Prize writing Book

This is a collection of 18 short Poirot stories. Almost all of them were written early in Agatha Christie's writing career and as such they are miles ahead of later novels in terms of excitement. On the negative side they are too short and some feel like outlines instead of full-fledged stories. Speaking about excellent short mysteries I still think the only writer who could unfailingly produce them was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes shorts never failed to deliver.

Coming back to this collection almost all of the stores were included in earlier anthologies of the series. Capt. Hastings appear in approximately half of them. He never failed to demonstrate his lack in mental department. I will briefly discuss only some of them.

The Double Clue. Poirot meets his own Irene Adler: Countess Vera Rossakoff.

The Lemesurier Inheritance. Has some elements of Gothic horror. In this case they almost work.

The Plymouth Express. This story was later expanded into a novel The Mystery of the Blue Train. Anybody familiar with the novel would find absolutely nothing unexpected here. Developing the train theme later Agatha Christie created the greatest Poirot novel ever: Murder on the Orient Express.
The Chocolate Box. According to Poirot this was the only time he completely failed the case. Surprisingly this is not the most complicated mystery Poirot has dealt with. His young age was the only justification.

The Third Floor Flat. I could be wrong, but I think this is the only story which has never appeared before. I found it to be quite humorous, other readers found the mystery to be underwhelming.
Wasp's Nest. The least interesting story. This one indeed feels like a sketch.

Problem at Sea. I suspect this is an early short version of Death of the Nile without any frills and great cast of characters.
How Does Your Garden Grow? 99% of all Poirot short story collections includes this one. If you look at it carefully it strongly resembles Dumb Witness.

The rest of the stories are quite forgettable and were discussed elsewhere. Strictly speaking the anthology is closer to 3 stars than 4, but compared to the latest novels of the series it is great. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.