they come across a woman who has been shot at and upon further investigation; the target of a number of murder attempts. Unfortunately it's kind of hard to insist there's danger when the person has never heard of you. ‘I am Hercule Poirot.’ ‘Oh!’ said Nick, in rather a flat tone. ‘Oh, yes.’ ‘You know my name, eh?’ ‘Oh, yes.’ She wriggled uncomfortably. A hunted look came into her eyes. Poirot observed her keenly. ‘You are not at ease. That means, I suppose, that you have not read my books.’ ‘Well—no—not all of them. But I know the name, of course.’ ‘Mademoiselle, you are a polite little liar.’ (I started, remembering the words spoken at the Majestic Hotel that day after lunch.) ‘I forget—you are only a child—you would not have heard. So quickly does fame pass. My friend there—he will tell you.’ Nick looked at me. I cleared my throat, somewhat embarrassed. ‘Monsieur Poirot is—er—was—a great detective,’ I explained. ‘Ah! my friend,’ cried Poirot. ‘Is that all you can find to say? Mais dis donc! Say then to Mademoiselle that I am a detective unique, unsurpassed, the greatest that ever lived!’ ‘That is now unnecessary,’ I said coldly. ‘You have told her yourself.’ ‘Ah, yes, but it is more agreeable to have been able to preserve the modesty. One should not sing one’s own praises.’ ‘One should not keep a dog and have to bark oneself,’ agreed Nick, with mock sympathy. ‘Who is the dog, by the way? Dr Watson, I presume.’ ‘My name is Hastings,’ I said coldly. ‘Battle of—1066,’ said Nick. ‘Who said I wasn’t educated?Ouch. What a burn. I'd say poor Hastings but I've never really liked him all that much. I was disappointed to find him return in this book but at least he provides good comic relief. I do enjoy Hastings being mocked. I didn't really like the characters in this but the mystery was interesting. I totally thought I had it figured out - but I would be wrong. Man, I really didn't see that coming. I thought for sure Nick was engaged to Michael Sefton and the murder attempts were because he inherited money. I was busy congratulating myself. I really don't want to say I resembled Hastings - but I resembled Hastings in my praise of how great I was. Talk about being taken down a peg when I realised I was wrong. So so wrong. Although there's some consolation that Hastings was also wrong. And is always wrong.Commander Challenger—’ ‘He’s all right,’ I put in quickly. ‘I’m sure of that. A real pukka sahib.’ ‘Doubtless he has been to what you consider the right school. Happily, being a foreigner, I am free from these prejudices, and can make investigations unhampered by them. But I will admit that I find it hard to connect Commander Challenger with the case. In fact, I do not see that he can be connected.’ ‘Of course he can’t,’ I said warmly. Poirot looked at me meditatively. ‘You have an extraordinary effect on me, Hastings. You have so strongly the flair in the wrong direction that I am almost tempted to go by it! You are that wholly admirable type of man, honest, credulous, honourable, who is invariably taken in by any scoundrel. You are the type of man who invests in doubtful oil fields, and non-existent gold mines. From hundreds like you, the swindler makes his daily bread. Ah, well—I shall study this Commander Challenger. You have awakened my doubts.’ ‘My dear Poirot,’ I cried, angrily. ‘You are perfectly absurd. A man who has knocked about the world like I have—’ ‘Never learns,’ said Poirot, sadly. ‘It is amazing—but there it is.’Christie, Agatha. Peril at End House (Poirot) (Hercule Poirot Series) (pp. 46-47). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.It was pretty funny to find out Poirot was right. Hastings was so shocked.‘It’s going to be a very unpleasant business,’ he said, quietly. ‘I must see about some kind of defence for her, I suppose.’ ‘There will be no need, I think,’ said Poirot, gently. ‘Not if I am correct in my assumptions.’ He turned suddenly on Challenger. ‘That’s where you put the stuff, isn’t it?’ he said. ‘In those wrist-watches.’ ‘I—I—’ The sailor stammered—at a loss. ‘Do not try and deceive me—with your hearty good-fellow manner. It has deceived Hastings—but it does not deceive me. You make a good thing out of it, do you not—the traffic in drugs—you and your uncle in Harley Street.’ ‘M. Poirot.’ Challenger rose to his feet. My little friend blinked up at him placidly. ‘You are the useful “boy friend”. Deny it, if you like. But I advise you, if you do not want the facts put in the hands of the police—to go.’ And to my utter amazement, Challenger did go. He went from the room like a flash. I stared after him open-mouthed. Poirot laughed. ‘I told you so, mon ami. Your instincts are always wrong. C’est épatant!’ Christie, Agatha. Peril at End House (Poirot) (Hercule Poirot Series) (pp. 236-237). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition. I think the only thing I liked better was the reason why Lazarus wanted to buy the painting. ‘I ask your pardon, but, of all my questions, there is one still unanswered. Tell me, why did you offer fifty pounds for that picture? It would give me much pleasure to know—so as, you comprehend, to leave nothing unanswered.’ Lazarus looked at him with an impassive face for a minute or two. Then he smiled. ‘You see, M. Poirot,’ he said. ‘I am a dealer.’ ‘Exactly.’ ‘That picture is not worth a penny more than twenty pounds. I knew that if I offered Nick fifty, she would immediately suspect it was worth more and would get it valued elsewhere. Then she would find that I had offered her far more than it was worth. The next time I offered to buy a picture she would not have got it valued.’ ‘Yes, and then?’ ‘The picture on the far wall is worth at least five thousand pounds,’ said Lazarus drily. ‘Ah!’ Poirot drew a long breath. ‘Now I know everything,’ he said happily.Christie, Agatha. Peril at End House (Poirot) (Hercule Poirot Series) (pp. 238-239). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition. I liked that all the questions were wrapped up by the end - even if I guessed wrong on all accounts. And it was funny. 3.5 stars.
    • 5/5
      Twice I thought I had this one solved, but I was wrong on both accounts and by a wide margin. The characters in this mystery are lively and made for an unusual tale. It is my favorite Poirot to date.
    • 3/5
      Peril at End House shows a naïve Hercule Poirot that falls under the spells of Magdala “Nick” Buckley. Each chapter displays a foolish man that believes everything a young, beautiful woman tells him. Poirot does not allow the little gray cells to invade this case until the final chapters. Nick enlists Poirot to guard against multiple plots of killing her. But why would anyone want to kill Nick, she has no money? Then a glimmer appears when Nick tells of her engagement to Michael Seton, a world class flyer. Michael is lost in his attempted flight, and many think Nick will inherit his estate. The plots of murder continue, but instead of killing Nick, her cousin Maggie is killed. Why? What is Poirot doing to protect Nick and solve this mystery? I would love to talk with Agatha Christie and ask her many questions: where does she find all these strange names for her characters and how does she establish the steps of the killer? This story presents an interesting tale but shows the weakness of Poirot.
    • 4/5
      A fine Hercule Poirot novel, with the story being narrated by Hastings. Even though this is the 8th novel (with many more to come), the career of Poirot is portrayed to be at the twilight, which I thought was interesting.

