Dining With The Dame - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: Dining With The Dame

25
Sep
2022

Lemon Soufflé – The Incredible Theft

categories: Desserts, Dining With The Dame, Eggs, Soufflé

Hello crime readers and food lovers! Today we are reading (and eating) our way through another short story from the Murder in The Mews collection. On the menu is a lovely and light lemon soufflé. Also, an apology for the long break between posts – we had a lovely week away but pretty soon after we got home, I fell ill. I had an old-school non-covid flu that lasted nearly two weeks and left me with infections in both ears! A lingering cough from that same flu also lead me to putting my back out! All up, September has been a month of me either being ill or in pain, neither of which has left me with much energy for cooking or writing. However, I read this Poirot short story when away and in the small gap of time between my return home and getting ill, I cooked the soufflés.

The Incredible Theft- The Plot

.Air Marshal Sir George Carrington calls Poirot to come to the country house of Sir Charles Mayhew where some plans for a new bomber have been stolen. The bomber will give Britain unparalleled power in the air should war eventuate. The theft of the plans is a great blow to Britain’s military power. Attending a house party on the night of the theft was Mrs Vanderlyn, a much-married vamp who is described as being “a very useful person to….a European power – and perhaps to more than one European power”. Given her marriages have been to an Italian, a German and a Russian, we are not only given the start of a joke where three men walk into a bar but the possible European powers to which Mrs Vanderlyn might be useful!

Pefect Poolside Reading — Perfect Poolside Reading!

Apart from the seductive Mrs Vanderlyn we have

A mysterious figure in the shadows
A screaming maid
A woman with gambling debts
A spoiled son in need of some cash
Britain’s likely next Prime Minister with something to hide from the populace

Good thing we have Poirot to sort it all out. Only…do we? This story is somewhat of an anomaly because only after the denouement do we realise that Poirot actually does very little – all the work is done by….ah…that would be telling! 🙊

The Incredible Theft- The Covers

I could only find two covers for The Incredible Theft – neither of which are very exciting:

Instead, I thought we could all crush on the divine country manor that features in the Poirot version of The Incredible Theft

And, whilst we are in full drool mode, how about we take a look at Mrs Vanderlyn (and also some more house porn)

That same dress also does not disappoint from the back!

Here is another very glam outfit!

No wonder half of Europe seems to be gaga for Mrs V!

Lady Carrington also knows how to rock a sparkle and lace combo!

As much as I could dote on the fashions and locations of Poirot all day, we need to move on to another gorgeous little number, my lemon soufflé!

The Recipe – Lemon Soufflé

Lemon Soufflé – The Incredible Theft

Print Recipe

A lovely light dessert, given a retro twist by serving it in the lemons.

Author: Taryn Nicole

Ingredients

Scale

8 medium-sized lemons
3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 tbsp plain flour
Pinch of salt
2 Tbsp icing sugar for dusting

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Line an oven tray with baking paper.
Trim the base of the lemon so they sit flat. Cut off the top third of each lemon and, using a teaspoon, remove the pulp from the lemons (this takes a while) over a bowl lined with a sieve.
Squeeze the juice from the pulp and reserve. Discard the pulp.
Place the lemon shells on the prepared tray.
Preheat your oven to 180C
Combine the yolks, half the sugar, 1/4 cup of lemon juice and the flour in a heatproof bowl. Beat until thick and pale.
Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and beat for another 8-10 minutes until the mixture is the thickness of a thick custard. Remove from the heat but continue to beat until the mixture is cool – about another 2-3 minutes.
Beat the egg whites to soft peaks, add the remaining salt and the remaining sugar and beat until the mixture is thick and glossy.
Whisk one-third of the egg white mixture into the yolk mixture. Fold the egg white mixture into the yolk mixture with a large metal spoon. Be as gentle as you can here. You want to preserve as much of the lightness and air from the whipped whites as possible.
Spoon the mixture into the lemon shells, filling to the rims.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until the soufflés have risen 2-3 centimetres above the rim of the lemons and are golden.
Transfer to serving plates, dust with icing sugar and serve immediately.

