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Hercule Poirot #34

Hickory Dickory Dock

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An outbreak of kleptomania at a student hostel was not normally the sort of crime that aroused Hercule Poirot’s interest. But when he saw the list of stolen and vandalized items – including a stethoscope, some old flannel trousers, a box of chocolates, a slashed rucksack and a diamond ring found in a bowl of soup – he congratulated the warden, Mrs Hubbard, on a ‘unique and beautiful problem’. The list made absolutely no sense at all. But, reasoned Poirot, if this was merely a petty thief at work, why was everyone at the hostel so frightened?

196 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1, 1955

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About the author

Agatha Christie

4,153 books64.9k followers
Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.

Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,968 reviews
Profile Image for Ahmad Sharabiani.
9,564 reviews46 followers
May 21, 2022
Hickory Dickory Death = Hickory Dickory Dock (Hercule Poirot, #30), Agatha Christie

Hickory Dickory Dock is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 31 October 1955 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in November of the same year under the title of Hickory Dickory Death.

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «جنایتهای خیابان هیکوری»؛ «قتل در خوابگاه دانشجویی»؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیست و ششم ماه دسامبر سال1995میلادی

عنوان: جنایتهای خیابان هیکوری؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: محمد قصاع؛ تهران، نشر البرز، سال1374؛ در209ص؛ موضوع: داستانهای جنایی از نویسندگان بریتانیا - سده20م

عنوان: قتل در خوابگاه دانشجویی؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: مجتبی عبدالله نژاد؛ تهران، نشر هرمس، سال1390؛ در262ص؛ شابک9789643637804؛ چاپ دوم در سال1392 در246ص؛

نقل نمونه متن: («پوآرو» اخمهایش را توی هم کرد؛ خانم «لمون»؟ بله آقای «پوآرو»؟ از لحنش معلوم بود که خودش هم باورش نمی‌شود؛ چون خانم «لمون» با وجود قیافه‌ کریهش، کارمند قابلی بود، و هیچ‌وقت اشتباه نمی‌کرد؛ هیچ‌وقت بیمار نمی‌شد، خسته نمی‌شد، ناراحت نمی‌شد، سَمبَل نمی‌کرد، در واقع موقع کار اصلا آدم نبود؛ ماشین بود؛ بهترین منشی دنیا بود؛ از همه چیز خبر داشت؛ به همه ی کارها رسیدگی می‌کرد؛ کلا زندگی «هرکول پوآرو» را اداره می‌کرد، و از این لحاظ هم مثل ماشین بود؛ نظم و برنامه‌ریزی شعار اصلی پوآورو بود؛ با وجود این امروز صبح خانم «لمون» در تایپ یک نامه ی ساده، سه تا غلط داشت و بدتر از همه اینکه خودش هم نفهمیده بود که غلط تایپ کرده! خورشید از کدام سمت درآمده بود؟)؛ پایان نقل

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 20/05/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 30/02/1401هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
Profile Image for Baba.
3,733 reviews1,137 followers
May 27, 2023
Hercule Poirot book No. 32 sees a kleptomaniac case at a student boarding house become a lot more deadly despite Poirot already being on the premises. One of the weaker books in the series. 5 out of 12, Two Stars.

2013 read
Profile Image for Anne.
4,214 reviews69.9k followers
March 21, 2024
I loved this story when I was younger.
Something about Miss Lemon's sister just made me smile. I think it was the way she cared about these young adults under her roof and wanted to keep them all safe from whatever vaguely nefarious person was at work in her boarding house.

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It opens with Miss Lemon making a couple of mistakes in transcription.
Poirot is flabbergasted. Miss Lemon never makes mistakes of any kind!
Something must be wrong.

