One, Two, Buckle My Shoe Part 24

Times Literary Supplement: 'It will be a very acute reader who does not receive a complete surprise at the end.'

13. The ABC Murders The ABC Murders (1936) (1936) Captain Arthur Hastings returns to narrate this account of a personal challenge made to 'Mr Clever Poirot' by a killer who identifies himself as 'ABC' and who leaves theABC Rail Guide next to his victims-apparently intending to work through the English countryside (he has struck in Andover, Bexhill-on-Sea, and Churston) and exercise Poirot along the way. Serialized in London'sDaily Express , The ABC Murders became a cultural phenomenon as readers were invited to try to keep up with the famous Belgian detective. It is a challenge that remains fresh and thrilling to this day-and makesThe ABC Murders one of the absolute must-reads of the Christie canon.

Julian Symons: 'A masterwork of carefully concealed artifice...most stunningly original.'

Sunday Times: 'There is no more cunning player of the murder game than Agatha Christie.'

14. Murder in Mesopotamia Murder in Mesopotamia (1936) (1936) Nurse Amy Leatheran had never felt the lure of the 'mysterious East,' but she nonetheless accepts an a.s.signment at Ha.s.sanieh, an ancient site deep in the Iraqi desert, to care for the wife of a celebrated archaeologist. Mrs Leidner is suffering bizarre visions and nervous terror.'I'm afraid of being killed!' she admits to her nurse. Her terror, unfortunately, is anything but unfounded, and Nurse Leatheran is soon enough without a patient. The world's greatest detective happens to be in the vicinity, however: having concluded an a.s.signment in Syria, and curious about the dig at Ha.s.sanieh, Hercule Poirot arrives in time to lead a murder investigation that will tax even his remarkable powers-and in a part of the world that has seen more than its share of misadventure and foul play.

The New York Times: 'Smooth, highly original, and completely absorbing.'

15. Cards on the Table Cards on the Table (1936) (1936) 'The deduction,' Agatha Christie writes in her Foreword to this volume, 'must...be entirelypsychological ...because when all is said and done it is themind of the murderer that is of supreme interest.' There is probably no neater encapsulation of what makes Agatha Christie's works so fresh, so fascinating, so many years after they were written. And this statement appropriately opens the novel that is regarded as Agatha Christie's most singularly challenging mystery-it is, in fact, Hercule Poirot's own favourite case. Poirot is one of eight dinner guests of the flamboyant Mr Shaitana. The other invitees are Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard (introduced inThe Secret of Chimneys ); Secret Service agent Colonel Race (who first appeared inThe Man in the Brown Suit ); Mrs Ariadne Oliver, a famous author of detective stories (introduced inParker Pyne Investigates and who will figure in five more Poirots)-and four suspected murderers. After dinner, there will be a few rounds of bridge: the four investigators playing at one table; the four murder suspects at another. Mr Shaitana will sit by the fire and observe. This he does-until he is stabbed to death. The ultimate 'closed-room murder mystery' awaits the intrepid reader. Who is the murderer? And who will solve the crime?

Fair warning:Poirot casually reveals the solution toMurder on the Orient Express inCards on the Table .

Daily Mail: 'The finest murder story of her career...Mrs Christie has never been more ingenious.'

16. Murder in the Mews Murder in the Mews (1937) (1937) In the t.i.tle work in this collection of novellas, Poirot and Inspector j.a.pp collaborate on the investigation of a suspicious suicide. The supernatural is said to play in the disappearance of top secret military plans in The Incredible Theft -an incredible claim, indeed, as Poirot will prove. The bullet that kills Gervase Chevenix-Gore shatters a mirror inDead Man's Mirror -just the clue Poirot needs to solve the crime. And, while basking on white Mediterranean sands, Poirot stares trouble in the face-the beautiful face of Valentine Chantry, now celebrating her fifth marriage-inTriangle at Rhodes .

Daily Mail: 'All four tales are admirable entertainment...Mrs Christie's solutions are unexpected and satisfying.'

