Dr. Laurel Young's Reviews > Curtain

I admit it, I teared up at the end; I don't ever want there to be a final Poirot novel. However, two things comforted me: one is that this was not actually the last novel Dame Agatha wrote about Poirot, not by a long shot. Since Elephants Can Remember is largely regarded as a weak later effort, I think of Hallowe'en Party as the last excellent novel written about Poirot. Curtain was written somewhere around WWII most likely, and put away to be released decades later as Agatha neared the end of her long career. So it is always possible to read the novels in chronological order and pretend that Poirot is back for all his many post-WWII cases, rather like Sherlock Holmes' return from "The Final Problem".

But the biggest comfort is that this truly excellent novel could not have been written without (view spoiler)[ killing off Poirot--it is in some ways the ultimate twist from the author famous for brilliant, unexpected twists. Agatha often expressed the idea that ANYONE is capable of murder in the right circumstances, and her novels show that the last person the reader expects to have done it, could have done it--the narrator, a child, a supposedly dead character, etc! In Curtain, Agatha hits us with the biggest shocker of them all: even her Great Detective is not immune. Poirot can and does commit murder, and even "mon ami Hastings" makes a (typically blundering!) attempt...and both are completely in character whilst doing so. No doubt Agatha wanted to write the detective author's White Whale: the perfect crime. And who could pull off the perfect crime except Poirot himself?? (hide spoiler)]

There are many satisfying elements in this novel to console the bereaved reader. There is the perfect symmetry of having Poirot's English career end where it began, at Styles Court (and many other, more minor symmetries along the way). There is the character development of Hastings, shown here as far more complex that one usually credits him as being, and given hope of a happy ending and a new romance thoughtfully provided by Poirot! There is the delightful surprise that, (view spoiler)[ far from being the cripple Hastings thinks him to be, Poirot remains agile and able to sleuth until the very end. His grey cells are in fine fettle until his dying day. (hide spoiler)]

Curtain is supremely clever and confident, one of Dame Agatha's tours de force. I am glad, though, that she never (view spoiler)[ killed off Miss Marple. (hide spoiler)] I really don't think I could handle that.