Title: The Affair at the Victory Ball
Author(s) Name(s): Agatha Christie
Published in: March, 1923
Why You Might Like This Book: Read this book if you enjoy
- short thrillers,
- detective stories,
- short stories,
- interesting plots, and
- light reads.
Who Should Avoid This Book: Avoid this book if you are triggered by or dislike
- murder,
- death,
- drug addiction or drug abuse.
The Affair at The Victory Ball is one of the many short stories written by Agatha Christie featuring the brilliant Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. This is also the first Hercule Poirot short story, first published on 7th March, 1923. This was also part of the TV adapatation of “Agatha Christie’s Poirot”. If you want to get acquainted with this fictional detective, this might be a good story to start with.
Captain Arthur Hastings is interested in the news he has been reading in the morning newspapers about a couple of deaths that have happened and Hercule Poirot remains uninterested and detached. Inspector Jeff from the Scotland Yard pays them a visit and asks for Poirot’s support on the same matter. There was a ball, “Victory ball”, a costume party based on an Italian play Commedia dell’arte. There were six friends who participated, Lord Cronshaw, Coco Courtenay, the Davidsons, Eustace Beltane and Mrs. Mallaby and dressed up as Harlequin, Columbine, Pierrot and Pierrette, Punchinello and Pulcinella respectively. Courtenay was rumoured to be Lord Cronshaw’s fiancee and it was known that she was addicted to cocaine. They noticed that for most of the evening Lord Cronshaw seemed moody and upset and the two of them did not seem to be in talking terms with each other. Courtenay had excused herself and left the place early to go back to her home, requesting one of them to take her home. Later that evening, Lord Cronshaw was found dead, his body was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife. The next morning, Courtenay was found dead because of an overdose of cocaine.
Surely the two deaths seem related but there is not much information to pursure an investigation for Jeff. One was definitely a murder but was the other incident a murder as well? And who must have killed one or both of these people? As always, Poirot looks for and finds clues in unexpected places, using his signature methodical investigation. He invites all the concerned parties to create a play-like scenario, everyone there is nervous but also left wondering what is going on, then he gives his explanation, solving the case, implying how easy it was to identify the murderer. This is a light and amusing read for a fiction or thriller fan to have your little grey cells exercised when you do not have the time to read an entire novel. I’d give this at least a 3.5-star rating. Don’t expect much suspense and twists because it is quite hard to cover thriller plots in the form of short stories.