Notes

Leftover lemon juice can be frozen into ice cube trays to use as you need.
Or seeing as life has given you lemons, make lemonade!
If you accidentally poke your spoon through the bottom of the lemon as you are removing the pulp, never mind. Wrap the base of the lemon tightly in aluminium foil for cooking and remove it for serving. This will prevent any souffle mixture oozing out the bottom!

As the butler handed round the souffle, Lord Mayfield leaned confidentially towards his neighbour on the right, Lady Julia Carrington. Known as the perfect host, Lord Mayfield took trouble to live up to his reputation. Although unmarried, he was always charming to women.”

– Agatha Christie, The Incredible Theft

Links to The Christieverse

Nothing that I could find.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in The Incredible Theft

Dessert
Port
Breakfast

October’s read will be another short story from Murder in the Mews. Get out your sunblock and get ready for some fun and murder in the sun with Triangle at Rhodes.

Happy reading and cooking!

04
Sep
2022

Roast Lamb Shawarma – (The Other) Death on the Nile

categories: Dining With The Dame, Lamb

Hello crime readers and food lovers! Today we are reading (and eating) our way through another Agatha Christie story called Death on The Nile! And finally, we are getting the lamb I was craving during the first Death on the Nile by way of a Roast Lamb Shawarma. But first, let’s address the Nile-sized elephant in the room. Why on earth would you name two stories the same thing? True, one is a novel, and one is a short story. One features Poirot and one features Parker Pyne. I just can’t fathom why one of the most creative writing minds of the 20th century could not come up with two different titles!

Death on The Nile (Parker Pyne)- The Plot

We have not yet met Parker Pyne because, apart from a few instances, where we are diverting into the short stories, I am trying to get through all of the Christie novels first. So, who is Parker Pyne? He is a detective but not in the sense that Poirot is a detective. More of a psychologist, he advertises his services in the newspapers, something, we feel the elitist Poirot would never stoop to do.

However, in this version of Death on the Nile, Parker Pyne is not helping people to become happy, he is in Egypt trying to enjoy a relaxing holiday aboard the SS Fayoum as she journeys down the Nile.

Also aboard is Lady Grayle, who Christie dryly informs us

had suffered, since she was sixteen from the complaint of having too much money

Oh to have that complaint!

Lady Grayle is petulant and fretful and is initially, not at all happy to have an interloper in the shape of Parker Pyne on the boat she thought was just going to contain her travelling party. However, before too long Parker Pyne is summonsed by Lady Grayle. She confides that she suspects her husband is poisoning her. She feels ill when he is around but starts to recover when he is away. Her Nurse, Miss McNaughton (reminiscent of Amy Leatheren from Murder in Mesopotamia ) confirms that this seems to be the case and is not the imaginings of a hypochondriac.

Lady Grayle then dies of strychnine poisoning, a packet of which is found in her husband’s pocket.

It seems a foregone conclusion that the henpecked husband has finally reached his limit. But are things as they seem? It’s a Christie mystery so of course not! Despite being too late to fix any unhappiness on Lady Grayle’s side, it is up to Parker Pyne to reveal the real murderer.

Death on the Nile – The Covers

Given this is a short story, contained within the book Parker Pyne Investigates aka Mr Parker Pyne, Detective there are no covers specifically for this version of Death on the Nile. The first cover I have shown is the Cosmopolitan magazine in which this story was first published. The second is an early cover of Parker Pyne Investigates so readers who are not familiar with the character can get an idea of what Parker Pyne is meant to look like.

The Recipe – Lamb Roast Shawarma

Here is Adam Liaw’s recipe for lamb shawarma from scratch. I have made this a few times and can highly recommend it. However, generally when I make Shawarma, I use the leftover meat from any roast lamb. (The fussiest eater in the world is very fond of a Sunday Roast and as we are only two people we inevitably have leftover lamb.

The following day I chop up some of that leftover meat, sprinkle it with Adam’s shawarma seasoning and warm the meat in a pan. After the meat is warmed, I remove that from the pan and then warm the flatbread in the same pan.

After that I assemble my wrap with the warmed bread and lamb, some salad ingredients and a few dollops of Adam’s tahini sauce.

If there is any sauce left over after we have our shawarma, I either dollop it onto some avo toast or mix a big spoonful into some chopped-up hard-boiled eggs and make a sandwich with some crunchy lettuce.