      I found the story to be engaging, but most of the characters were not fully developed in my opinion. I didn't have much empathy for the cast, except for Poirot and Hastings, but they are developed in all the books.

      Nevertheless, the mystery is satisfying to follow and sleuth out.
    • 4/5
      This is not the very best Poirot novel there is, but definitely one I enjoyed more than some others. I liked the setting very much - a hotel and an old country house in Cornwall - on the one hand because it's such a classic setting, and on the other hand because right now, what could be better than a seaside holiday in a place as beautiful as Cornwall.The story intrigued me from the beginning and although I guessed a few parts of the solution, I did not guess the culprit. I feel like the characters are a little flat in this one, and Poirot was boasting about himself a little too much, but the story and the case captivated me and it was just the kind of comfort read I was looking for.
    • 4/5
      Hercule involves himself when a light-hearted young woman discounts the possibility that there have been a number of murder attempts on her.Typical Christie mystery set in a country house in Cornwall, and as usual Poirot collects together all the characters involved at a final meeting and dramatic reveal.4* because I couldn’t guess the ‘why done it’.
    • 4/5
      The sparkle of Dame Agatha's writing and the verve of her plotting in her absolute peak years, the 1930s, is a sheer joy to read. Poirot and Hastings, on their way to Cornwall's fleshpots, meet Miss Nick Buckley. She is a lovely local landowner, a bit short of the ready (to borrow Sir Plum's locution for Bertie Wooster) but possessed of a glorious ramshackle seaside house. She inveigles Poirot and Hastings into her world to help her deal with mysterious attempts on her life. Since she has no money, no prospects of getting any, and a mortgaged house, who's trying to kill her and why?The plot hinges on a shared family name, a unique coincidence that could not be foreseen, and a cold and calculating soul looking out for Number One. Nothing is quite as simple as the surface suggests; the threads of the subplots do gum up the works a bit; but in the end, there is a happy resolution and ma'at is maintained. No one profits from their crimes. No one suffers injustice. There is a single example of the Old Boy's Network in action, and that wasn't quite so nice. But it's the chain of coincidence that bugs me the most. It's clearly intentional, and I suppose you could argue that the coincidences are seized upon by the ruthless killer as a further example of astute quick thinking in service of one's own survival. Maybe a bit like The Usual Suspects with Our Kind of People.Still. Not quite the top drawer, Dame Agatha.
    • 3/5
      Nice, relatively early Poirot. Hastings, back from the Argentine, and Poirot are on holidays in the south of England and celebrating Poirot's retirement. After turning down an urgent plea for assistance from the Home Secretary Poirot is drawn into the mystery of the attempts on the life of a reckless, poor, upper class young woman. This is more the Jeeves-ish end of the Christie oeuvre, with rather stereotyped characterisation but it's an enjoyable quick read. (I picked this up after a picture fell from the wall onto a family member's bed and my sister said "that's what happened in Peril at End House! - life imitated art!).
    • 4/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed Peril At End House by Agatha Christie. This story features Hercule Poirot and his long suffering friend, Hastings, as they get involved with a young woman whose life has been threatened on numerous occasions. Things take a serious turn when, in a case of mistaken identity, the young lady’s cousin is shot dead. Poirot in his egotistic, bombastic manner puts all the pieces together and solves the mystery.What struck me as most interesting is the reference Hastings makes to a failed case of Poirot’s. A case involving a box of chocolates. In fact, whenever Hastings wants to warn Poirot that he is getting too high-handed, he just has to say the words “Chocolate Box” to draw him in. I wonder if this is Christie’s tongue-in-cheek reference to Anthony Berkeley’s book, The Case of the Poisoned Chocolates, which was published just two years before Peril at End House. While Peril At End House isn’t the finest of Christie’s mysteries, it was an entertaining read. Technically this was a re-read as I had originally enjoyed the book in the 1970’s but I literally had no memory of the story. I enjoyed revisiting her fussy, little detective and the rest of the inventive characters she has peopled this book with and I freely admit that she totally baffled me again.
    • 3/5
      3.5/5 stars

      While on holiday famous detective, Hercule Poirot, meets a young woman whose life has been in danger and has escaped death on several different occasions, including directly in front of Poirot. Wanting to protect this girl from a fatal event, Poirot examines the evidence and psychology in order to solve the case.

      Mystery novels are not my go-to for reading. However, Agatha Christie's writing is interesting and keeps the reader's attention. I definitely did not expect that ending, which to me is the sign of a great mystery. I liked this novel a bit less because it was slower in the beginning and didn't grab me as fast as other Christie novels.
    • 3/5
      This was another Poirot book that I don't recall having read before. (I've read some of Christie's titles many times, while others are a first as I make my way through her entire list from start to finish.) In this one, Poirot and Hastings befriend a woman who has had several attempts made on her life in recent days, and yet another attempt is made in the presence of our two pals, who are vacationing along the English Channel coast. It didn't take me long to figure out what was going on, and when the key action sequence transpired, it was very obvious to me what was taking place. I did miss out on a few minor things involving a couple of B-plots, but, as is often the case, it was because Christie didn't offer up the needed information until she did so in retrospect. Still, it was a fun read in the typical Christie fashion, and a solid outing for Hercule and his little grey cells.
    • 4/5
      Peril at End House was a great mystery to follow. It did not pretended to be anything than a straight forward murder mystery. There was hardly any social commentary - and none of which I remember to be dubious (well, not as dubious as some of Dame Agatha's other ones), and I did not guess the murderer until the very end. It also had some of the delightful conversations where Poirot pokes fun at Hastings - either about his understanding of women or his admiration for the capabilities of English sportsmen:

