Hickory Dickory Dock Book

It all started comically enough: one fine day Poirot's perfect secretary made three mistakes in one letter, something she had never done before - as far as Poirot knew.

It tuned out she was worried about her sister Mrs. Hubbard. Trying to restore his secretary's inner peace Poirot invited Mrs. Hubbard and asked her about her troubles.

Mrs. Hubbard was taking care of a hostel (a student dormitory in modern language) where quite a few young people - mostly students - lived.

People that studied at a collage far from their parents' home know exactly what I am talking about. Several months before the main story took place small thefts had begun. Somebody kept stealing such trivialities as a stethoscope, a tube of lipstick, a cookbook, and a scarf. Poirot became interested in such seemingly trivial and pointless acts. He visited the place and had a talk with its inhabitants. As a result the culprit confessed and the next day one of the people was found dead.

What is curious about the novel is that (a slight spoiler follows) it seemed to me Agatha Christie was trying to set her own record regarding the number of people ended up dead. I do not recall another story written by her where people kept dying wholesale.

What I liked about this novel is that after several previous books Poirot finally appeared in the beginning and kept his presence steady through the whole length. He also finally bothered to do some investigation. In the last couple of books he just talked to people using psychology to find a culprit. Here he had to move his behind and actively look for clues.


I was able to figure out the culprit before it was revealed (yay for me!). To be fair Poirot revealed the motive quite early - by the middle of the book. I guess in this case hunting for clues payed off. The mystery was still quite elaborate with all the clues available, but masterfully hidden behind bazillion of red herrings. In other words, this is exactly the mystery I expect from the Queen of Mystery. This is not one of her best, but quite good solid effort in any case. And "solid effort" from Agatha Christie means practically unreachable height by other mystery writers, dead or living.

P.S. I do not get why people keep accusing Agatha Christie of being racist. Only because some of her characters were racist? Here one of the smartest person among the students was a black girl from Jamaica.