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| Subtitle | A Hercule Poirot Mystery |
| First Written | 1936 |
| Genre | Mystery |
| Origin | UK |
| My Copy | cheap hardback from a little free library |
| First Read | June 07, 2021 |
Cards on the Table
Have I actually never read an Agatha Christie? It sure feels like I have, but I don't have any recorded and maybe I'm conflating Dorothy Sayers here. Anyway, picked this up in a LFL and it's a very passable light read. Sure!
Noted on June 24, 2021
"You can't have human beings judging other human beings and taking the law into their own hands."
"It happens, Battle it happens." "It shouldn't happen--that's my point. What do you say, M. Poirot?"
"I agree with you, Battle. I have always disapproved of murder."
"What a delightfully droll way of putting it," said Mrs. Oliver. "Rather as though it were fox-hunting or killing ospreys for hats. Don't you think there are people who ought to be murdered?"
"That, very possibly."
"Well, then!"
"You do not comprehend. It is not the victim who concerns me so much. It is the effect on the character of the slayer."
"What about war?"
"In war you do not exercise the right of private judgment. That is what is so dangerous. Once a man is imbued with the idea that he knows who ought to be allowed to live and who ought not--then he is half-way to becoming the most dangerous killer there is--the arrogant criminal who kills not for profit but for an idea. He has usurped the functions of le bon Dieu."
Quoted on June 24, 2021