This Poirot novel doesn’t have the best reviews, either from its initial publication or subsequently, but I found it really rather charming. There is some silliness about the circumstances of the first murder attempt against old spinster aunt Emily Arundell, whose own characterisation seems to waver a little throughout the book. For the small period where we see her in person, she seems a rather shrewd and organised woman, but we’re expected to trust that forgetfulness is a primary characteristic of hers later in the story. We have an excess of doctors, and like Emily’s characterisation, there is a sense that this plot was rather stitched together from other initial ideas, and that makes it quite interesting for the reader without being too disharmonious.
The poisoning of Emily Arundell (for thus it turns out to be) is quite a neat one, combining a few apparently disparate clues and tying together some subtle and not-so-subtle pieces of characterisation. Unlike Cards on the Table, this is not a piece of pure psychology on Poirot’s part, but it is not too far off. This requires the characters to be of a type, and there is a larger cast of characters than Cards on the Table, so they are less finely drawn. If you have read a lot of Christie novels, as I have been increasingly over the last twelve months or so, then they have a certain familiarity. This is actually one of the challenges of reading Christie and trying to make one’s own deductions.
Perhaps surprisingly for me, I also admired the novel’s interest in Bob the dog long past his relevance, in the end sending him sailing off into the sunset with Hastings, who is naturally a dog-lover. It certainly wasn’t obvious to me from the title that Bob was the Dumb Witness in question, particularly as he didn’t seem to have witnessed anything. Perhaps more apt might have been Wrongly Accused, although I do appreciate the American title, Poirot Loses a Client.
See also
These lists capture other detective/crime stories and characters that I thought of as I was reading this piece. I won’t explain why, to avoid spoilers, but they’re associations and not ‘if you liked this, then you’ll love…’ recommendations!
- Post After Post-Mortem (ECR Lorac)
- Black Coffee (Agatha Christie)
- Cards on the Table (Agatha Christie)
Read my short story collection featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies now (in paperback, hardback, or on Kindle)! If you’re interested in reading my academic work about detective and crime fiction (free PDFs available), check it out here.
Dominique Gracia 
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