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Summary: The Mice Will Play
Comment: Agatha Christie's famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is known for his 'gray cells', his ability to deduce the solution to the most puzzling of crimes. In "Hickory Dickory Dock" his gray cells are at work trying to solve the riddle of theft and eventually murder at a youth hostel. At first, Poirot can see little connection between the stolen objects, until he understands their order of disappearance and the broader scheme behind it all.
Poirot is alerted to the strange happenings in Hickory Road by his secretary Miss Lemon, whose sister, Mrs. Hubbard, serves as the overseer of the hostel. Not wishing to call in the police and hoping that matters will right themselves naturally, Mrs. Hubbard allows Poirot to investigate the matter. After giving a talk to the students, one young girl confesses to the thefts, but not to all items that were stolen. When she is found dead a few days later, an apparent suicide, Mrs. Hubbard knows that murder has taken place. In the close confines of a youth hostel where the walls are paper thin and the locks are all the same, someone must know something and a murderer is certainly at large within the house.
"Hickory Dickory Dock" is a fast-paced read, an enigma of a mystery that unravels over the course of the entire novel. Indeed, only Hercule Poirot would notice the links between certain clues while the reader is left clueless. It just goes to prove what a masterful weaver of mystery Agatha Christie was, how even the most intricate plot involving some familiar details readers of other works will recognize, is unpredictable but has a tidy and satisfactory explanation in the end.
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Summary: Poirot solves the mystery of the boarding house thefts...
Comment: I really enjoyed this Poirot mystery. He has to solve a mystery that starts as petty thefts at a student boarding house and ends with murders. There are some unique characters, such as the proprietor of the school. It's a little dated, but still gripping, and there are some great plot twists. Poirot is not featured as much as I expected either, giving us time to get to know new characters.
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Summary: WILL SOMEONE LET THE WOMAN SPEAK?
Comment: What "improvements" have been made for the Berkley edition? There are already major differences in punctuation, word choices, and scene breaks between the original Collins and Dodd Mead (HICKORY DICKORY DEATH) editions of this novel. There are further differences between the Dodd Mead editions republished by Random House/Avenel and the Dodd Mead editions republished by Simon & Shuster/Pocket. There are further differences still in the Signet, Bantam, and Black Dog & Leventhal editions. For every publishing house putting out her works, there seem to be a new batch of editors altering Agatha Christie's words and the sound of her voice. What's the matter with these publishers? Whose voice do they think we want to hear when we sit down to a novel by Agatha Christie? And what will she sound like twenty years from now? It's frightening that her estate has failed to see the importance of guarding her words as she wrote them. Please tell me I'm not the only one here who senses that a crime has been committed.
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Summary: Excellent!
Comment: This is the first Agatha Christie book I've read and it won't be my last. I loved it. I wish M. Poirot would have had a more major role but he did solve the crime. I love him! I went to our local bookstore and bought more of Agatha's books and can't wait to read them all!
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Summary: Miss Lemon shocked Poirot by making errors and....
Comment: revealing that she has a sister! Poirot had never before considered that his incredibly efficient secretary could be so human. Miss Lemon's sister was responsible for the errors as well, there were troubling things taking place in her life. There were thefts taking place at the youth hostel where she worked. Poirot decided to look into the matter as a favor to Miss Lemon and so he could restore the order in his own life.Poirot begins his investigation of the hostel and its residents but before he can solve the rash of petty thefts a murder occurs, a murder that is only the first of a series. The trail leads Poirot and the police into a world of smuggling with side trips through young love and family secrets.
In typical Christie fashion the clues are all laid out for the reader to follow. There are red herrings to confuse the armchair detective - perhaps a few too many in this one - and of course, the usual Christie 'twist' at the end.
It is often suggested that a writer should write about what they know and this book points out that Christie didn't know very much about unversity students in the mid-fifties. The characters do not come to life in this one they way they do in most of her other books. Keeping the various students/suspects sorted out it difficult because they really aren't very memorable. Also this one seems to suffer from too much - too much plot drug AND gem smuggling, too many red herrings and too many conincidences.
It should be noted that this book was originally written in 1955 and certain parts are very much representative of that time. Stereotypes of Italians, blacks, Indians, Cockneys etc are all present and tend to make the 21st century reader cringe.
Even though this is not one of Christie's masterpieces it is still an excellent read, thoroughly challenging and enjoyable.