      "Still no news of that flying fellow, Seton, in his round-the-world flight. Pretty plucky, these fellows. That amphibian machine of his, the Albatross, must be a great invention. Too bad if he's gone west. Not that they've given up hope yet. He may have made one of the Pacific Islands."
      "The Solomon islanders are still cannibals, are they not?" inquired Poirot pleasantly.
      "Must be a fine fellow. That sort of thing makes one feel it's a good thing to be an Englishman after all."
      "It consoles for the defeats at Wimbledon," said Poirot.
    • 4/5
      The seventh novel-length adventure of Hercule Poirot finds him and Hastings in Cornwall, in the unusual position of trying to prevent a murder rather than solve one that's already been committed. This one features loads of suspects and Poirot is forced to eat an unusual amount of humble pie, though of course he spits it all back up in the end like the sleek, self-satisfied cat he really is. As usual with Dame Christie, I gleaned bits and pieces of the eventual dénouement as the story progressed but there enough surprises left in the end to make it enjoyable.
    • 3/5
      Christie was feeling so comfortable with her detectives' fame that she indulged in quite a bit of quiet humour at their expense, as well as poking fun at mystery-stories in general.The other characters were "stock" although the references to the between-wars upper-class drug-culture lent some piquancy to the narrative (Sayers referenced the same milieu in one of her Wimsey novels).The clues were fairly laid, but ultimately too implausible for believability. Without revealing the perpetrator, I want to point out that,at the time, the psychology of a sociopath might not have been bandied about by the population as it is today, but the personality-character traits were plainly known to Christie (and others) .SPOILER FOLLOWS The idea that a 20-something young English gel could outsmart Poirot might have been fun for Christie to write, but it is rationally impossible for Nick to have carried out the complex scheme, and unlikely she would have even thought out how to do it. The name gimmick was good, although I actually twigged to that one almost as soon as Poirot did.
    • 1/5


      What a way to begin the year.... with a loser!

      M. Poirot & Hastings are on holiday, staying at a beach side hotel..... Enter a young woman, Nick, who has been shot at and has had a few other near attempts on her life in the past 3 days....

      M. Poirot takes these attempts very seriously, but Nick merely laughs them off. M. Poirot not one to allow murder to pass undetected assigns himself to Nick & her house party, so that he might protect her.

      During the fireworks, both Nick & her cousin go back in the house for their coats. The cousin is found shot to death wearing Nick's the shawl, proof that Nick is in danger.

      I didn't like this book, I didn't like the characters...... I also didn't like the constant barrage of forced dialog between Poirot & Hastings. Hastings was his usual inept self, and Poirot was all conjecture, exclamations, & prattle.
    • 3/5
      Hercule Poirot mystery # 8 has the “retired” detective on holiday with his friend Hastings at the Cornish seaside town of St. Loo. A mystery lands in their laps when a young heiress, the current owner of the once magnificent End House, admits that she’s had several near misses in the last few days. Nick Buckley can’t imagine why anyone would try to kill her, but Poirot insists she is in grave danger, and, indeed, there are several more attempts. Unfortunately her cousin is shot instead when she’s mistaken for Nick while wearing Nick’s Chinese shawl.

      This is a fine example of the kinds of puzzling cases Christie is so good at crafting. We have a large cast of interesting characters – a sullen housemaid, a sweet ingénue, a suspicious Australian couple, a best friend (who’s married to a drunk), an aviator who has gone missing during an around-the-world mission, an art dealer, and a penniless former Navy commander. There are considerable plot twists, and just when you are sure you have it figured out, Christie throws another curve at you.

