The Clocks by Agatha Christie

E-book exclusive extras:1) Christie biographer Charles Osborne's essay on The Clocks;2) "The Poirots": the complete guide to all the cases of the great Belgian detective.Sheila Webb, typist-for-hire, has arrived at 19 Wilbraham Crescent in the seaside town of Crowdean to accept a new job. What she finds is a well-dressed corpse surrounded by five clocks. Mrs Pebmarsh, the blind owner of No. 19, denies all knowledge of ringing Sheila’s secretarial agency and asking for her by name—yet someone did. Nor does she own that many clocks. And neither woman seems to know the victim. Colin Lamb, a young intelligence specialist working a case of his own at the nearby naval yard, happens to be on the scene at the time of Sheila Webb’s ghastly discovery. Lamb knows of only one man who can properly investigate a crime as bizarre and baffling as what happened inside No. 19 — his friend and mentor, Hercule Poirot.

Not enough Hercule Poirot! But overall an interesting case with a satisfying conclusion.

Agatha Christie is a comforting formula for me at this point, so it'll take a lot for anything by her to go wrong for me.

I'm pretty sure I've read this one but I have no memory of it. Or maybe I subconsciously did because I did kinda sorta guess the murderer in the end.

My initial guess at around Ch 24, around 2/3 through the book:
we're not yet quite at the denouement of the story and we still have no idea how Harry Castleton is connected with any of the witnesses/suspects, but i'm placing my bets on Miss Martindale, the owner of the typists' bureau. i've a feeling she's one of the jilted/duped wives of Castleton and she probably concocted this wild scheme. idk yet what her relationship is with Miss Pebmarsh and why she decided to do it at 19 Wilberham Crescent, but i'm kinda feeling that the clocks were put there to make reference to a date or something? and that Sheila is perhaps the illegitimate daughter of Castleton. i also find it very curious and sus that 19 Wilbersham Crescent backs up on 61 Wilbersham Crescent which could look like the same number if you read it the wrong way up, so i'm feeling like the Blands are somehow connected to the murder too.

And y'know what, I wasn't too off the mark. Thoughts about the ending:
I correctly guessed that the Blands were involved, and that Miss Martindale had been the murderer after all, so I feel pretty good about that. I also kinda correctly guessed that Sheila's parentage could come to light although I was off the mark in thinking that the victim might be her unknown father. I'm particularly proud of guessing that there would have been a mix-up between 19 and 61 Wilbraham Crescent, although I got the order reversed - Lamb was looking for 19 and not 61 all along - but that did lead me to suspect the Blands. Things that caught me completely off-guard was really that Miss Pebmarsh was not just Sheila's biological mother, but also a Russian sympathizer and spy. No wonder she was so cool and collected when a dead body turns up in her own house. Wouldn't have guessed even after we find out that Mr Ramsay did turn coat and went to Russia. I was a little disappointed that all the extra clocks were really just a ruse though.

Overall, this was a pretty entertaining story that did the job.

This one is interesting.....HP is not even mentioned until page 100....and he does not even interview so much as a witness. He solves the case very much in the Nero Wolfe style--I wonder if Agatha Christie was writing it in that style just to prove she could?

Very enjoyable story, and as always, Hercule Poirot is brillant!

5 Stars.

One of the biggest comments I have read is about how unusual it is that Hercule Poirot is only included in about half of the book and there is speculation that by this point Agatha Christie was out of ideas and sick of him.

I have been reading all of Christie's mysteries chronologically and the first thing I will say is that it is not unusual, at least not for Christie. There are several of her novels deemed “Poirot” or “Marple” that hardly include them at all. And if you follow her books, you'll realize just how many characters she brings into this one from her previous books. She's definitely not sick of her favorite characters.

Overall, I enjoyed this one. I think if you have read a lot of her others you will appreciate it more. It wasn't one of her most spectacular, but a quick mystery with interesting aspects. I will warn you though: it switches between first and third person which I don't love. It's harder to follow.