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As it turns out, Miss Lemon was not hatched fully formed from an egg. She does, in fact, have a sister that proves otherwise. Said sister, Mrs. Hubbard, is a widow who has recently taken the position of matron at a student hostel. She is (as would be expected of someone of the Lemon line) excellent at her job.
She's basically a warm & fuzzy version of Poirot's secretary.

description

But all is not well in Mrs. Hubbard's world.
There have been several unusual thefts and some petty destruction of property. And none of it makes sense to her.
Poirot rides to the rescue! His Miss Lemon must get her groove back, no matter the cost. And if worrying about her sister is causing her to be less than her perfect self, then Poirot will set things to right.

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Once Poirot starts poking around, the strange little incidents begin to look quite a bit more sinister. And it soon becomes evident that if he doesn't solve this case, a cold-blooded renter will get away with murder.

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Now, because there are a lot of different ethnicities represented in boarders, you're going to get a bit of that typical cringe that you find in older books. It's not mean-spirited, but there is that condescending "see? brown people can be smart!" thing that I believe was meant well, but doesn't hit right when you read it today.
If you're used to skimming past this in older books, you'll probably like this one just fine.

description

Recommended for fans of Agatha Christie.
Profile Image for Barbara.
1,475 reviews5,116 followers
November 29, 2021


In this 32nd book in the 'Hercule Poirot' series, the detective investigates mysterious occurrences at a rooming house. Like all Agatha Christie books, it can be read as a standalone.

*****



Hercule Poirot is asked to investigate a rash of theft and vandalism at a boarding house for students and young workers.



The items involved seem random - a diamond ring, a scarf, a backpack, light bulbs, eye wash, etc.- but Poirot suspects a sinister motive may underlie the incidents.



When Poirot threatens to call in the cops a young woman, Celia Austin, confesses to some of the small thefts but claims innocence of the other incidents.



Pretty soon several people connected to the boarding house are dead and residents' dark secrets start to come to light.



To me this seemed like one of Agatha Christie's less developed (and more obvious) plots with not quite believable motivation for many of the characters. Still, it was an entertaining light mystery.

You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....
Profile Image for Erin *Proud Book Hoarder*.
2,558 reviews1,136 followers
October 7, 2017
3.5

“I congratulate you on having such a unique and beautiful problem.”

Again Poirot shows how clever he is, this time because his perfect secretary starts getting typing errors. It's amusing how he is half in awe of her, half in fear of her. Set in a hostel with a mixed group, this intriguing story wasn't like other mysteries by her that I've read. He's called in because of a bizarre list of items stolen, but murder comes across eventually.

Set in a hostel with a mixed group, characters become more individualized that some of her other works. As usual there are jabs at various groups of people (the paranoia of the Americans tickled me, actually pretty true), and there is the stigma of alcoholism hidden in there with one particular character. The eccentric hostel owner, the straight-laced sister team, the young lovers scheming to win affections, all of the characters are well-done.

Poirot is still top dog, but he shares plenty of investigative time with another detective, which is kind of discouraging. Poirot twiddles his mustache more during the first half the book before the murder happens, then the police take over the playing field until the ending and actual reveal happens. Poirot isn't even involved in most of the interviewing.

Profile Image for Adrian.
601 reviews229 followers
July 23, 2020
As the Poirot Buddy Read draws to a close (5 books to go) after 2 and a half years I am still happily surprised when I come across a book, that not only do I not remember but I thoroughly enjoy and give 5 stars to.
M. Poirot becomes suspicious when Ms Lemon makes a number of mistakes in a letter she has typed for him, why, how can this be, the reliable unfazed Ms Lemon in error, mais non. It transpires her sister returned from Singapore a widow, and having to take a job as a housekeeper of student accommodation has been having some problems. Poirot intrigued listens to Ms Lemon's story of her sister and then invites the sister to tea to learn more. A large house lived in by a number of students of varying nationalities has been experiencing some strange robberies and vandalisms, what connects these strange thefts, Poirot is determined to find out tuit de suite.
A wonderful Poirot and a wonderful book full of twists and turns. What starts out as the stealing of a shoe ends in murder, can Poirot bring it to a successful and speedy conclusion ? Of course.
Profile Image for Paul Weiss.
1,320 reviews362 followers
February 4, 2023
The master Belgian detective is at work again …

… but, in HICKORY DICKORY DEATH, he solves the mystery without providing the reader with any inspiration or entertainment.

