of four grown children including Judith Curtiss, Poirot's new valet Dr John Franklin, a doctor and research chemist, age 35, an idealist of strong character Barbara Franklin, his invalid/hypochondriac wife, age 30, an ambitious, scheming woman Judith Hastings, Franklin's laboratory assistant and daughter of Captain Hastings, age 21, one year out of university Nurse Craven, nurse to Barbara Franklin Sir William Boyd Carrington, former governor of a province of India, about 15 years older than Mrs Franklin, friend to her family since she was a child, in England to live as baronet in the house he inherited, once the house is remodelled Major Allerton, long estranged from his wife, a smooth-talking womaniser, in his early forties Colonel Toby Luttrell, owner of Styles Court, about age 50 Mrs Daisy Luttrell, his wife Elizabeth Cole, age 35, one of three surviving sisters once known by the last name of Litchfield Stephen Norton, a grey-haired man of quiet disposition, uses binoculars for bird watching Georges, Poirot's long-time valet Literary significance and reception In a review titled "The last labour of Hercules", Matthew Coady in The Guardian, on 9 October 1975, wrote that the book was both "a curiosity and a triumph". He repeated the tale of the book being written some thirty years before and then stated that "through it, Dame Agatha, whose recent work has shown a decline, is seen once more at the peak of her ingenuity." Coady called Captain Hastings the "densest of Dr Watsons [but]... never has the stupidity of the faithful companion-chronicler been so cunningly exploited as it is here." Coady summarised the absolute basics of the plot and the questions raised within it and then said,In providing the answers, the great illusionist of crime fiction provides a model demonstration of reader manipulation. The seemingly artless, simplistic Christie prose is mined with deceits. Inside the old, absurd conventions of the Country House mystery she reworks the least likely person trick with a freshness rivalling the originality she displayed nearly 50 years ago in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. For the egotistic Poirot, hero of some 40 books… it is a dazzlingly theatrical finish. 'Goodbye, cher ami', runs his final message to the hapless Hastings. 'They were good days.' For addicts, everywhere, they were among the best. Two months later, Coady nominated Curtain as his Book of the Year in a column of critic's choices. He said, "No crime