The Affair at the Victory Ball: A Hercule Poirot Story

By Agatha Christie

Previously published in the print anthology Poirot's Early Cases.

A young lord is murdered at a masked ball, and his fiancée dies of a cocaine overdose. Can Poirot find out who the killer is?

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jul 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9780062298195

Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She died in 1976, after a prolific career spanning six decades.

Book preview

Contents

The Affair at the Victory Ball

About the Author

The Agatha Christie Collection

Copyright

About the Publisher

THE AFFAIR AT THE VICTORY BALL

I

Pure chance led my friend Hercule Poirot, formerly chief of the Belgian force, to be connected with the Styles Case. His success brought him notoriety, and he decided to devote himself to the solving of problems in crime. Having been wounded on the Somme and invalided out of the Army, I finally took up my quarters with him in London. Since I have a first-hand knowledge of most of his cases, it has been suggested to me that I select some of the most interesting and place them on record. In doing so, I feel that I cannot do better than begin with that strange tangle which aroused such widespread public interest at the time. I refer to the affair at the Victory Ball.

Although perhaps it is not so fully demonstrative of Poirot’s peculiar methods as some of the more obscure cases, its sensational features, the well-known people involved, and the tremendous publicity given it by the Press, make it stand out as a cause célèbre and I have long felt that it is only fitting that Poirot’s connection with the solution should be given to the world.

It was a fine morning in spring, and we were sitting in Poirot’s rooms. My little friend, neat and dapper as ever, his egg-shaped head tilted on one side, was delicately applying a new pomade to his moustache. A certain harmless vanity was a characteristic of Poirot’s and fell into

Reviews for The Affair at the Victory Ball

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A Poirot short story. Framed as Hastings retelling Poirot early case, this is set the night of a Victory ball. It's a fancy dress ball and the group of 6 we concern ourselves with attend dressed as the 6 characters from Commedia dell'arte. Two end up dead and the who, how and why take Poirot to get to the bottom of. He does so from a verbal report from Inspector Jaap, and a little bit a shadow play with the fancy dress costumes. It's not terribly well fleshed out, I think it relies on knowing Poirot and the way he works. That's not to say it's not enjoyable, though.

[vesper1931 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Who killed the young Lord Cronshaw at the Victory Ball, and was the death of his actress girlfriend that same night a coincidence. Poirot investigates
Another enjoyable short story

[charlie68_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Entertaining audio-book by the two narrators.Like radio theatre. The stories themselves are all incredibly complicated but solved usually quite simply by Mr. Poirot. Someone whose two steps ahead of everyone else.

[abbess_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

1974; a nice collection of some now very familar stories (from TV) mixed with several that were previously very difficult to find, having been published in book form either only in the UK or in the US but not both. All were previously published in magazines (from 1923 through 1936) and most of the stories were filmed early in the series with David Suchet as Poirot. Contains:

The Affair of the Victory Ball
†harlequinade and murder; a bit better than filmed version although that was very good
The King of Clubs
â€" a dancer gets blackmailed and does something about it

[bookangel_a · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm trying to read all of Christie's writings, and I was disappointed with this. I thought I would love it, but I had already read all but two of the short stories. Of course, I love reading anything with Poirot and Hastings, but I was hoping for fresh material.

[riverwillow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Collection of short stories, most of which have been published before in other collections, although there were a couple that I didn't remember. As I've been reading Christie's crime stories in publication order, it was nice to see Hastings again.

[alexthehunn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As much as I prefer Christie's novels over the short stories, I do find that the short works make for interesting little diversions. As ever, they are well crafted and sure to entertain and amuse.