Residents of a student hostel are puzzled by the meaning of a series of senseless and seemingly unrelated thefts of no particular value or obvious intent. But Hercule, with a carefully considered application of the “little gray cells”, of course, is worried that it may be otherwise. Then an apparent suicide from an overdose of morphia and a subsequent murder make it obvious that the problem is much more than the work of a mean-spirited prankster. Before long, Poirot’s mental sleuthing leads him beyond the group of young students and into the sinister world of international drug smuggling.

HICKORY DICKORY DEATH is entertaining in the sense that it provides a workmanlike mystery whose dots can be connected to the solution only by a detective as brilliant as Poirot. But, if you’re looking for a more typical Poirot mystery that provides the occasional piece of typical Poirot characterizations - snobbery, pomposity, insufferable self aggrandization, humour, bilingual word play, repartee, or droll insulting jabs at the police and their lesser, more grounded abilities - HICKORY DICKORY DEATH is not it. Indeed, the quantity of time that Poirot is even on stage is minimal at best.

HICKORY DICKORY DEATH is definitely to be read by any mystery fan and, in particular, by fans of Agatha Christie and all of her recurring characters. But as far as quality goes, it’s only in the middle of the pack.

Paul Weiss
Profile Image for Erin.
3,214 reviews478 followers
April 10, 2018
3.5 stars

# 10 in my Agatha Christie Challenge

During the first 50 pages, I was thinking that Agatha Christie had let Hercule Poiriot go a bit soft in her latter books, but then bodies started dropping in a co-ed boarding house and all the signs pointed to murder and it got interesting. As always, there is plenty of fantastic characterization, albeit a bit melodramatic in nature. I never mention enough how much I laugh at Poiriot's loveable arrogance or raise an eyebrow at some of the political and social issues that creep up in these books. As this book was written in the 1950's, the big fear was Communism and several of the characters are implied to be card carrying members. But really the most memorable scene in the book probably goes to one of the characters and her tirade against the British police calling them "pigs" and referring to them as the Gestapo, only to have her collection of brandy bottles revealed.
Profile Image for Yara Yu.
589 reviews589 followers
March 13, 2020
أجاثا كريستي دائما ما تبهرني برواياتها التي تتميز بدقة حبكتها وترابط أحداثها ومنطق تسلسلها
بالإضافة إلي الكم الهائل من الألغاز والحبكات الغامضة التي تجعل العقل يذهب إلي كل التخمينات والظنون
أريد قراءة المزيد والمزيد من قصصها الممتعة
Profile Image for °•.Melina°•..
213 reviews148 followers
December 16, 2022
در حال حاضر قابلیت اینو دارم که ۵ تا کتاب بعدیم‌ رو هم اگاتا بخونم🕵🏻‍♀️به شدت معتاد کننده‌ و کوزی‌اننن و قشنگ برای چندساعتم که شده سرمو به شدت گرم میکنن💆🏻‍♀️این یکی هم یه فضای به شدت دارک‌عاکادمی�� و شخصیتای جذاب داشت که آخرشم کرکتر موردعلاقم قاتل از آب دراومدD:آخراش همزمان باهاش فیلمشم دیدم چقدد فضای سریالای پوآرو قشنگهه🥲🕰🗞💡🕯🔦🇬🇧خلاصه که این یکی رو حتما بخونید🤝🏼 انگلیسیش هم Hickory Dickory Dock.
Profile Image for Julie.
2,100 reviews36 followers
February 26, 2023
"Order and method" have reigned supreme in Hercule Poirot's life and "now that crumpets were baked square as well as round he had nothing about which to complain." All that is about to change....
Profile Image for Piyangie.
541 reviews594 followers
December 27, 2021
An intriguing beginning gone awry and a clever plot defiled by implausible events is all I could say about this novel of the Poirot series. The idea of a possible kleptomaniac in a student hostel sounds interesting, isn't it? Yes, it is. And this original theme attracted me very much to the story. It started well, I must say, with the problem being brought to the notice of our dear Poirot by his secretary Miss Lemon and Poirot assisting Miss Lemon's sister, Mrs. Hubbard, the warden of the hostel. But when the disappearance of items comes to an end with the confession of the "false" kleptomaniac, and in its stead murder takes place and the whole plot is changed, the story begins to go downhill with the monotony of the criminal investigation.