      On the whole an entertaining summer read.
    • 4/5
      A blithe and snappy Christie in a classic configuration: Poirot and Hastings take a holiday on the Cornish coast and become involved with a young socialite, Mademoiselle "Nick," who has survived multiple murder attempts. Poirot takes it upon himself to protect her from further misfortune but (somewhat uncharacteristically) fails to be vigilant during a loud fireworks display, allowing someone else to be shot in the young woman's place. With the killer still at large and frustrated by his mistake, Poirot focuses his efforts to keep Nick from an untimely end that could come from any corner.This is Christie by the numbers, at a point in her career (1932) when she could really first be said to have patterns and tropes emerging in her work. It's probably around this point that Christie starts considering phasing Captain Hastings out - he'll be gone from the novels in another five years - and Japp is already relegated to little more than an extended cameo. Still, this is very much the Poirot of the popular perception, fussy and a bit exaggerated, without the "Papa Poirot" speeches or tangents into Catholicism that occasionally show up in the earlier books. As such, Peril at End House is probably a strong candidate for the first "regular" Poirot novel - even coming, as it does, seventh in the series, and well after the runaway success of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It's a strong formula, and if it seems a little familiar in retrospect, that doesn't stop it being entertaining. The book practically glides along: it's incredibly "readable." Christie will stick to the same basic framework and tone for the Poirot mysteries for almost another decade, an unusually prolific period in her career; there are no less than fourteen Poirot novels between this one and Five Little Pigs in 1942, with several of them regarded as classics. It's only after the war - and Christie's own fears of being killed in the Blitz, which led to the writing and ferreting away of Curtain - that the stories start to take a far darker turn. This is, effectively, the Poirot everyone remembers, and the Poirot everyone wants to revisit. It's like your favorite childhood candy: nothing terribly substantial but full of nostalgia and pleasant memories. There are far worse ways to spend a couple of afternoons poolside than with Hercule Poirot, his friend Hastings, and the mysterious goings-on at End House.
    • 3/5
      Another good entry in the Poirot series by la Christie. I found this a remarkable one, since for the first time I figured out who committed the murder before Poirot did himself (at least, in the story). :-)

