"Hell is the Truth Learned Too Late"

Or, a Review of "Third Girl"
by Courtney Hilden

"Third Girl," the latest in this series of Poirot's adventures, is by far the most messy and difficult to understand story. The story involves a young woman named Norma, who visits Poirot, telling him that she believed she had committed a crime. This is apparently all Poirot needs, because he is off, tracking this girl down and trying to decide if she, indeed, has done something wrong. He discovers her involvement in a crime, including that of her two roommates, Frances, an actress, and Claudia Reese-Holland, a secretary and lover of Norma's Father, and Norma's boyfriend David, a painter. It's an embarrassingly bad and bland attempt at making a mystery interesting.
Other than that, it is hard to know where to begin with this dead carcass of a mystery. It is slow moving. The majority of the characters are impossible to care for, and Mr. Rodderick and Norma's interactions feel more like a creepy incestuous relationship than that of a father or daughter. At least one of them was suppose to believe that they were in a real relationship. Sonia and her relationship with a much older man was also creepy. The music was also melodramatic and miserable. Music is only suppose to be that on the nose in soap operas.
Once again, Jemima Rooper manages to give a great, relateable and believable performance as the title character. If her miraculous work making her the only consistently good thing on Hex and this episode of Poirot is any indication, Rooper deserves bigger and better roles, because she can clearly work material into something good.
There are other, smaller things that made this better. Poirot being insulted several times for being too old was a nice touch of levity (and perhaps another meta comment on the series, as part of the inclusion of a stand-in for Christie herself.) It was also nice to show Poirot being compassionate and solving this mystery for genuine concern for Norma, and not for being harsh and unyielding like he has become in other outings. Next time, he should be allowed to feel for his victims. Helping others should be his motivation, not enforcing the law on other's.