The opinionated statements by Christie about the suspects and her constant defense as to the innocence of one suspect was a bit tiresome and this deliberate attempt at misleading the readers was not too pleasing. Poirot's ingeniousness was in its best element, and he solves the mystery which was baffling to both the police and the readers. But even with Poirot, certain inferences that he made sounded too fantastic. For example, his knowledge of the contents of a certain letter by a dying man to his solicitor, the true relationship between two characters, came out of the blue without any previous hint as to how Poirot could draw such a conclusion. Also, the student characters were so stereotyped which made them uninteresting.

It was alright on the whole, but I would have liked it more had she been a little careful in her creative effort.
Profile Image for Jason Koivu.
Author 7 books1,321 followers
July 20, 2016
A bunch of boarders, mostly students and young folk, get into a bit of mischief which turns out to be more than just a bit of mischief.

Hickory Dickory Dock was published in the latter half of Agatha Christie's career. It's also one of the later Poirot books. As such, it does feel a bit more mature in the characterization and such. But what the hell do I know? I'm no Christie scholar. I've only read a few of her many books. This is yet another one that has me wanting to read more of her work.

In this tale of love, death and well, I'll just say "more," our usual hero Poirot, that diminutive man from Belgium, plays but a small role. That was a disappointment, a disappointment made up for with a slightly more interesting police detective and a variant cast of crazy landlords, rather one-dimensional students and a couple multilayered individuals that had me bouncing back and forth between who I thought had "dunnit".

Maybe this isn't Christie's most memorable work, but it would be a credit to any mystery writer's oeuvre.
Profile Image for Katerina.
452 reviews62 followers
March 9, 2023
I won't change my rating since first impressions of reading a story are that count, but in my second reading, I'm not that impressed despite the fact that I didn't remember most of the story!
Maybe it's the fact that even though it's a Hercule Poirot story, Poirot doesn't feel like the protagonist in this book! Maybe the fact I was Google translating so much French!

Seriously, why doesn't the editor add footnotes with those sentences translated since I very much doubt that all readers know French!

The plot is interesting, as is the setting and the suspects!
Through this story, Agatha Christie describes how people from different countries and cultures interact with each other and how differently they view situations that arise and how they react!
4 reviews2 followers
February 18, 2013
First off I do understand the criticism aimed at this book. There are too many characters for such a short book and as such hardly any of them are fleshed out. Also Poirot plays a relatively minor role and a lot of the interrogations are actually carried out by his inspector friend (although it is Poirot who finally pieces everything together).

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!


What made this book stand out for me though was the final revelation of the villain. I find that so many detective stories try to shock the reader that it's got to the point where I instantly suspect the people the author obviously doesn't want me to suspect. The little boy, the innocent damsel, the poor disfigured man, the narrator himself, sometimes even the detective himself. I usually discount the initial primary suspect as the murderer from the start. So it came as quite a refreshing surprise to me when Nigel Chapman, the person everyone suspected most, actually turned out to be the villain! The twist was that there was no twist...and that was a brilliant twist! :D
Profile Image for Dave Schaafsma.
Author 6 books31.7k followers
August 5, 2017
“I spit upon the murder”—Mrs. Nicoletti

