Author: Agatha Christie
A rather rude woman, Mrs. Todd, comes to see Poirot about her cook. Her cook left a couple days before for her day out, and never returned. While it seems a trivial event of a servant leaving employment with no notice, Poirot decides to investigate anyway. Turns out that it isn't a trivial event at all....
I liked this story. It definitely kept my attention from start to finish as I wondered what had happened to the missing cook. Poirot does make some rather rude comments about servants and their "class'' of people...insinuating lack of common sense or intelligence. I found that annoying. While this story was written almost 100 years ago, it's still true today that the wealthy sometimes assume that poorer people, or those in trade jobs or more menial work, are somehow "lesser'' than they are. That wasn't true 100 years ago....and it isn't true today. (But then again, we non-wealthy folks joke about upper class twits....and that's the same thought pattern in reverse. Human nature.)
All in all, an entertaining short mystery. I'm enjoying these early Poirot stories! Surprised that in all the years I read Christie's novels, I never read any of the short stories. It's fun to read something "new'' by my favorite author...so I guess I should be glad I overlooked them!
Agatha Christie's Poirot starring David Suchet as Poirot adapted this story for television -- the long-running show's first episode, in fact! Season 1, episode 1 was first shown on January 8, 1989.
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