Poirot: After the funeral.

The new owner of enderby Building is Mr. Richard. As an elder brother, when his father died at the age of 24, he took over his father's mantle and inherited his family business. Through his hard work, his brothers and sisters continue to enjoy a rich life. However, contrary to expectations, some passed away one after another. Now, among the younger brothers and sisters, only the younger brother Timothy and the younger sister Miss Cora are left. Timothy has become disabled because of the pain of the death of his loved one, and his sister Cora has been a little neurotic since she was a child, and others are a little careless about her.

Mr. Richard also died because of years of physical illness and the sudden loss of his son. Ranscomb, the housekeeper, organized Mr. Richard's funeral. Relatives attending the funeral include his sister Cora, his sister-in-law Helen, his brother Timothy's wife, his nephew George, his niece rosamond, her husband Michael Shane and his niece Susan. After the funeral, lawyer Entweis announced the contents of Mr. Richard's will: except for some small relics and some money left to Ranscomb, the housekeeper, as a pension, most of the remaining assets were divided into six parts, four of which were left to Timothy, nephew George, niece Susan and niece rosamond, and the other two were deposited in the trust fund, and the proceeds went to Helen and Cora, the younger brother. If they die, the proceeds will be shared equally by the first four heirs.

Just as everyone was lamenting the death of Mr. Richard, my sister Cora suddenly said in public, "Mr. Richard was murdered, wasn't he?" . This shocking remark made waves like a bomb on a calm lake, which made everyone think, but the more direct impact was that Cora was subsequently murdered.

Cora's murder officially kicked off this wonderful story. The window of the crime scene was broken, and the murder weapon was an axe. About 10 pounds of items were lost at the scene. The first person to find the body was Cora's housekeeper, Miss Gail Crist, who had been taking care of Cora for more than three years. Cora sent her out to change some books that day, and when she came back, she found her master killed. Lawyer Entweis asked the housekeeper, Gelchrist, and learned that Cora likes art, and she often goes to auction to buy some cheap paintings to collect, and occasionally makes some paintings herself. Miss Gelchrist, the housekeeper, also painted some landscape paintings when she was a child, so she can communicate with Cora appropriately. Cora, on the other hand, has no savings, and her life is basically maintained by her brother Richard's allowance. Three months ago, Mr. Richard came to see Miss Cora. At that time, Mr. Richard looked very healthy. Cora said that his brother Richard suspected that someone was trying to hurt him. But according to Entwistle's understanding of Richard, he is mentally healthy and will not have persecution paranoia. Maybe this is Cora's own judgment.

In order to carry out Richard's will, Entwistle visited George, rosamond, Susan and Richard's younger brother Timothy, and learned that these younger generations were short of money. He also told everyone that Cora's will was to leave her own sketches and an amethyst to Miss Gail Crist, the housekeeper, and other property to Susan, about several hundred pounds. Why leave it to Susan? No one understands, including Susan herself. Timothy, as a younger brother, strongly disapproved of Richard's will. He thinks that all the inheritance should be left to his brother. After these investigations, there was no substantial progress in the case, so Entweis decided to visit his good friend Detective Poirot for help.

After Entwistle's description, both of them were a little suspicious of Richard's sudden death, and even suspected that the murderer was in Richard's home. Entweis also told Polokola that George was betting on horses on the field the day he was killed. He suspected that he was lying, because George said that one of the two horses that won the race didn't win, and rosamond was shopping that day, while her husband and wife were talking about a play, while Susan and his wife were at home that day, Timothy was at home for physical reasons, and Mrs Timothy was on her way home. Timothy is not so weak that he can go out for a walk. In order to get more information for confirmation, Entwistle and Poirot started further investigation respectively.

Entwistle found the doctor who confirmed Richard's death, and confirmed that it was a normal death, and there was no suicide by taking too much sleeping pills. He asked the housekeeper, Lance Combe, what happened after Richard died, and invited these younger generations to come and live for a while. He learned that George let his master down and was not enough to inherit the family business, while Susan was a good girl, but her husband was ordinary, and rosamond and his wife were very likable. Later, Richard went to his brother Timothy and his sister Cora's house alone, and said something inexplicable when he came back.

When attending Cora's funeral, Susan lived in Cora's house and met Cora's housekeeper, Miss Gail Crist. But in the evening, Miss Gail Crist was accidentally poisoned by arsenic. The poison came from a wedding cake sent over. Susan also found a letter from Cora, written by her brother Richard, which mentioned "Don't mention this to anyone". Maybe it was overheard by the housekeeper, Miss Gail Crist, which led to poisoning.

On the other hand, Poirot entrusted a friend to help him investigate the whereabouts of these relatives of Richard and learned that their confessions were different on the day Cora was killed. With Poirot's continuous promotion of the case, the crime is still around, and Richard's sister-in-law Helen is suddenly attacked. So far, there have been four crimes: Richard died unexpectedly, Cora was hacked to death with an axe, Miss Gail Crist was poisoned by a wedding cake, and Helen was knocked unconscious by a blunt instrument. What's the connection between them that led the murderer to choose the four of them? In the end, all this did not escape Poirot's eyes, and the answers to the questions were found.

When I finally learned the truth of the case and locked the murderer, I recalled the whole novel and found that the novel was obviously different in characterization. From this point of view, the murderer should be easy to guess, but I have to admire grandma's superb ability to tell the truth and successfully divert the reader's attention. The technique of story has also appeared in grandma's other works, but this time it is stronger, more direct and bolder, and the details of revealing the truth are so small, so casual and so deadly. I think this is the attraction of grandma's works and the reason for their enduring.

The story was triggered by one sentence, weaving a huge mystery and story. This sentence caused the confusion of later cases, rather than the story before the arrival of the traditional murder case, which attracted readers to continue reading with this mystery. Usually, after the outbreak of a major case, it is a common routine in mystery novels to develop a way that the murderer constantly hurts many related personnel to create suspense through stories. However, there are four different evil events in this work, but the sources are cleverly different. The source is not from the first suspense, but a cover. The design of the story is enough to give this work a high score. In addition, in this work, Poirot has few scenes, much like an easy chair detective, and more about the relationship between related characters, but because of this, grandma gives full play to the narrative of the story.

Although the motivation of The Last Killer is a bit far-fetched and the process of committing a crime is a bit complicated, this work can be said to be the pinnacle in revealing the darkness of human nature and the design of tricks. It is suggested that interested friends may wish to read it and experience the mystery of the story for themselves. It's also quite comfortable.