Agatha Christie, who often admitted that she did not like Poirot (a fact parodied by her recurring novelist character Ariadne Oliver), particularly disliked his appearance in this novel.

His late arrival, jarring, given the established atmosphere, led her to claim in her Autobiography that she ruined the novel by the introduction of Poirot.

[5] Dr John Christow is a successful physician and leading researcher, although very tired and irritated by his current life.

On the morning that he and his downtrodden wife, Gerda, are due to travel down to the country to weekend with friends, Christow allows his little daughter to tell his fortune with cards.

When the death card is drawn, he pays no attention, but the appearance of an old flame at The Hollow seems to be the final link in a chain of fatal circumstances.

The eccentric Lucy Angkatell has invited the Christows, along with other members of her extended family, to her estate for the weekend.

The beautiful Veronica Cray, an old flame of Christow's, suddenly appears in the house on Saturday night to borrow a box of matches.

Henrietta steps forward to take the revolver from her hand, but apparently fumbles and drops it into the swimming pool, destroying the evidence.

Misunderstanding her decision, he attempts suicide by putting his head in a gas oven but he is saved by Midge.

Maurice Richardson, in the 1 December 1946 issue of The Observer, wrote: "Agatha Christie has staged, against her smartest, most hyperemotional background so far, the shooting of a philandering doctor.

"[6] Robert Barnard: "Notable specimen, with more complex characterization than usual, and occasionally rising to wit (especially on the subject of cooking).

Christie adapted the book into a highly successful stage play in 1951 but omitted Poirot from the narrative.

In 2004, the novel was broadcast as a television movie featuring David Suchet as Poirot, Sarah Miles as Lady Angkatell, Megan Dodds as Henrietta Savernake, Jonathan Cake as John Christow, Lysette Anthony as Veronica Cray and Edward Fox as Gudgeon, as part of the series Agatha Christie's Poirot.

Others – such as the dénouement involving poisoned tea – are altered (Gerda instead deliberately commits suicide by injecting herself with potassium cyanide).