      It strikes me however how very much her storylines rely on the particularities of society so typical to the era they are written in. The position of women, the reliability of promises, the pose one needs to hold in public, etc... To me, this adds an interesting layer into Christie's books as it kind of allows me to immerse myself into the world my grandparents grew up in.
    • 2/5
      Poirot is on holiday in Cornwall, he is talking to Captain Hastings and then he meets Nick Buckley who tells of her close situations with death, and Poirot thinks someone is trying to kill her. Nick treats it all as a joke but Poirot is convinced that she is in danger,so he founds that it is true, when Nick lends her shawl to her cousin Maggie. She is shot when she is wearing Nick´s shawl.He then starts to find clues, to investigate people, just for helping Nick.Unknown words:Shawl: a piece of wool or other material worn, especially by women, about the shoulders, or the head and shoulders, in place of a coat or hat outdoorsHilt:the handle of a sword or dagger.Baffle:to frustrate or confoundDictum:an authoritative pronouncement; judicial assertion.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed that, the end is astonishing. One of the better Poirot novels, methinks. The plot is easy and yet the solution takes some guts.
    • 2/5
      So, after 4 books which gleaned 5 stars, this dud arrives. This book doesn't really deserves 2 stars but I had to judge it as a re read. The solution would have been breathtaking. But I remember only too well the outcome. I only read it because I didn't remember the title of Peril at End House. The book does not hold well as it's not a cozy mystery. There's no coziness, no nastiness, no sadness, no doom, no (in my opinion) romance even. It's a big nothing.It's just one of those attempts of bending the rules of mystery writing. A coup that Agatha Christie pulls off but with little aplomb. The red herrings are too unlikely and ponderous. St Loo, the location, seems like a nest of crime. Too much not interesting stuff happens in too few days. I don't care for this book's characters, and therefore I don't care for the book itself. Poirot was very bland in it. He cannot be interesting by himself, however clever his deductions are. He's not even that eccentric. Hastings was a waste of space. I don't like that duo much. Poirot is a necessity for explaining, other than that he doesn't contribute a lot to the atmosphere. I will remind myself never to read this paltry offering again. I hope there's not too many Agatha Christie books like that.That should have been the end of my review, but for those who haven't read this book, I request you to at least read the first few pages and if you like the style and the setting, do go for it. You may extract from it more than I could. After all, this book might be even a darling of the critics, a classic that I'm dissing. A good review lets the reader be the judge. I rest my case.
    • 4/5
      Peril at End House is a worthy entry in Christie's Hercule Poirot portfolio. The story contains plenty of murder, intrigue and deception to satisfy any lover of mysteries.At the start Poirot is retired and intends to stay that way. His endearing conceit lets slip that England won't have their finest detective to help them solve crimes anymore, but it's time to move aside for a younger generation. Naturally, a murder eventually finds Poirot and his sense of duty pulls him back into the fold. No doubt his innate curiosity had something to do with it too.I appreciate the charm of Poirot being slightly off his game in this book as he is occasionally caught unaware by events. Seeing the famed detective flustered from time to time is a welcomed departure.
    • 4/5
      Nick Buckley is a pretty young woman living in a ramshackle mansion on the English coast. She seems to be terribly accident prone, with the brakes failing on her car, a falling boulder barely missing her, and an oil painting almost crushing her in bed. Luckily (or is it?) for her, Hercule Poirot is taken in by this girl and her “accidents” when he discovers a bullet-hole in Nick's sun hat. Hercule comes out of retirement to protect the girl and unravel the mystery of a murder that hasn't yet been committed.When I checked this out from the library I hadn’t realized that I had recently watched the BBC Poirot solve this case. At first I was disappointed I already knew the end, but I found I listened to the story differently and was able to pick up on some subtle clues and foreshadowing. One thing that really struck me was how much of an ass Hastings was in this book. He has this superiority complex with nothing to be superior about. It seems his role in the book was to blurt out inane observations to have Poirot make sense of them and as a result to highlight how much smarter, and genteel, Poirot is. I thought this was a heavy handed tactic. And it was even more disappointing, especially since this audio book was read by Hugh Fraser, who plays a likeable (albeit still slightly bumbling) Hastings in the BBC series.
    • 2/5
      All in all a rather unspectacular outing for Poirot and Hastings. Hastings seems to enjoy marriage mainly by not being on the same continent as his wife and he becomes, book by book, less an active part of the investigation. Poirot seems to be a caricature of himself and indeed only “solves” the case after all the facts are basically dropped in his lap and after he has clearly mis-solved it. Once again we see that there are at least two sets of laws in England; one for the rich/members of the gentry and the other for the poor. Japp appears on the scene for no reason and Poirot wanders around speaking in riddles for no purpose. Not one of Christie’s stronger efforts.
    • 4/5