The benevolent figure of Mr Parker Pyne entered the lounge. Behind him came the picturesque figure of Mohammed, prepared to say his piece.

“Lady, gentlemans, we start now. In few minutes we pass temples of Karnak right-hand side. I tell you story now about little boy who went to buy a roasted lamb for his father….”

– Agatha Christie, Death on the Nile

Links to The Christieverse

There was nothing I could find here. Except of course that four years later Agatha Christie would reuse the name of this short story for what would become one of her best-known novels!

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Death on The Nile

If you would like to taste some Egyptian food, why not try Eggs Hamine?

September’s read will be one of the novellas contained in the Murder in the Mews collection. Not the titular story, I am saving that for November. Instead, we are going with The Incredible Theft, a Poirot mystery.

Happy reading and cooking!

01
Aug
2022

Death on The Nile – Roasted Potatoes and Artichokes

categories: Artichokes, Dining With The Dame, Poirot, Potato, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Hello crime readers and food lovers! I’m going to kick this one off on a very personal note. Middle Eastern Food is probably my favourite style and flavour of food. I love the largesse of the many plates of food, all designed for sharing that is so much a part of the cooking of this region. So I was hugely excited to read Death on The Nile. Surely we would get some hummus, flatbread, falafel, slow-cooked lamb, maybe some baklava to finish….I was so up for this. And was bitterly disappointed. There is not much food at all mentioned in Death on The Nile. Hence we are eating Potatoes and Artichokes. The potatoes and artichokes are not a bad dish, in fact they were really tasty! Just not what I was expecting!

Death on The Nile – The Plot

Linnet Doyle, a beautiful heiress, is honeymooning in Egypt with her husband Simon. The two should be in the realms of newly wedded bliss however their trip has been spoiled by Linnet’s former friend and Simon’s former fiancee Jacqueline de Bellefort who is stalking the couple. In an effort to evade Jackie, the couple embark on a trip down the Nile.

On a side trip to Abu Simbel, a large rock falls off a cliff, just missing Linnet. Accident? It could not have been Jackie, she was on the boat. However, a few days later, a drunken Jackie shoots Simon Doyle in the leg. That same night, Linnet is shot dead. Again, it could not have been Jackie, after the incident with Simon, she spends the entire night both heavily sedated and under the watchful eye of one of the other passengers.

So, who killed Linnet Doyle? Good thing Hercule Poirot is also on board the Karnak to solve the crime!

We have:

A love triangle that leads to murder
Stolen pearls and a missing stole
A dodgy maid
Shady business dealings
Kleptomania
Alcoholism
A rebellious young man with communistic leanings
And Colonel Race, who we last saw in Cards on The Table joins Poirot on the Karnak

Death on the Nile – The Covers

There is not a lot of variety in the covers for Death on The Nile. They are largely images of the Karnak or Egypt. Poirot features in a few and of course, we have a few “beautiful girl in peril” pulp-type covers.

But where I ask you is the crazy? I have come to expect a few totally off-the-wall covers and was unable to anything really oddball. I also could not find any non-English covers which also seemed odd given that this is such a well-known and loved Christie novel.

The Recipe – Roasted Potatoes and Artichokes

I found this recipe for Roasted Potatoes and Artichokes on Real Simple. It was nice but I thought I could do a bit better. So there is my revamped version. You can of course keep it (real) simple and use the OG recipe

Roast Potatoes and Artichokes

Print Recipe

A simple and flavourful side dished based on a recipe from Real Simple and inspired by Death on The Nile!

