The Missing Will

This is Christie at her most playful. "The Missing Will" is a compact jewel of a mystery, the kind of story that proves why she became the undisputed queen of the whodunit. When Miss Violet Marsh walks into Poirot's office convinced her uncle's will has been purloined by greedy relatives hoping to leave her penniless, she expects the great detective to tear through the household like a whirlwind. Instead, she gets a small, immaculate man who asks strange questions and watches everyone with those remarkable grey cells. The puzzle is deceptively simple: find a missing document. But as Poirot examines the family and their furious arguments over money, he begins to see that the answer lies not in where the will was hidden, but in what it actually says. Christie serves up her trademark fair-play clues, a cast of suspicious relatives, and a solution that arrives with the satisfying click of a lock falling into place. For anyone who delights in watching an intellect at work, this early Poirot story offers pure entertainment.