      abridged audiobook, read by Hugh Fraser, abridged by Kati Nicholl, 3 CD set, running time approx 3 hoursPoirot has retired, and is taking his leisure in a seaside town, determined not to take on any new cases. But when a pretty young woman by the nickname of Nick tells him about a series of near-fatal accidents that have befallen her, he cannot resist temptation. The accidents are clearly not accidents, and the young lady must be protected. He is determined to unmask the killer before one of the accidents proves fatal. Alas, the killer strikes again -- but strikes down Nick's cousin, who had the misfortune to be wearing Nick's distinctive wrap. Now Poirot'spersonal pride is at stake, and there is still Nick to protect...Red herrings and side plots abound, but Poirot gets there in the end. It's a beautifully constructed book, with the answer right in front of the reader from early in the book, concealed by some artful misdirection. The audiobook is read by Hugh Fraser. who plays Hastings in the tv series. Fraser is generally a good reader, but I found his portrayal of Poirot rather off-putting. He uses a very strong accent that in comparison with Suchet's performance sounds like an overplayed stereotype. Of course, part of the problem here is that Suchet *is* Poirot for me, and anything else would sound wrong -- and my subconscious attention is drawn to it because Hastings sounds right.In spite of which, I enjoyed this 3 CD set a lot. The story has been abridged well, and I enjoy listening to Hugh Fraser. I happened to pick this up in The Works for four pounds, and think that it was superb value for money at that price. List price is 13 pounds, although the online shops are listing it for less. I might think twice about paying full price for others in the series because of my issue with Fraser's portrayal of Poirot, but I wouldn't have considered it a waste of money. One minor point with the cheap version offered in The Works -- it's a very simple case with only one spindle for the 3 CDs, so you have to lift the first discs out to get at the later discs, with an additional risk of scratching one eventually. It's also available in download.
    • 5/5
      Hercule Poirot Stumbles Across a Difficult ChallengeThis book is exactly what you come to expect from an Agatha Christie mystery, but with a change in Hercule Poirot, the famous detective and star of this mystery series. He has just retired and is slowly settling into a quiet, calm life of leisure and is refusing to be called back into duty. His mind, he thinks, is made up. However, a new mystery finds him, small and subtle at first, then shows itself to have a sinister meaning. He can’t help but observe that which is right in front of him, and without meaning to, he is drawn into its web, and begins to apply his detective skills.The great Hercule Poirot, who is known far and wide for his unmatched detective skills, can’t resist asking one question, then another, then another. A perplexing and potentially deadly set of circumstances takes shape, and his concern for the wellbeing of a young woman he happens to meet, leads him to investigate. However, the motives and players behind this mystery prove themselves difficult for him to ascertain. Where he was always bursting with confidence and assuredness in his perceptions, skills, and outcomes, he is now struggling with something unfamiliar to him – a shaky self-confidence that worsens and lingering uncertainty. He finds himself bumbling about without meaning to. As events unfold, he feels powerless to stop them. His once sharp and nearly infallible intellect and investigative skills seem to be outmatched. His frustration grows and so do his mistakes, missteps, and incorrect assumptions.With its intriguing twists and turns, Peril at End House is a very engaging and rewarding mystery tale and will be sure to please die-hard Agatha Christie fans as well as those new to the stories.Rai Aren, co-author of Secret of the Sands
    • 5/5
      Originally published in the US in 1932, and then in the UK later in the same year. I listened to an unabridged audio book read by Hugh Fraser. It features Hercule Poirot, Captain Hastings, and, towards the end, Inspector Japp.It is Poirot's 6th novel, and there's a couple of gentle references in the novel to his previous case THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN published in 1928.Hastings and Poirot are having a week's holiday at St. Loo in Cornwall. Hastings has recently returned from Argentina, seemingly having left his wife behind. Poirot has retired and turns down a request from the Home Secretary to go up to London to take on a most urgent case. However he reserves the right to take on a new case if it interests him.As always Poirot is attracted to a pretty young thing, Miss Nick Buckley, who appears to have recently been shot at. When he hears that she has had several near encounters with death just recently Poirot decides to make her protection his business. Nick Buckley is a young flapper living well beyond her means at End House. She is surrounded by a coterie of similar care-free young things who party a lot and experiment with drugs like cocaine. Any one of them could be a danger to Miss Nick, but why would any of them want to kill her?Despite his own confidence in his own abilities, PERIL AT END HOUSE clearly demonstrates that even the great Hercule Poirot is fallible. Poirot says that Hastings always leaps to the wrong conclusions, and so we have come to expect Hastings to be led astray by sentiment, but not Hercule Poirot who prides himself on his deductive methods and his use of "the little grey cells". Agatha Christie's behind-the-hand smirking at her own pompous creation is almost palpable.Without doubt, the beautiful narration of Hugh Fraser, who has appeared in a number of the TV episodes as Hastings, contributed to my enjoyment.But let's take nothing away from the cleverness of the plot, nor from the controversial ending in which, to Hastings' horror, Poirot allows the murderer to cheat the gallows.
    • 3/5
      The thing about a Hercule Poirot Mystery is that he's always in the picture; quite unlike a Miss Marple Mystery wherein the supposed sleuth only appears at or near the end to provide the summing up. This was a good one. I'm intrigued by detective writers' Christie and Sayers's use of the resort as a venue for crime.
    • 4/5
      This early Poirot/Hastings novel is good fun. Our duo are holidaying on the Cornish coast, and meet the adorable Nick, a lovely young thing who's inherited the eponymous Victorian pile. Oh, and someone's trying to kill her. Poirot strives to head off tragedy, but his vigilance is not enough . . . .Although Christie's early work includes some of her best, in this one she still seems to be finding her way. Poirot's character is a bit jumpy here, and the solution to the plot seemed pretty obvious to me from a ways off. Still, I'd recommend this one for its lively writing, good period detail, and general Christie-esque charm.
    • 4/5
      I love this book the plot has so many twists and turns to that you never quite know where you are, as well a few red herrings as well. Oh yes and the denoument makes sense.