Curtain

Inhoud

Here is Hercule Poirot's last case, the triumphant climax to his long and brilliant career. The shrewd little Belgian detective has returned to Styles Court, the scene of his first English adventure in crime. But now the handsome country mansion is a guest house and Poirot, old and arthritic, is one of the guests. He invites his friend Captain Hastings to join him and then reveals the reason for his request.
Someone at Styles is responsible for several murders, someone the law cannot touch. And soon, Poirot said, a murder would be committed at the guest house.
Could Poirot and Hastings trap the guilty person? Poirot was resolved to try. But Hastings was investigating with one hand tied behind his back, for Poirot refused to disclose the name of his suspect, merely promising that Hastings would be given clues. Then there was a death at Styles - but was it murder?

Bespreking

The best obituary Poirot could have gotten

Hercule Poirot, the little Belgian detective has returned to Styles Court, the scene of his first English adventure in crime for his final case. But now the handsome country mansion is a guest house and Poirot, old and arthritic, is one of the guests. He invites Captain Hastings to join him and then reveals the reason for his request. Poirot informs his old friend that they are "here to hunt down a murderer." And to find out who is the killer, first a murder has to be committed. But who will be the victim?

Although Curtain was written during the London blitz in the early years of World War II, it never got published until 1975. The reason being that in this book the famous detective Hercule Poirot concludes his wonderful career. Agatha Christie wanted Poirot not to survive his creator. Therefore she finished his career by writing Curtain and locked the manuscript in a bank vault. Dame Agatha Christie died on January 12, 1976, one year later than her most famous creation.

Curtain is a vintage Christie. The plot is ingenious and seems totally committed to putting the reader on the wrong track. Although the actual motive and operation procedure of the murderer are quite dubious and unbelievable¸ there is only one word that can truly describe the denouement: sublime. In a few lines Poirot explains how the unsuspicious reader probably missed five smartly interwoven clues. When you read these lines you can only but hit yourself on the head for being so short-sighted, exactly the same feeling reflected by Captain Hastings at the end of the book.