Burgh Island is closely linked to Agatha Christie, as it served as the inspirational setting for both And Then There Were None as well as the Hercule Poirot mystery Evil Under the Sun. The hotel and its eloquent Art Deco styling was also a bolt hole in the 1930s for the likes of London's rich and famous, including Noël Coward.

Then a man in a cloak, who is a participant in the big four, comes and tries persuading Hercule Poirot to stop and Hastings gets into a small fight with the stranger who evades Poirot, Hastings, and the hotel manager with a clever disguise.

A quiet holiday at a secluded hotel in Devon is all that Hercule Poirot wants, but amongst his fellow guests is a beautiful and vain woman who, seemingly oblivious to her own husband, revels in the attention of another woman's husband.

Also staying at the hotel are Poirot, Horace Blatt, a large and loud braggart, Major Barry, a retired Anglo-Indian army officer with endless stories, Rosamund Darnley an exclusive fashionable dressmaker who is Kenneth's former sweetheart, Carrie Gardener, a garrulous American tourist, her husband and echo Odell, Reverend Stephen Lane, and athletic Miss Emily Brewster.

Maurice Richardson in a short review in the 8 June 1941 issue of The Observer said, " Best Agatha Christie since Ten Little Indians – and one can't say much more than that – Evil Under the Sun has luxury summer hotel, closed-circle setting, Poirot in white trousers.

Poirot is more suspicious than ever of Lily Margrave's jumpy demeanour and investigates the two local hotels to see if anyone was staying that night who left the hotel near midnight.

She goes to stay with Miss Lawson, but Poirot tells her to go to a certain hotel, and read some papers he has prepared for her.

Poirot took a room in a Crowdean hotel to tell Inspector Hardcastle and Colin Lamb what he has deduced.

Poirot and Hastings are staying at the Grand Metropolitan hotel in Brighton where they meet Mr and Mrs Opalsen.

Poirot speaks with Jacques and his wife and discovers that before Gustave, there was another waiter, called Robert, who was dismissed for incompetence but who was not witnessed leaving the hotel.

Schwartz and Poirot find Dr Lutz attending the not too seriously injured detective, and then follow a bloody trail down the carpets of the hotel to an unused wing where they find a dead body with a note pinned to it which reads " Marrascaud will kill no more, nor will he rob his friends.

" Poirot uses a heliograph to signal down the mountain for help and three days later, Lementeuil and some officers arrive after climbing up to the hotel.

We learn that during his first night in the hotel, Poirot did not drink his coffee, as he suspected it was drugged, and actually witnessed Gustave entering his room, rifling his pockets, and finding the note from Lementeuil.

Poirot meets Ridgeway at the Cheshire Cheese who gives him the facts of the case: He was entrusted by his uncle and the other general manager, Mr Shaw, of taking a million dollars of Liberty Bonds to New York to extend the bank ’ s credit line there.

Talking to the manager and then to Schwartz again, Poirot learns that the beautiful woman is a Madame Grandier, who comes each year on the anniversary of her husband's death in the area, and that the distinguished-looking man is Dr Lutz, a Jewish refugee from the Nazis in Vienna.

As there seems to be no conventional way to prove which of them has committed Shaitana's murder, Poirot suggests that the group of sleuths delve into the past and uncover the murders that the dead man thought he knew about.

Robert Weaver in the Toronto Daily Star of December 13, 1969 said, " Hallowe ' en Party ... is a disappointment, but with all her accomplishments Miss Christie can be forgiven some disappointments ... Poirot seems weary and so does the book.

The next day, Poirot arrives at the house to witness a scene that seems strangely staged.

Poirot ’ s attention is directed to Amy Folliat, who seems to know more than she is saying.

It seems that the diamond had been replaced with a zircon and, given the fact that it was difficult for anyone but Valerie to have put the ring into the soup, Poirot accuses her of having stolen the diamond.

In a red herring that is easily spotted by those who recognise the doctor from an earlier meeting with Poirot, it seems that Stillingfleet may have kidnapped Norma.

Poirot seems especially interested in the fact that little of the side dish and none of the dessert were eaten, while the main course was consumed entirely.

She seems to have had an about-face and tells Poirot that Andersen is a great man and that cannot betray him.

Japp is able to tell Poirot something he doesn't know – that one of the jewels has been pawned by a known thief called " Red Narky " who usually works with a woman called Gracie Kidd but he seems to be alone this time.

Harrison seems to be fine and Poirot hopes that he is not feeling any ill-effects of having digested the harmless washing soda that he consumed.

Even Poirot seems to incur her wrath when he responds a little too dryly to her conversation.

Poirot reminds him that he had said this earlier too, but everybody ignored it.

Poirot as a man is quite as delightful as ever, and Poirot as a detective not only perplexes the pleasant and not too intelligent hospital nurse, whose duty it is to tell the story, but, again as usual, the intelligent reader as well.

A letter written before her death to Hercule Poirot is too late to save her life, but it puts Poirot on the trail of a murderer.

M. Poirot in his retirement is becoming too much of a colourless expert.

Poirot is bored with the lack of interesting cases which come his way, telling Hastings that the criminals of England fear him too much and he dismisses the suggestion that most of them don't even know that he exists.

Delighted, she asks for the puzzle box as a souvenir but Poirot is too quick for her and prevents her taking it.

So much had he become the rage that every rich woman who had mislaid a bracelet or lost a pet kitten rushed to secure the services of the great Hercule Poirot.

Beginning with Three Act Tragedy ( 1934 ), Christie had perfected during the inter-war years a sub-genre of Poirot novel in which the detective himself spent much of the first third of the novel on the periphery of events.

Poirot finds a frozen leg of mutton which interests him very much.

It is not one of stories about her famous French detective, Hercule Poirot, having instead Miss Marple, a little old lady sleuth who doesn't seem to do much but who sets the stage for the final exposure of the murderer.

The novel's plot is based on the 1923 Poirot short story The Plymouth Express ( much later collected in book form in the US in 1951 in The Under Dog and Other Stories and in the UK in 1974 in Poirot's Early Cases ).

Poirot begins a game of nerves with everyone in the house, extending his stay and searching everyone's bedrooms, much to their annoyance.

by Michael Innes, Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham and Careless Corpse by C. Daly King ) when he said, " Only Mrs. Christie keeps closer to the old tradition, and this time she adds much doggy lore and a terrier so fascinating that even Poirot himself is nearly driven from the centre of the stage.

" The review concluded, " However much the purist yearns for Poirot or Miss Marple, he can hardly deplore Mrs. Christie's bright, busy excursion into this topical and extravagant sphere.

In fact, Poirot has hidden her from danger, and she is not seen again for much of the novel.

Poirot makes the rounds of the village, insinuating that he is connected with the Home Office and thereby generating much hypocritical murmurs of sympathy for the doctor and, more importantly, names of who said what and when.

She hints that she knows something of Sir George that Poirot would like to know, but the detective doesn't take up the offer, much to her annoyance.

It appears that the romance of the two has been restarted and Poirot guessed as much since Halliday was not pushing for the investigation to concentrate on his son-in-law, despite his evident dislike of him.

The police arrive and Poirot and the four people go back to Pat's flat where she makes them a much appreciated omelette.