“They are stupid about love, these girls—as if love mattered” Mrs. Nicoletti

Hickory Dickory Dock is one of Christie’s novels with a nursery rhyme title, though there is little to no connection. There is a Mrs. Hubbard (like the one with a cupboard), but again, this is just Christie being cute. I certainly did read this half my life ago and probably enjoyed it more then than I did this time, in the context of having read the previous 29 Poirot novels. This isn’t one of his best ones, but it is remarkable in that it is one of the rare ones that mentions current politics at all—the McCarthy trials of the early fifties in the U. S. Christie makes fun of people thinking people are Communists everywhere. Poirot also plays a relatively small role in this one, although he does assert his principal interrogational principle: conversation (getting to know people through talking to them).

“Everything interests me”—Poirot

There’s too many characters in this book, and few of them are adequately developed, as a result. We have an array of international students in co-ed housing, including an Indian, African, Jamaican, Egyptian, and so on. I am not sure why she does this, really. I guess she is appealing to some idea of the “exotic” stereotypical foreigner as opposed to the fairly stereotypical, formal/stuffy Brits and the amusingly arrogant Poirot. There’s a pompous British grad student in psychology, Colin, that Christie makes fun of, which is also her way of making fun of pop psychology. Is Celia a kleptomaniac, or is she just stealing stuff to get Colin’s attention and close psychological analysis?

There’s multiple murders in Hickory Dickory Dock, and then this admirably wrapped up conclusion which we have come to expect. Christie especially loves her poisons (morphine overdose, in this one.)! But I thought this was, for Christie, on par. On to #31!!
Profile Image for Julian Worker.
Author 35 books398 followers
April 5, 2020
A wonderful story - I give this 4 out of 5 on an Agatha Christie scale as it's not one of her absolute finest, but is still better than 99% of all the other mysteries out there. The story starts with Miss Lemon making 3 mistakes in a letter for Hercule Poirot and develops from there, a lesson for all of us in how many ways there are to begin a story. The plot is good, the characters believable, and the setting is well described. I got the impression Poirot is not in this book as much as some of his other stories and that there's more interaction and dialogue between characters outside of the investigation. Both these items may or may not work depending on your point of view.
Profile Image for BrokenTune.
755 reviews215 followers
October 18, 2017
Hercule Poirot frowned.
"Miss Lemon," he said.
"Yes, M. Poirot?"
"There are three mistakes in this letter."
His voice held incredulity. For Miss Lemon, that hideous and efficient woman, never made mistakes. She was never ill, never tired, never upset, never inaccurate. For all practical purposes, that is to say, she was not a woman at all. She was a machine - the perfect secretary. She knew everything, she coped with everything. She ran Hercule Poirot's life for him, so that it, too, functioned like a machine.
Order and method had been Hercule Poirot's watchwords from many years ago. With George, his perfect manservant, and Miss Lemon, his perfect secretary, order and method ruled supreme in his life. Now that crumpets were baked square as well as round, he had nothing about which to complain.

Square crumpets?! Have I missed these so far?

Anyway, to the book... Hickory Dickory Dock was a fun read, in which Miss Lemon gets some page time. The story is set in 1955 in London and Miss Lemon is worried about her sister and the strange goings on at the hostel where her sister works: Things have gone missing.

In order to return to a life of normalcy and perfection, Poirot offers to help Miss Lemon's sister solve the mystery of the disappearing items.

Hickory Dickory Dock is a great story to note the differences in Christie's writing between the pre- and post-war periods. This story is set in the 50s, and the bright young things are now less decadent and more international. The youth comes across in Christie's dialogues reasonably well, but the international aspect made me cringe.
Let's face it, despite her efforts, Christie just was not great at writing characters from non-English backgrounds.

Still, it was fun watching Poirot solve this, even if sometimes you just want to kick Poirot in the shins.

