In the case involving Poirot's (David Suchet) brief trip to the Americas, he and Hastings (Hugh Fraser) are asked to accompany a rather large sum of bonds to a bank's branch in the U.S. Of course, the bonds appear to be stolen from under Poirot and the bank employees' collective noses.
In "The Double Clue," a safe is broken into during a tea party filled with aristocrats. Hastings and Miss Lemon (Pauline Moran) end up putting in some extra man hours when Poirot seems uninterested in the case, even though Chief Inspector Japp's (Philip Jackson) job seems to be on the line. Instead, Poirot spends an unusual amount of time with one of the female suspects.
Another interesting case has a foreign prince giving a royal ruby to a lady he has just met, only to have her disappear in the middle of dinner. Poirot is then charged with not only finding the ruby, but also figuring out who exactly is behind the theft since it's obvious the lady wasn't working alone. As a result, Poirot ends up spending Christmas and New Years with the thief's family - though only a select few know the reason for the visit.
One of my favorite episodes of this collection is "The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor" where an elderly man appears, at first glance, to have been frightened to death by the ghost of a woman who once hung herself in a tree on his property. Of course, Poirot is quick to point out evidence that suggests his death might have had other influences. During the investigations, everyone from the victim's superstitious wife, to their maid, to a mysterious man from the wife's past who has recently reappeared, all become suspects. As a side story, the owner of the local bed and breakfast Poirot is staying in fancies himself a mystery writer and asks the Belgian to help him figure out who, in his latest work, actually did the crime.
Overall, the eleven episodes included in Agatha Christie's Poirot: Series 3 offer a good selection of Poirot mysteries and, as always, everyone from Suchet to Jackson to Fraser to Moran all play their roles perfectly. The only real sad point is the lack of any special features to enhance the experience just a little more.
