Out of 5 mustachesOut of 5 mustaches
This is one of those "pull the rug from under your feet" stories. I switched from one suspect to another to another in figuring out who was the murderer. I failed at the end. The end was a shocker ending for me.
Poirot and Hastings attend a performance of a young actress named Carlotta Adams who does impersonations of celebrities, one of them being the American actress Jane Wilkinson. Wilkinson is the estranged second wife of the wealthy fourth Baron Edgware, George Alfred St. Vincent Marsh. She comes to see Poirot to ask him to divorce her, so she can marry the Duke of Merton. Stubborn man that Lord Edgware was, and Poirot had no success. Later, Lord Edgware gets stabbed in the back of the neck. What now? It couldn't have been Wilkinson, because she was at a dinner party of a Sir Montague Corner. However, Miss Carroll, Lord Edgware's secretary, claims she saw Wilkinson at Edgware's home the night of the murder, heading towards the library (where the body was found). So who was who? Was the real Jane Wilkinson at his home, or was she at the dinner party? Who called her on the phone while she was eating dinner? Miss Carroll didn't see "Wilkinson's" face at the mansion--was that Carlotta Adams in disguise, wig and all? There is also Edgware's nephew, Ronald; there's Geraldine, Edgware's daughter who was glad he was dead; the Duke of Merton's mother is very suspicious; and then there's the rude Miss Carroll, the secretary. Many wanted Edgware dead, but what was difficult for Poirot and Hastings is that everyone's alibis were not what they seemed.
This one was a very hard one, but loads of fun! Christie inserts so many clues in this one, that you're guessing at everyone being the murderer. Everyone's alibi seemed to fit, but it nagged at Poirot. It nagged at me, too. This is a prime example of the trouble of pinpointing the murder on one person. What made the book great were the characters, what made it a little less fun was the confusing amount of clues.