After a chance meeting with Ariadne Oliver, a confused young woman named Norma Restarick seeks out Poirot, only to discover that our favorite detective is now a very old man. Embarrassed by her own rudeness, Norma flees Poirot’s flat, but not before she lets slip that she thinks she’s committed a murder.
His interest piqued, Poirot sets out to find the woman–but uncovers a tangled web of lies and cruel deceit along the way.
The Story In Third Girl
Hercule Poirot is enjoying a perfectly nice breakfast of hot chocolate and brioche when his valet, George, informs him that a young lady wants to see him. Poirot, annoyed by the early morning interruption, initially declines to see her but is intrigued when he hears that the young lady believes she might have committed a murder.
Before he can get a straight story (or even her name) out of his visitor, she become flustered, apparently caught off guard by Poirot’s advanced age. She apologizes profusely as she runs away in embarrassment.
Poirot contacts a friend in Scotland Yard and attempts to locate the young woman and uncover the truth about this possible murder but knows that his chances of finding her are slim. Then a visit with Ariadne Oliver sheds some light on the situation.
It seems that the young woman is named Norma Restarick and she splits her time between her job in London and her ancestral home in Long Basing. Or, at least, she did, before she disappeared.
My Thoughts On Third Girl
Fans of Ariadne Oliver will find much to love here; she is involved from nearly the very beginning and is (mostly) an actual help to Poirot, despite the brief moments of frustration she occasionally causes him. Ariadne is a true and loyal friend but she’s no sycophant. She holds her own and then some.
Third Girl also sees a return to the Poirot of earlier novels. This Poirot does spend some time in his favorite arm chair, but he is fully engaged in the case from the beginning and isn’t as travel-adverse as the Poirot of previous novels. Mr. Goby’s network does a lot of scurrying around for Poirot, but their work feels more like an attempt to save the reader from the investigation’s tedium than a shortcut.
Now, the bad news. The solution to the mystery requires a suspension of disbelief I just couldn’t muster. We saw this one in a previous novel and it didn’t work any better here than it did there. The story also, in my opinion, wound up a bit too quickly–and without revisiting the motives of the character who may or may not have been sharing information with foreign agents.
Third Girl also offers up a healthy dose of Poirot’s matchmaking. As is usual, the matches feel forced and unbalanced. The one involving a professional and his patient feels especially inappropriate in that respect.
I “read” Third Girl mainly as an audiobook performed by Hugh Fraser. He was as brilliant as ever.
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Lisa Barger 
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