Robert Barnard: "This village murder begins among the rural proletariat (cf. "Death by Drowning" in "The Thirteen Problems" and the excellent London working-class woman in "The Hollow"), but after a time it moves toward the better-spoken classes. Poirot suffers in a vividly awful country guesthouse in order to get in with the community and rescue a rather unsatisfactory young man from the gallows. Highly ingenious – at this point she is still able to vary the tricks she plays, not repeat them."