Hercule Poirot nodded understandingly. It seemed to him appropriate that Miss Lemon's sister should have spent most of her life in Singapore. That was what places like Singapore were for. The sisters of women like Miss Lemon married men in business in Singapore, so that the Miss Lemons of this world could devote themselves with machine-like efficiency to their employers' affairs (and of course to the invention of filing systems in their moments of relaxations).
Profile Image for Ken.
2,304 reviews1,345 followers
December 18, 2019
On the surface a simple case of missing items in a student accommodation seems like an easy mystery for Poirot to solve. Just like the plot this novel has some great hidden depths that gives the reader a snapshot of the time period that this story was written.

I really liked the setting of this story which allows Christie to introduce an eclectic mix of characters, whilst it’s fair to say that the novel feels very 1950’s - she does an admirable job of adding some diversity to the narrative.

The setting of the hostel in Hickory Road (Agatha loves her nursery rhymes!) feels so unique and fresh compared to her other settings, and whilst the hijinks through the first act allows the reader to get use to the characters - I was completely hooked by the time the dead body turned up!

It might not be Christie’s best mystery but their is something fascinatingly different that makes it one not to miss.
Profile Image for Yasamanv.
101 reviews12 followers
August 21, 2023
پوآروی عزیزم😍
توی قطار نشستم و خوندم و لذت بردم❤️
Profile Image for EMMA.
253 reviews363 followers
October 19, 2018
اولين كتابي بود از آگاتا كريستي ميخوندم واسه همين چيزي ندارم واسه مقايسه ولي در كل خوب بود
Profile Image for Cudeyo.
1,035 reviews57 followers
June 14, 2020
Unos robos sin importancia en una residencia de estudiantes dan paso a un misterioso caso de asesinato. Otro caso a resolver por Poirot, aunque en este caso su protagonismo es menor.

La trama es interesante, entretenida, un sinfín de pistas sin sentido que al final van tomando forma; un conjunto de estudiantes cada cual más variopinto: la modosita, la puritana, el crápula, la americana, el estudioso, el cerebrito, …, especiado todo ello con los cameos de un par de estudiantes indios (de la India) en el típico papel de independentistas anti-sistema y de un estudiante africano, que ¡cómo no! es la nota simpática de la trama, en el papel del "negro simplón".

El libro en general me ha gustado, me ha resultado entretenido y me lo he leído en un plis-plas. Como siempre, chirría la actitud paternalista, en este caso hasta racista, que se ve cuando se trata de personajes fuera del estereotipo del inglés blanco, pero es de esperar para la época en que se escribió y la edad/educación de la autora.
Profile Image for Luffy (Oda's Version).
757 reviews999 followers
March 15, 2019
This gets complicated. Reading this avatar of Hickory Dickory Dock, I realised I don't want to reread the French version. As soon as I read the murderer's name I got a deja vu feeling and reading the last few chapters confirmed my doubts.

However, I still think a review is due. I'm still perplexed about why I didn't register the English version, that would have saved time. But I fell off the Goodreads planet in 2016. This is doubly confusing because I read Hickory Dickory Dock last year.

Anyhow, given the circumstances, I found myself not liking the plot of the book that much. It was too easy to solve the case. Anyway I'm going to read a Poirot book that I'm sure I haven't read for 25 years. See you until then.
Profile Image for Bill.
992 reviews170 followers
December 22, 2021
Hickory Dickory Dock sees detective Hercule Poirot helping his secretary's sister in a very bizarre case. At a London youth hostel random items are being stolen. Some items reappear, but there seems to be no logic to the thefts. Can Poirot solve the mystery ? Of course he can.
Agatha Christie sets up a somewhat offbeat crime & throws Poirot & his obsession with order into the mix. The plot certainly has an intriguing opening, but even the fanous Belgian detective admits (& I agree with him) that some aspects of the solution are "far fetched" & implausible.
This might not be Christie's finest hour, but it does have a certain old world charm about it & it's a pleasant enough piece of entertainment.
Profile Image for Rahaf Potrosh.
166 reviews259 followers
October 16, 2017
جميلة كالعادة وفكرة مختلفة وعقول مختلفة عما سبق لكن النهاية كانت اسرع وابسط من توقعاتي ومن ما احب ومن ما اعتدت عليه سواء في رواياتها
ولكن لا ااستطيع ان انكر بأنها شدتني وبشدة و بأنني سأستمر بقراءة المزيد و المزيد من تلك الروايات
Profile Image for Richard Derus.
3,153 reviews2,079 followers
June 9, 2020
Book Rating: 3* of five

