I have to admit that I'm a little torn on the ending to this one. The sudden dropping dead seems a little melodramatic, even for a vaudeville/cruise ship murder mystery, but I'm deeply entertained (and a little disturbed) by I-don't-approve-of-murder Poirot orchestrating a reveal that culminates in the death of his prime suspect. He may not have intended to kill him, but he certainly didn't go out of his way to prevent it! Still, I expect if you're a detective in a time and place where murderers are generally hung for their crimes, it might be easy to shrug off cutting out the middleman.

I do think the characterisation was especially amusing in this story though, which is what brought it up to a four star read for me.