'Poirot Investigates', originally published in 1924, is a collection of fourteen Poirot stories, told over 211 pages. They are short, energetic, playful pieces, all centring around Poirot's brilliance in solving apparently unsolvable puzzles. 

At an average of fifteen pages per story, there isn't a lot of space for anything more than exposition, investigation and resolution - think the kind of thirty-minute TV mystery shows that were pumped out in the 1970's - but they're delivered with brio, self-confidence and humour that makes them engaging.

The subjects of the stories range widely. We have spies, blackmailers, jewel thieves, cursed Egyptian tombs, a kidnapped Prime Minister and opportunistic but devilishly cunning murders.

The only thing that they have in common is that they let Hercule Poirot play his part of Magician Detective, the man who can and does solve crimes while sitting at his desk with his eyes closed.

I began to see Poirot like this:

What pulls the stories together, and what I found more interesting than the puzzles posed, is the way Poirot and Hastings are revealed to us. With rapid, deft strokes, Christie gives us a clear portrait of both men and the relationship between them. 

Poirot, the small man with the large ego, a compulsion for neatness, a self-serving sense of humour and an analytical mind that treats people and their actions as no more than puzzle pieces. A man whose vanity is displayed as much in his refusal to speak English fluently as his luxurious moustaches. He is bright but often less than kind. My main impression of him? M. Poirot, il est un connard, non?

Christie skilfully manages to give us Hastings through his own eyes and still present someone different from the man Hastings sees when he looks in the mirror. He's an affable, reliable man, the epitome of his class, one step up from Bertie Wooster. Woman are an alien species to him but he is always willing to worship at the altar of the auburn-haired beauty, provided she's a woman of good family and character and not one of these 'new' women. It was pointed out to me that he's a perfect example of the Dunning-Krugar effect, a cognitive bias that allows a person of low ability to sustain an internal illusion of superiority.

The early stories read like playful trope twists on Sherlock Holmes stories. They all read as if Christie is having fun playing with ideas and using her stories as a lab for testing them out. Yet, taken together, they give a picture of this odd couple that is very different from Holmes and Watson and much more endearing.

I really thought this stories as a whole were way too short to get that engrossed in. I found most of them to be merely okay. There was only one that I thought was good. I did have to give it 3 stars though since we have Hastings as our narrator for all of the stories. I do miss Hastings when he is not present in Poirot books. Poirot solo is beyond aggravating. He needs Hastings there to blunder along to be superior to to show off his gray cells. 

"The Adventure of the Western Star" (3 stars)-Poirot and Hastings are called in to keep a woman's most expensive jewel from being stolen from a Chinamen (yeah you read that right). The whole reveal in this story didn't make a lot of sense to me and I had a hard time with Poirot coming out the winner here when he is given facts that Hastings was not. 

"The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor" (5 stars)-The main reason why I had to give this one 5 stars was that honestly I thought it was quite an ingenious way the person behind the murder did this. Apparently the rule is not to be too trusting of others when you have a rifle near you.  I do have to say that once again I thought that how Poirot put things together was a bit much though.

"The Adventure of the Cheap Flat" (2 stars)-I liked the BBC version of this story better. It somehow made less sense written.

"The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge" (2 stars)-This was a weird case. We have Hastings investigating with Japp when Poirot is down and out with flu. I don't know why he just doesn't tell all to capture the bad guys instead of providing notes with no context to Hastings. This is one of the rare cases where the bad guys get away with it, but karma eventually wins out.

"The Million Dollar Bond Robbery" (3 stars)-A clever case of who stole some bonds. I do have to say though that I still don't get how Poirot was able to figure this one out. It was a stretch for me. 

"The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb" (1 star)-Nope. Seriously. Once again a far-fetched reason for the murder and it is missing Christie's attention to detail when the action moves to another country and city. Very disappointing.

"The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan" (1 star)-I honestly skimmed this one. I had to. It was so boring. And the reason why Poirot caught the bad guy (their shoes) made me roll my eyes. 

"The Kidnapped Prime Minister" (3 stars)-I found that most of these short stories are really Poirot just explaining to Hastings why he's stupid. Seriously. 

"The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim" (4 stars)-I have to say the reason behind the disappearance doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I just thought the whole story was quite clever. I enjoyed the BBC television episode of this one too. 

"The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman" (1 star)-I can't remember this story at all.

"The Case of the Missing Will" (3 stars)-I did call BS on the woman in this story hiring Poirot to find out where the missing will her uncle hid from her. He expected her to figure out in order to show that her choice of education was correct in order to inherit his estate. She hires Poirot who figures things out and she wins. I didn't blame Hastings for not feeling okay about things. 

"The Veiled Lady" (2 stars)-A case of the wrong shoes.

"The Lost Mine" (2 stars)-Reading about how Poirot came to own shares in a mine. It was boring. 

"The Chocolate Box" (4 stars)-You read about a case that Poirot solved, but was wrong about who the murderer was. I would have enjoyed this collection more if we had Poirot recounting older cases of his to Hastings and showing that Poirot was not the smartest person around. He made mistakes, as he did in this one. 

I rolled a 7!

And landed on:

And now I am going to spin one 12 side die.

I got a 1 which means I post 4 books and the first one to comment gets to select my read.

Here are the books:

It seems I´m not a big fan of Agatha Christie´s short stories, since they are utterly forgettable and at least two of them didn´t make sense and I couldn´t be bothered to read them again.

The reason I give this collection a three star rating in the end is the witty banter relationsship between Poirot and Hastings. The more I read about Christies character (whether it being these two or Miss Marple), the more I love them.

"And what do you think of Dr Bernard, Hastings?" inquired Poirot, as we proceeded on our way to the Manor.

"Rather an old ass."

"Exactly. Your judgements of character are always profound, my friend."

I glanced at him uneasily, but he seemed perfectly serious. A twinkle, however, came into his eye, and he added slyly:

"That is to say, where there is no question of a beautiful woman!"

I looked at him coldly.

This made me chuckle.