Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie

This is a Hercule Poirot mystery taking place after M. Poirot has retired. There is a small party held at an older actor’s country home. There is a strange mixture of guests and one of them is M. Poirot. The host fixes the cocktails and guests are served. The vicar sips his drink and drops dead. Is this a natural death or a murder? The host suggested uncomfortably that he is not convinced this was a natural death. His friend, a doctor, feels there was nothing untoward. M. Poirot also feels there was no foul play and departs. 

The actor decides to move away as he finds himself unable to live in this house and also near a young lady who he has come to love and who is too young for him. The second act of the tragedy sees the death of the doctor, in his home, during a dinner party with more or less the same guest list. The news reaches the continent where the actor is and he returns hastily to find out the truth, about the murder of his doctor friend. M. Poirot is also made aware of the second death and is forced to reconsider that he was wrong about the first death. Both the deaths were similar and so both have to be murders.

So begins the hunt for the murderer. All the people who were at the party are suspects. A young man from the first party had not been invited to the second one. Since he crashed into the wall of the doctor’s house, and so gate crashed the party, was he the perpetrator? What are the guests hiding? They all get interviewed by the actor, his young lady friend, another friend and M. Poirot. While all agree that the motive and the murderer will be clear if they examine the first murder, no one seems to fit the bill. After all, the second murder is most likely to have taken place only to cover the first one. 

Hercule Poirot, or should I say Agatha Christie is up to her usual standard of solving a wonderful murder mystery. The motive and so the murderer remains elusive right up to the last chapter of the book and so keeps you hooked. The answers are simple and the plot elegant. This also has been made into a TV movie but is less often shown when compared to other Poirot shows.