Agatha Christie Peril at End House (1932)

     Agatha Christie Peril at End House (1932) One of Poirot’s most famous cases, in which he almost fails to solve the puzzle The story is set in a Cornish resort town with the usual cast of vaguely upper-middle-class characters and their servants. Christie allows herself a little wit and character development, but as in all her earlier books, she focusses on the plot. This one works well, in part because a couple of subplots are well integrated into the main story. As in most of her early tales, Christie tries a variation on a standard plot, the murder by mistake. In this case, the intended victim is in fact the murderer, and almost gets away with it. Since Christie’s time, this variation has itself become a standard plot. The TV adaptation was especially well done, as I recall, with a satisfying amount of period detail, and the kind of acting that hints at hidden depths in the characters, which made them more engaging than Christie's originals. **½ (2005)