The Mystery of the Three Quarters

Sophie Hannah has taken over writing the Hercule Poirot  mystery series from the legendary Agatha Christie.  This book is the third in the collection.  Another entertaining storyline that you cannot predict until the very end, when Poirot gathers all the suspects in a room and lays out the clues in order to lead you to the obvious explanation.

This time Poirot is drawn into the plot by four, it seems, random people who have received letters accusing them of murder.  The letters were allegedly written by Poirot, so each person comes to yell at Poirot for accusing them unjustly.  Inspector Crabtree is brought onto the case to assist Poirot to appease an important judge, whose son is one of the accused.  Each person has been told that they have been found out for the murder of Barnabas Pandy.  Hercules Poirot does not know who Pandy was and if he was murdered.  he does not know any of the letter recipients.  He can let this lie.  He must investigate who wrote the letters and if Pandy is dead, was it murder.  

Crabtree is now recounting the story to us, and explaining all the facts and clues that happened and giving us all the information as they learned it.  You, the reader, are piecing together all the facts and discarding all the superfluous information that is designed to throw you off target.  

But in the end after meeting so many characters and trying to digest so much, that when Poirot pulls out the piece of Church window cake one last time and divides into 4 squares and explains how the individual quarters are connected or not, you finally see the connections.