A high society lady turns to Hercule Poirot for help: a secret love letter she had written in the past has fallen into the hands of a blackmailer, who now wants 20 thousand pounds to give it back to her. When that man goes to Paris for a few days, Poirot and Hastings decide on a bold course of action: they will break into his apartment and look for the letter themselves!
This is a somewhat atypical entry in the Poirot series: for the most part it appears to be a straightforward blackmail story, and Poirot does more snooping around than sleuthing. But of course there is a twist in the tale - and a quite clever one at that. There are also some pretty funny moments in this episode - when Inspector Japp finds Poirot locked in a cell, he says to a younger officer: "Nobody knows his real name, but they call him "Mad Dog"". The climax takes place inside London's Natural History Museum. (***)
This is a somewhat atypical entry in the Poirot series: for the most part it appears to be a straightforward blackmail story, and Poirot does more snooping around than sleuthing. But of course there is a twist in the tale - and a quite clever one at that. There are also some pretty funny moments in this episode - when Inspector Japp finds Poirot locked in a cell, he says to a younger officer: "Nobody knows his real name, but they call him "Mad Dog"". The climax takes place inside London's Natural History Museum. (***)