Agatha Christie doesn’t include a lot of courtroom scenes in her novels, and for that reason, this one is a favorite. I also enjoy the fact that it doesn’t begin with a murder and the request of Hercule Poirot to solve it. The actual murder doesn’t happen for some time, and a bit of character development has begun. Does this help or hinder the reader from anticipating the end? Not sure. Told in three parts, with the third part focusing on the trial, this one held my interest and allowed clues to unfold slowly. I only gave it four stars because the writing of dialogue was, at times, very stilted. There were so many “he said” “she said” in the dialogue at times that I was a bit surprised that it wasn’t one of her first published. Ignoring that though, there’s some richness here that I enjoyed very much.