Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie

Poirot is travelling alone, again, when a murder committed. This time he travels from Paris, back to London, by plane. There are twelve passengers in that flight, and what a group of people they are! - a mystery writer, two archeologists, a dentist, a hairdresser, a doctor, a Countess, a moneylender woman, a businessman, and of course... a famous detective!

When the plane is about to land, the steward found one passenger - Madame Giselle, the famous moneylender - is dead, apparently by a sting in her neck. Several passengers remember of seeing a wasp flying around while the last meal is served. Then Poirot found a poisonous dart - the one used by primitive savages - under the victim's seat. Later on an empty blow pipe, from which the dart has been blown, was found.... under Poirot's seat!

It is perhaps one of the boldest murders ever performed in Christie's books. Imagine! In a confined space of an aircraft, where everyone could have noticed someone blowing a dart, not mentioning the trained eyes of Hercule Poirot- oh wait...! The irony is, Poirot was asleep during most of the flight due to his blasted airsickness! The murderer even had the audacity to place the blow pipe under HIS seat. It must have been a mockery to the famous detective.

The first thing acted on is, of course, to search the passenger's baggages. Of this, Poirot has found some intriguing objects, from which he begins to build his hypothesis - which, as usual, he kept to himself. Poirot was assisted by Chief Inspector Japp and Jane Grey, the hairdresser, in this investigation.

The tone of this case is the boldness of the murderer - and the person is very lucky that the greatest detective who would normally have had him under suspicion, must fall asleep while the murderer performed it. There is a plot twist in the end, and once again, Poirot acted as a matchmaker for two of the passengers.

Once again, a very entertaining crime story from our beloved Dame.

Rating: 4 / 5