Peril at End House [Hardcover]

Agatha Christe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1988

The Agatha Mystery Collection. Blue padded leatherette binding.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 179 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 3rd printing edition (January 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553350730
• ISBN-13: 978-0553350739
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,105,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Plotting and Surprise Ending Make This A Favorite, April 25, 2001

By 

Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Peril at End House (Hercule Poirot Mysteries) (Paperback)

Poirot and Hastings return in this novel set in the resort town of St. Loo on the Cornish coast. While on a week's holiday, the pair meet Miss Magdala Buckley who has had a series of life-threatening accidents. Poirot believes these "accidents" are more likely attempts on her life. In true Christie tradition, a murder soon occurs. However, Miss Buckley is not the victim, but the newly-deceased is a cousin of hers. Poirot must prevent another murder while discovering why anyone would want Miss Buckley dead. Into the mix enters her friends Frederica Rice and Commander Challenger as well as a mysterious couple from Australia who live in a cottage on the grounds of End House, possible narcotics involvement, and a surprise ending that will truly amaze. I won't reveal what the ending is, of course, but it is one that Christie will successfully use again in later works.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rules are made to be broken..., January 30, 2004

By 

Jeanne Tassotto (Trapped in the Midwest) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Peril at End House (Hercule Poirot Mysteries) (Paperback)

Mystery writers are supposed to play by a set of rules, ie give the reader all the clues, no rare, undetectable poisons, the murder can't be the butler, detective, victim or someone we've never met etc. Agatha Christie always played fair in that all the clues were present for the reader, and she didn't rely on obscure poisons unknown-to-science but she was somewhat more creative in her interpretations of some of the others. PERIL AT END HOUSE is an example of Christie's creativeness with one of the rules of mystery writing (but you'll have to read the book to find out which rule).

Poirot and Hastings are spending some time at a seaside resort. Poirot is still insisting that he has retired but concedes that "...if a bullet should strike the wall by my head, I would ...investigate the matter!" Needless to say one does and Poirot is soon investigating the numerous attempts on the life of a young woman. Poirot sorts his way through a murder, drug trafficking, false identities, secret engagements and attempted frauds to reach the truth.

The ending is clever and we are treated to Poirot being forced to ask someone else for the answer to a minor secondary puzzle.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poirot Stumped, April 13, 2001

By 

George R Dekle "Bob Dekle" (Lake City, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Peril at End House (Hercule Poirot Mysteries) (Paperback)

This mystery is less a who-done-it than it is a who's-gonna-do-it. Attempts are being made on the life of Nicky Buckley, the pert proprietress of End House. Poirot sets out to foil the would-be murderer, but feels that he's failed miserably when Nicky's cousin dies instead. Poirot redoubles his efforts to save Nicky and to solve the cousin's murder, but he finds himself in a quandary. As Poirot fruitlessly attempts to discern a motive and discover the murderer, Nicky has another narrow escape from a poisoning attempt. Poirot finally decides that the only way to flush the murderer out is to fake Nicky's death. The denouement is both surprising and satisfying. Another nice thing about the story is the glimpse into the mind of Poirot as he sorts out the clues. In this case he does not keep his thoughts and surmises secret from Captain Hastings, and we follow him step by step as he winnows through the evidence to come to his conclusions. He does, however, hold back enough to surprise the reader in the final chapter.

Now for the critique: [1] Christie either knows nothing about the behavior of bullets or expects her readers to know nothing. Her description of the near fatal shooting of Nicky is as full of holes as Nicky's hat. Poirot took no notice of the fact that there was no noise from the report of the pistol, no noise from the ricochet of the bullet, and no scuff mark on the wall. No mention was made of the bullet being deformed by striking the wall. This is not the first time Christie has betrayed such ignorance. In the short story "Dead Man's Mirror", a bullet struck a gong without denting the gong, deforming the bullet, or depositing a lead scuff on the gong. [2] Although Poirot twice stated that the simplest explanation was the best, the final explanation was not simple. It was so complex and convoluted that such a series of events could never have converged to produce Christie's result. [3] Again we see Christie borrowing from Arthur Conan Doyle. One of Sherlock Holmes' favorite maxims was "When you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Poirot paraphrases Holmes thus: "when you have eliminated other possibilities you turn to the one that is left and say - since the other is not - this must be so." I can't say Poirot improved on Holmes' proverb.