Customer Reviews

Hickory Dickory Dock (Agatha Christie Collection S.)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

Hercule Poirot is startled when Miss Lemon, his "perfect machine" of a secretary, makes three mistakes in typing a simple letter. Clearly, something is amiss. Miss Lemon, on questioning, reveals that she is worried about her sister, Mrs. Hubbard. After spending her married life in Singapore, Mrs. Hubbard has returned to England a widow, where she is living as matron of a youth hostel in Hickory Road, an establishment that caters to an international group of students. It seems that things, "odd things," have been disappearing from the hostel, "And all in rather an unnatural way." Miss Lemon suspects it's something more than petty thievery or kleptomania, and Poirot agrees to meet Felicity Lemon's distressed sibling.

Although the story starts strongly with a colourful description of the students in the hostel, it deteriorates rather quickly into a complex micmac of red herrings. It seems as though Christie herself is not sure of the outcome when plotting her story. Of course, it is always fun to meet our dearest detective Hercule Poirot, but the amount of mischief going on in the hostel imposes some strain on the reader's patience as well on Poirot's ingenuity. Clearly one of the weakest novels to feature Poirot.

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.

Agatha Christie often drew upon nursery rhymes and children's stories to provide inspiration (and titles!) for her mysteries; these include A Pocket Full of Rye, Five Little Pigs, One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, and this: Hickory Dickory Dock. In this case however, the famous nursery rhyme is entirely incidental to the plot; you won't find any significant clocks or mice here - the setting of the mystery is on Hickory Road, and Poirot recites the song on the very last page, and that's it. It's a rather tenuous link, though the ITV adaptation milked the title for all it was worth by adding a soundtrack that (rather ridiculously) involved a chorus of singers that stage-whispered: "Hickory Dickory! Hickory Dickory!" every time something suspenseful happened.

But that's neither here nor there. Mr Poirot is astounded that his secretary Miss Lemon (described as hideous, unimaginative and so efficient that she was more machine than woman) has handed him a letter with several spelling mistakes in it. His bewilderment is compounded when Miss Lemon speaks of her sister Mrs Hubbard. Miss Lemon has a sister?! Once his surprise is under control, Poirot listens to what she has to say: that there is a spate of kleptomania going on in the boarding house that Mrs Hubbard helps run, and the thefts are getting more serious.

It's hardly something to interest the superior mind of a detective like Poirot, but his appetite is whetted when he catches a glimpse of the list of stolen items. They range from a diamond ring to light-bulbs to a single shoe to a rucksack which was found shredded into pieces, along with a variety of other disparate objects. He agrees to investigate, and after convincing the temperamental landlady of his good intentions, Mr Poirot suggests presenting a lecture on crime to the young students that live at the hostel in an attempt to flush out the thief. A murder follows soon after...

From here the mystery takes off, but I have to say at this point that "Hickory Dickory" is not one of Christie's best. In fact, it's one of her worst. Though the setting of a youth hostel and the relationships of the students therein is promising, the sheer amount of characters, plot-threads and red herrings that are packed into the novel become too much to keep track of. There are eleven students living at the hostel, many of whom are indistinguishable from each other, and several which are utterly superfluous (and modern readers will no doubt wince at the stereotypical portrayal of the ethnic minorities). Add the four staff members on top of that, and you have a dizzying array of characters in such a slender book.

Plot-wise, it feels like Christie is simply making it up as she goes along, especially when the final solution seems so disconnected from the initial premise, and there's an odd last-minute reveal of a mother/daughter relationship that means nothing and sheds no light on either character. Poirot is certainly at the top of his game when it comes to handling this case, though that's not necessarily a good thing considering he's almost clairvoyant in his deductions whilst at the same time not being as proactive as he usually is in his attempts to catch the killer.

Though it's an interesting premise, and nice to get a look at the personal life of a minor character that lives in Poirot's orbit, "Hickory Dickory" is a bit of a dud. I'd recommend it for Christie completists only.

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) liked to use nursery rhymes as titles for her mystery novels. She does so in "Hickory Dickory, Dock" a Hercule Poirot novel first published in 1955.
The Plot: Miss Lemon, the picky secretary of Poirot, makes three mistakes while typing for her master. She is upset because her sister Mrs. Hubbard reports thefts occurring at the youth hostel where she is employed. Poirot investigates the thefts. A young lady named Celia Austin confesses to the crimes but is soon found dead. It is thought she committed suicide but Poirot believes it was murder most foul. She died with a drug taken from St.
Catherine's Hospital where Celia was employed. There is a large cast of suspects consisting of the persons who live at the hostel. One of the most prominent is Nigel Chapman who reports Celia as being a kleptomaniac. Strange clues such as electric lights which were turned off on the premises, fake British passports and green ink spilled on a letter are important in the solving of the complex case. There are three murders in the short 217 page novel!
The book has several faults:
a. There are too many characters to keep track of in this short book.
b. The characters personalities do not register in the reader's mind. They are chess pieces moved across the mystery board by Christie.
c. Poirot's abilities are not challenged as in his great cases. This case is often boring!
Give Dame Agatha a "C" for this one!