I found this in my area's newly-reopened Little Free Library. It'll be going back there as soon as I muster the nous to go out onto the boardwalk *early* in the morning when it's not crowded with unmasked future plague victims.

This entry into Dame Agatha's nursery-rhyme titled mysteries (eg, A Pocket Full of Rye; One, Two, Buckle My Shoe) is only mildly related to the rhyme in question...the action centers on Hickory Street...and it's also a Poirot-lite tale. It does, unusually, feature Miss Lemon (the Ubersecretary with Major Filing Chops), previously only seen in short stories. Her family connection to the Hickory Street Ménage, the ickily-title Warden of the boarders being her sister, is the only entr&eacutee Poirot has to the case. In fact, it seems like an absurdly minor matter for Poirot to do more than merely acknowledge with a wintry little smile as Miss Lemon hands him her typo-riddled assignment.

Miss Lemon? Typos?!

And thus is Poirot engaged in what seems to be, but isn't, a wildly inappropriate chase after the thief of some boracic powder, a stethoscope, and some random weirdness like a single shoe. This is 1955's Dame Agatha, so there are quite a lot of baroque connections among the various players. Many of them, comme d'habitude, are ridiculously overdone...one boarder is a murder victim's unacknowledged child, oh really now!...but they serve to distract from the weird and fraught central relationship of killer and crime.

At the end, I was diverted, amused, and irritated in equal measures by the resolution. A corking Dame Agatha experience? Mm...on balance no, but made me seek out the forty-years-newer TV adaptation.

TV Rating: 2.5* of five

The time period of ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot stories is always the 1930s, with occasional flashbacks to earlier times. That results in a stupid, readily-avoided anachronism. One of the characters is an American studying in London on a Fulbright scholarship, which she says and Poirot repeats in ~1936...but the program wasn't founded until 1946. Why not make her a Rhodes scholar? She's female, of course, and that wasn't allowed in the 1930s, but at least the scholarships existed then! Anyway, why is such a throwaway moment even retained? She's studying in London. Nuff sed.

Since Dame Agatha loved to people her stage with scads of bodies, there was considerable pruning of the cast done and if we're honest to desirable dramatic effect. Also tidied away is the extraneous Scotland Yard man who is morphed into TV regular Chief Inspector Japp. This also works to make the series universe stronger, and does no violence to the Dame's detail-oriented clockwork. Another difference, and in my never-remotely humble opinion an improvement, is the streamlining of the major crime's motivation.

But in the end, the episode did little with Miss Lemon and her sister, introduced to very little effect in both versions of the story and, in the already altered TV verion, still underused. I get it, she's not the star, but the show was in its sixth season! Give the lady some room to be. Now for the reasons I rate the show as mingily as I do: the director introduces a scene-wipe of a flippin' mouse scurrying through the walls and the clock of the hostel! THEN there's an *irritating* soundtrack of sweet itty soprano ladies singing "hickory dickory" at dramaticall moments. The title can't be changed, I get it, but the nursery rhyme connection made no sense in the book and even less in the episode.

Cheeseball Cornpone Junction called, they want their tropes back.

So, while I was diverted and mildly amused by the tale in both versions, it simply isn't top drawer in either version. More than good enough to read and watch, not necessary to experience again in either format.
Profile Image for Nmnm.
122 reviews18 followers
October 21, 2020
قرأتها بمناسبة أن الدراسة رجعت وهرجع لبيت الطالبات تانى 🙂😂😂
لكنى توقعت القاتل بدرى🙂
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