Author: Taryn Nicole
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Category: Side

Ingredients

Scale

500g chat or new potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil plus one more for dressing the cooked potatoes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp smoked paprika
4 garlic cloves
I 275g jar of marinated artichokes
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Black pepper, freshly ground
5–6 sprigs of parsley, mint, chives or a combination of them

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Par boil the new potatoes in salted water until they are just tender. This will depend on the size of your potatoes but it took me 12 minutes.
Drain the potatoes and cut them in half.
Heat your oven to 180C.
In a bowl big enough to hold the potatoes mix together the olive oil, salt and paprika. Toss the potatoes through and then place them cut side down on a baking tray.
Put them in the oven and roast for 20 minutes.
Drain your artichokes and pat dry.
After twenty minutes and your artichokes and the garlic cloves to the baking tray with the potatoes. Cook for 15 minutes
Chop your herbs and add to the extra olive oil with the black pepper and lemon juice.
Remove the roasted garlic from the oven. Squash down cloves so the roasted garlic puree comes out and add this to your oil and lemon mix. Do this one by one and taste as you go so you can get the dressing to your desired level of garlicky goodness.
Once you are happy with the dressing remove the potatoes and artichokes from the oven. Place into a bowl and stir through the lemon / garlic / herb dressing.
Enjoy while reading Death on The Nile!

Notes

Adding some onion wedges with the artichokes would also work well here.

If you wanted to sprinkle a little feta cheese over the top of the finished dish would be delicious!

Any leftover garlic can be kept in the fridge for a few days and added to anything that needs garlic.

Dr Bessner’s bulk moved up and down appreciatively. “Ho, ho, ho, it was very funny that! Doyle, he tells me about it. It was a telegram all about vegetables – potatoes, artichokes, leeks – Ach! Pardon?”

With a stifled exclamation Race had sat up in his chair.

“My God,” he said. “So that’s it! Richetti!”

He looked round on three uncomprehending faces.

“A new code – it was used in the South African rebellion. Potatoes mean machine guns, artichokes are high explosives – and so on.”

Agatha Christie – Death on The Nile

If you would like to read of another instance where Artichokes were compared to weapons, click here.

Links to The Christieverse

Christie has a short story also called Death on The Nile. We will come to that one in due course.
Miss Van Schuyler says to Poirot that she has heard of him from a mutual acquaintance, Rufus Van Aldin. He was a character in The Mystery of The Blue Train
The death of Mr Shaitana featured in Cards on The Table is mentioned. It is said that it occurred a year earlier.
Poirot mentions a case in which a red kimono was found in his luggage. This refers to Murder on the Orient Express
Poirot also speaks of attending an archaeological site which references Murder in Mesopotamia

The Film

Of course, we were not going to talk about Death on the Nile without mentioning the Kenneth Branagh film of the same which was released this year. We saw it in the cinema and, although the reviews have been universally bad, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was not a fan of Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express; this has not changed. But I thought the film looked beautiful. The scenery was spectacular and really made me want to go to Egypt to see those sights for myself. I also loved its over-the-top opulence. And I thought Gal Gadot and Emma Mackey were both perfectly cast.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Death on The Nile

Lots of booze here and not much food!

To keep things neat, next up we are going to read the other Death on the Nile, the one contained in Parker Pyne Investigates. Will I get falafel and hummus this time round? I’m both doubtful and hopeful!

10
Jul
2022

Dumb Witness – Good Boy Biscuits

categories: Dining With The Dame, Poirot

Hello Crime Writers and dog lovers! Today, in celebration of Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie, we are preparing some treats for our canine friends in the form of some Good Dog Biscuits. For those of you wondering why we are departing from human food, Bob the Dog is an important character in Dumb Witness and, to double down on the dogginess, Agatha Christie dedicated Dumb Witness to her dog Peter whom she calls the

Most fruitful of friends and dearest of companions, a dog in a thousand

This is Bob the Dog as depicted in the Dumb Witness episode of Poirot. What a cutie!

Bob The Dog

Dumb Witness – The Plot

Miss Emily Arundell is dead. Had it not been for a letter she wrote to Hercule Poirot indicating she was concerned about her safety, her death would have passed for natural causes. Sadly, the letter is not posted until after her death. Poirot accepts the case and begins investigating who might have wanted her dead! Without giving anything away, it wasn’t Bob the Dog, despite the fact that someone set up an “accident” that could have been attributed to him.

