How Andrew Balzano Celebrates Hercule Poirot’s Little Grey Cells in One of My Life’s Passions
Something a clerk saw on a few banknotes. An item borrowed from a child. A newspaper bought with a little too much fuss. For Hercule Poirot, that is all it takes.
In One of My Life’s Passions: Classics and Mysteries, Andrew Balzano describes the Poirot series starring David Suchet as simply too good to be seen only once. He lists forty titles so readers can begin their own viewing, and he praises everything from the plots to the famous theme music, which he has listened to many times and still enjoys.
Balzano also introduces the ensemble that makes the series feel like home: Hugh Fraser as Captain Arthur Hastings, Philip Jackson as Chief Inspector James Japp and Pauline Moran as the efficient Miss Lemon. But when he turns to his personal favorites, one quality keeps returning. Poirot solves the impossible by paying attention to the ordinary.
Poirot’s method can be summed up in one question: What has everyone else seen without truly noticing?
Where It All Began
Balzano starts with The Adventure of the Clapham Cook, the very first episode of the series. Poirot and Hastings track a cold-blooded killer, and the case turns on what a clerk observed on some currency notes. Once Poirot works out that detail, the murderer is within reach. Balzano calls it an excellent first episode, and it sets the pattern for everything that follows.
In Problem at Sea, Poirot and Hastings are supposed to be on vacation aboard a cruise ship. Instead, they land in the middle of a murder investigation. The decisive help comes from an unexpected source: a little girl who lends Poirot an item. With that item and her cooperation, he sets a trap and catches the killer.
One Object, One Witness, One Answer
The Kidnapped Prime Minister raises the stakes to the national level. Poirot, through his keen powers of observation, identifies the pair responsible for the kidnapping from a single object. Balzano admires not only the deduction but also Poirot’s total determination to secure the prime minister’s safe return.
The Plymouth Express offers another favorite example. A young woman is murdered aboard the train over valuable jewels. When Poirot and Hastings question a newspaper boy, he quickly remembers a lady who made a fuss. Poirot realizes that the scene was staged precisely so the boy would remember it, and that the woman he remembers was not the victim at all.
· Why would a criminal want to be remembered?
· How often does the loudest moment in a story hide the real clue?
When Deduction Takes a Back Seat
Balzano is honest enough to note that not every case depends on Poirot alone. In The Incredible Theft, plans for a revolutionary bomber are at risk from a woman rumored to have ties to the Germans. The clever team behind the aircraft stays one step ahead, feeding her doctored plans that will take the enemy a long time to untangle. Balzano calls it a major victory for England and points out that Ciaran Madden, who plays Mayfield’s wife, appeared years earlier in the thriller The Beast Must Die.
In The King of Clubs, a little knowledge of the card game bridge helps viewers appreciate how Poirot untangles the death of a sleazy film producer, and Balzano promises the episode will grow on you. In The Dream, the telling of a dream becomes the key to a murder, and Poirot lays out the entire solution at the climax.
A Series Worth Watching Again
What makes these favorites so rewatchable is that the clues are there for the audience, too. Poirot exercises his little grey cells without mercy, and the viewer gets the pleasure of trying to keep up. On a second viewing, the banknotes, the borrowed item and the fussy newspaper purchase all look different.
Balzano even borrows Poirot’s famous phrase near the end of his book, describing how he worked his own little grey cells without mercy to choose his favorites. It is a fitting tribute from a fan who has clearly learned a great deal from the detective he admires.
A clue can hide in plain sight…
A witness can remember the wrong thing…
A great detective notices both…
In One of My Life’s Passions: Classics and Mysteries, Poirot’s little grey cells get the tribute they deserve!
