Funerals Are Fatal

“Funerals Are Fatal” begins, very aptly, after the funeral of a rich and lonely old man called Richard Abernethie. In fact, this is the American title of the book, the British title being, more aptly, “After The Funeral”.
As in many instances in literature  not just mystery novels, the heirs gather for the funeral and the subsequent reading of the will. It is the solicitor Mr. Entwhistle who gives us a description of the main characters.
The youngest sister of the deceased Cora blurts out suddenly, “But he was murdered, wasn’t he?” This chance remark is interpreted as an “awkward truth” by Mr. Entwhistle while also casting suspicion in the minds of the assembled company.
After Cora is found murdered the day after the funeral, Mr. Entwhistle goes to his old friend Hercule Poirot for help. What follows is some very intelligent sleuthing and deduction by Monsieur Poirot based mainly on conversations with the family.
I re-read this book after several years for the purposes of this post. I had only a sketchy memory of the plot which I found masterful on review.
What I really admire about this  book is how it shows Agatha ‘s keen observation of human nature and her analysis of psychology despite having had no formal education. She was homeschooled and then sent to Paris to learn French.
How this equipped her to become one of the greatest authors of all time is unfathomable. Maybe it was all the books that she read and interpreted with her intelligence or maybe she was just blessed with some natural gift. Whatever it was, we are still enjoying it one hundred years after her first book was published