So, who is in this motley band of possible assassins? We have:

Theresa Arundell, Emily’s niece. She is described as “belonging to a young, bright, go ahead set in London – a set that has freak parties and occasionally ends up in the police courts”. I would LOVE to know what Agatha Christie’s idea of a “freak” party was. I would also like an invitation to one.
Charles Arundell, Emily’s nephew. Charles is the kind of person who, 65 years after the publication of Dumb Witness, would be described by The Libertines as a waster. Terminally broke due to his spendthrift ways, he hits up his aunt Emily for some money and then threatens her when she refuses to give him any.
Bella Tanios, another niece, Charles and Theresa’s cousin. Bella is married to a Greek doctor. Despite his profession, the Tanios’ are not well off.
Jacob Tanios, Bella’s husband. This poor man is constantly racially slurred throughout the novel.
Wilhemina Lawson, Emily Arundell’s companion who Christie describes as Emily Arundell’s slave. Miss Lawson is obsessed with the seances held by The Tripp sisters and is always trying to get Emily to attend

Dumb Witness – The Covers

There are so many covers I want to share today! We have a few featuring Bob, a few depicting Emily Arundell’s fall down the stairs, and a few that are downright bizarre. For its American release, Dumb Witness was renamed Poirot Loses A Client. Let’s have our usual collage of the more normal covers. There is a particularly delightful Magritte spin on Poirot in these:

And now let’s take a look at some that need some special call-outs:

Let’s take these from left to right.

Emily Arundell is an older, if not elderly, woman. She is not a glamourous brunette with a dress cut down to her navel. She is also not stabbed?…in the street and left to die while the killer leaves a trail of bloody footprints in his wake. I love this style of artwork but this really is taking artistic licence to the limit.

Let’s call this next one, “What is the number for the RSCPA?”. I shouldn’t really have to say this but dogs can’t talk. So you don’t have to wrap a piece of rope around their mouths to stop them from talking. I also think it is possibly perilous to wrap a dog’s mouth in rope because dogs pant to regulate their temperature. I’m guessing on the danger factor on that one because I think googling “what happens if you tie a rope around a dog’s mouth?” will land me on some sort of psychopath register.

As for the third? I understand the ball, the hammer and the string. The rest? Absolutely baffling.

The Recipe – Good Boy Biscuits

This recipe comes to us from a very special source – my mum who got it off the lady who ran the training school she took one of her dogs to. I can’t attest to all dogs but my dogs and her dogs love them!

Links to The Christieverse

Hastings mentions that Poirot has travelled to Syria and Iraq for a few weeks. This refers to the case in Murder in Mesopotamia and his return to Britain via the Orient Express.
At one point Poirot says “I am reflecting on various people: handsome young Norman Gale, Bluff, hearty Evelyn Howard, the pleasant Doctor Sheppard, the quiet reliable Knighton” referring to the villains in Death in The Clouds, The Mysterious Affair At Styles, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and The Mystery of The Blue Train.
If you are struggling to figure out this one, the solution to Peril at End House may point you in the right direction. As might one of the clues in Murder on The Orient Express.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Dumb Witness

Kidneys for breakfast
Barley Water
Port (twice)
Beef Tea (twice)
Hot Chocolate
A meal consisting of “excellent mutton, large slabs of watery cabbage and some dispirited potatoes. Some rather tasteless stewed fruit and custard followed.”
Brands essence
Brandy (twice)
Curry (twice)
Someone is described as having a face like a scone
Green apples
Tea (twice)
Sandwiches
Port Wine
A meal consisting of shredded raw vegetables, brown bread and butter and fruit
Raw Carrots
Un bon biftek with fried potatoes and wine
Chops
Soup (twice)
Pot au feu
Sirloin of Beef
Sherry
Omelette

Our next book is a biggie – get ready for Death on The Nile!!!! Hopefully, it will have you jumping for joy!

Have a great week! Happy reading!

30
May
2022

Sage and Onion Stuffing – Cards on The Table

categories: Dining With The Dame, Poirot

I have a special affection for Cards on the Table, the first Poirot novel to feature Ariadne Oliver. I absolutely love the way that through the character of Ariadne Oliver, Agatha Christie gets really meta – she pkes fun at herself, her characters and the whole business of crime writing. There is a lovely…in the movies, they would call it a set-piece, I am not sure what the literary equivalent is…featuring sage and onion stuffing so that is what I decided to go with for my recipe.