Just as Poirot is noted for his love of order and symmetry, so is his secretary Miss Lemon. Therefore, Poirot is shocked when one morning Miss Lemon makes not one, but three mistakes. Poirot is at first mystified and then discovers that Miss Lemon is worried about her sister, Mrs. Hubbard. Poirot decides he must solve Mrs. Hubbard's problem so Miss Lemon can be her super-efficient self once more.

Mrs. Hubbard, a widow who had previously been living in Singapore, manages a youth hostel at 26 Hickory Road. Youths from many backgrounds, both sexes, and various races have been living together in relative harmony, but suddenly a series of unusual objects begin disappearing from the hostel. After a visit from Poirot, one of the youths admits to the stealing, but that same youth is murdered the next evening. Trouble is just beginning as two more deaths occur. It is up to Poirot to figure out how a false passport, red hair clutched in a dead girl's hand, memories of a college dance, and stolen morphine can explain the strange happenings. Excellent characterizations and plotting, plus Poirot's brilliant detecting make this a classic.

I'm still in the process of reading this particular mystery. I can hardly wait to read the solution to the mystery in each of Dame Christie's novels, but at the same time I simply don't want the books to end. The Miss Marple editions don't compare at all to the Hercule Poirot books----just something about the little Belgian that is more interesting. I have quite a collection and have no intention of not continuing to add to it. A simply perfect way to end each day curled up with my mystery book! Another great Amazon.com purchase.

Hercule Poirot really shines in this book as does Miss Lemon. Typical with Christie, something small (mistakes writing a letter) leads to something far more unsettling and mysterious. This is solid addition to the Poirot pantheon.

I have read many of Agatha Christie's mysteries, and this is one of the most enjoyable ones I have every read. Dame Christie's "gift for deception" is evident in this suspenseful who-dunit.

When Hercule Poirot found his life a bit boring he often gave way to taking on a more frivolous case... but such diminutive problems in crime regularly expanded into morasses of deceit and murder. Poirot's secretary, Miss Lemon, has a sister (Mrs. Hubbard) who manages an international hostel where numerous small personal items of the youthful residents have gone missing. Some have subsequently been found vandalized.

Since the hostel's Greek owner, prickly old Mrs. Nicoletis, desires that her boarding house maintain its good name, Mrs. Hubbard bypasses the police and, through her very efficient sister, interests Poirot in the case of the pilfered and damaged items. The esteemed private detective at once senses something very dark behind these deceptively innocuous petty thefts and after spending a pleasant evening with these mostly amiable college students and local workers, his firm advice is to call in the police without delay.

Poirot's counsel is taken all too lightly as a mouse of a girl is presently slain in her room at the hostel. Inspector Sharpe works hand in glove with Poirot to solve this odious murder along with subsequent other high crimes.

What primarily established the typical Agatha Christie yarn as a hallmark of the British mystery was the remarkable depth of her respective whodunits -- they are, for the most part, multi-dimensional in scope. One can add to that essential fact that her characters are colorful, her atmospheres are both cozy and palatable, and the intriguing cases of her various detectives are typically plausible, albeit often improbable. All these captivating nuances are firmly in place in this particular instance.

This story is a classic example of how Christie apparently loved to tenon her murder cases with episodes of international intrigue. Of course her most famous of such works were those stories which involved the renowned husband and wife team of Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, ergo: N or M? (Tommy and Tuppence).

And Christie often ditched the cozy murder scheme altogether to focus specifically upon the spy thriller as she did in Passenger to Frankfort.

Even Miss Marple stuck her itchy old nose into an internationally syndicated crime ring from time to time: At Bertram's Hotel: A Miss Marple Mystery (Agatha Christie Collection).

But it seems to me that the mystery under review is sprinkled with just the right amount of the conspiracy component. It's still a cozy murder but one with broader implications. And that is about as far as I can go without unearthing a spoiler.

In summary, the quality of this latter-period (1955) Christie mystery easily falls into the top twenty percent of her eighty or so mysteries and whodunit plays. This work is marketed under the "Nursery Rhyme Murder" series title of "Hickory Dickory Dock" but it's also sold as Hickory Dickory Death (Red Badge Detective Mystery). I can highly recommend this terrific story to any fan of the Golden-age British mystery.