The Lemesurier Inheritance

  • Hercule Poirot
  • Short Story
  • 1923

Nobody takes the Lemesurier curse lightly. Least of all any first-born son in the family - for it is deemed that he will not inherit the title. Can Poirot solve the riddle of the curse? From Poirot’s Early Cases and The Under Dog and Other Stories.

More about this story

A family curse derived from a medieval ancestor of the Lemesurier family – he suspected his wife of being unfaithful and that their son was not his own. As punishment he murdered them both and dying she cursed his family to never have a first-born son live to inherit. Can it be true? Poirot takes it upon himself to find out.

It first appeared in book form the US collection The Under Dog and Other Stories in 1951. It was not until 1974 that the story featured in a UK collection, Poirot’s Early Cases.

This is the only story in the collection, Poirot’s Early Cases, not to have been adapted for TV.

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