Another reason I love Cards on The Table is that during the first lockdown of 2020, looking for some comfort reading I decided to re-read a compilation of the Ariadne Oliver novels that I had bought from the local library a few years before. It was whilst reading Cards on The Table and the passage about the sage and onion stuffing in particular that I began to wonder if writing about the food in Christie’s books might be a thing!

If you think some of my sage leaves look a bit manky – they are straight from the garden, organically grown sage leaves and that is how they come!.

Cards on The Table – The Plot

Mr Shaitana holds a dinner party where the guests consist of four sleuths and four people who may have successfully gotten away with murder once. During a game of bridge, one of the possible murderers stabs Shaitana to death.

On the side of law and order, we have:

Hercule Poirot – private detective,
Ariadne Oliver – crime fiction writer,
Colonel Race – Secret Service and,
Superintendent Battle – Scotland Yard.

The suspects are

Mrs Lorimer – Keen bridge player. She may have murdered her abusive husband
Major John Despard – an adventurer who possibly killed the husband of a woman he was having an affair with
Dr Geoffrey Roberts who might have killed one of his patients
Anne Meredith – a ladies companion who maybe swapped her employee’s medicine for hat poison

Can the sleuths team up to find the killer?

Mr Shaitana – Mephistopheles is Not Your Name

If you were the kind of person who liked to play a drinking game while you read your Christie, should you decide to take a chug every time Mr Shaitana s described as Mephistophelian you would be utterly hammered before the first half of the book is done.

Ariadne Oliver

As mentioned, I love Ariadne Oliver, first because I love the way Agatha Christie pokes fun at herself through this character.

“What really matters is plenty of bodies. If the thing’s getting a little dull, some more blood cheers it up. Somebody is going to tell something – and then they’re killed first. That always goes down well…And people like untraceable poisons and idiotic police inspectors and girls tied up in cellar with sewer gas or water pouring in”

“I only regret one thing – making my detective a Finn. I don’t really know anything about Finns and I’m always getting letters from Finland pointing out something impossible that he has said or done. They seem to read detective stories a good deal in Finland. I suppose it is the long winters with no daylight. In Bulgaria and Romania they don’t seem to read at all. I’d have done better to make him a Bulgar”

The other reason I love Ariadne Oliver is her portrayal by Zoe Wanamaker in the Poirot series. It is mwah! Chef’s kiss perfect!

Cards on The Table – The Covers

I was excited to see the covers for this because my copy is a very boring omnibus edition of all the Ariadne Oliver novels. As usual the covers did not fail to delight. I could only find one non-English version but it is a very cool looking Spanish edition with Shaitana looking most Mephistophelian.

The Recipe – Sage and Onion Stuffing

Normally if I was making stuffing, I would pop it into the cavity of the chicken, however for the purpose of this pot, seeing as I wanted to highlight the stuffing I did not want to hide it away. So, I made stuffing balls and served them with a 40 cloves of garlic chicken for dinner and then also made chicken, lettuce, stuffing and mayo sandwiches for lunch for the next few days.

The recipe I used is from In the Kitchen by Alan Campion and Michelle Curtis. I once did a cooking class with Alan Campion and he was absolutely delightful so I am very glad to be sharing one of his recipes here:

I am workng as you can see. But that dreadful Finn of mine has got himself terribly tangled up. He did some awfully clver deduction with a dish of French beans, and now he’ s detected deadly poison in the sage and onion stuffing of the Michaelmas goose, and I’ve just remembered that French beans are over by Michaelmas”

-Ariadne Oliver in Cards on the Table – Agatha Christie

Links to The Christieverse

In Cards on the Table, Ariadne Oliver has written a book called “The Body in The Library”. This is also the name of a book written by Agatha Christie featuring Miss Marple. That book was published in 1942, six years after Cards on Table.
Anne Meredith knows that Poirot solved “the ABC crimes”.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Cards on The Table

Whiskey Soda (nearly as common as Bacon and Eggs)
Apples – Ariadne Oliver is particularly fond of apples and is described at one point as having a large piece of apple core reposing on her chest!
Tea
French Beans, Michaelmas Goose
Coffee & hot buttered toast
Tea and muffins
Blackberry sirop
Brandy

June’s book will be Dumb Witness, another Poirot. Get reading!