Evelyn Howard's Telegraphic Manner of Speaking (Metaphor)
When Hastings first meets Eve Howard, he observes that her manner of speaking is in short, brusque clauses, prompting him to narrate, "Her conversation, I soon found, was couched in the telegraphic style" (5). Hastings refers to the clipped style of telegraphs, which often attempt to communicate with the least amount of words possible. This early evaluation of Evelyn prepares the reader for the exceedingly lean economy of her dialogue.
Inspector Poirot's Eyes (Simile)
After hearing from Cynthia that Emily Inglethorp took bromide powders to sleep, Hastings writes, "As we walked briskly away from the house, I glanced at [Poirot] more than once. I had often before noticed that, if anything excited him, his eyes turned green like a cat’s. They were shining like emeralds now" (85). Here are two back-to-back similes describing Poirot's eyes as green and shining. The comparison to emeralds emphasizes the value of Poirot's eyes, as they perceive what others do not, and the comparison to a cat emphasizes Poirot's instinct for detection.
Mary's Face, as Old as the Hills (Simile)
Another instance of Hastings waxing poetic about Mary's face comes when he accidentally witnesses a fight between Mary and John in the woods. After John asks Mary whether she's in love with Bauerstein, Hastings observes that "she hesitated, and suddenly there swept across her face a strange expression, old as the hills, yet with something eternally young about it. So might some Egyptian sphinx have smiled" (151). Hastings regards Mary with such admiration it verges on idolization. This is not the only occasion on which he compares her to an Egyptian sphinx. He finds her mysterious and inscrutable, wild and unyielding.
Like a Goose Walked Over My Grave (Simile)
When Cynthia discusses the tactic of murder by poisoning early in the book, Emily tells her to stop, because she feels "like a goose walked over [her] grave" (9). This, in addition to being a simile, is an idiom, meaning that Emily feels the ominous sense that someone has walked over her future gravesite, meaning that whatever topic being discussed triggers Emily's mortal dread, which is rather prescient seeing that she's killed by poisoning a few weeks later.