17. Dumb Witness Dumb Witness (1937) (1937) Agatha Christie wrote this mystery for dog lovers. She was certainly one herself, dedicating the novel to her own pet. Captain Arthur Hastings, in his penultimate Poirot appearance (like Poirot,Curtain will be his last), again takes up narrative duties-along with, remarkably, the eponymous Bob, a wire-haired terrier who, upon careful inspection, declares Poirot 'not really a doggy person.' But Poirot is present to inquire into the natural-seeming death of Bob's mistress, Miss Emily Arundell. Natural-seeming, except that Miss Emily had written Poirot of her suspicions that a member of her family was trying to kill her: a letter Poirot received too late-in fact,two months too late-to help. Poirot and Bob will sniff out the murderer nonetheless (and Bob will win a happy new home, with Captain Hastings who is, most decidedly, a 'doggy person').

Fair warning:Dumb Witnessis best read afterThe Mysterious Affair at Styles ;The Murder of Roger Ackroyd ;The Mystery of the Blue Train ; andDeath in the Clouds -since the ident.i.ty of the criminal in each is revealed in this novel.

Glasgow Herald: 'One of Poirot's most brilliant achievements.'

18. Death on the Nile Death on the Nile (1937) (1937) Among the best-loved of Agatha Christie's novels,Death on the Nile finds Hercule Poirot again trying to enjoy a vacation-this time aboard the S.S.Karnak , steaming between the First and Second Cataracts of the Nile, with stops at sites of archaeological significance. But Poirot (who, after all, had attempted to retire years before) seems to be perennially unlucky in his choice of holidays. Newlywed Linnet Ridgeway is, in the course of the journey, shot dead in the head, and Poirot has before him a boatload of suspects-and a useful sidekick in Colonel Race of the British Secret Service. Of note: The producers ofMurder on the Orient Express released a film version, also well received (though not by Mrs Christie, who had pa.s.sed away two years prior), ofDeath on the Nile (1978), this time casting Peter Ustinov as Poirot.

Daily Mail(of the novel): 'Flawless.'

19. Appointment with Death Appointment with Death (1938) (1938) '"I'm so sorry," she said..."Your mother is dead, Mr Boynton." And curiously, as though from a great distance, she watched the faces of five people to whom that announcement meant freedom...'

We have returned to the Middle East with Hercule Poirot, on our most colourful tour yet: to the Dome of the Rock, the Judean desert, the Dead Sea, and to Petra, 'the rose-red city,' that ancient place of heart-stopping beauty-but also of heart-stopping horror, for here sits the corpse of old Mrs Boynton, monstrous matriarch, loathed by one and all. A tiny puncture mark on her wrist is the only sign of the fatal injection that killed her. With only twenty-four hours available to solve the mystery, Hercule Poirot recalls a chance remark he'd overheard back in Jerusalem: 'You see, don't you, that she's got to be killed?'

The Observer: 'Twice as brilliant asDeath on the Nile , which was entirely brilliant.'

20. Hercule Poirot's Christmas Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1938) (1938) This novel was the author's gift to her brother-in-law, who had complained that her stories were, for him, 'too academic.' What he desired was a 'good violent murder with lots of blood.' From the epigraph-a quotation fromMacbeth -to its startling end, Agatha delivered a gift made to order. It is Christmas Eve. The Lee family reunion, never a lively affair, is interrupted by a deafening crash and a high-pitched scream. The tyrannical head of the Lee family, Simeon, lies dead in a pool of blood, his throat slashed. Hercule Poirot is spending the holidays with his friend Colonel Johnson, the chief constable of the local village. At the Lee house he finds an atmosphere not of mourning but of mutual suspicion. Christmas with family-survive it this year with Hercule Poirot. Fair warning:In an exchange between Poirot and Colonel Johnson, the solution ofThree-Act Tragedy is revealed.

21. Sad Cypress Sad Cypress (1940) (1940) Beautiful, young Elinor Carlisle stands serenely in the dock, accused of the murder of Mary Gerrard, her rival in love. The evidence is d.a.m.ning: only Elinor had the motive, the opportunity, and the means to administer the fatal poison. Inside the hostile courtroom, one man is all that stands between Elinor and the gallows-Hercule Poirot.

Daily Mail: 'Poirot solves another exciting case.'

Charles...o...b..rne, Agatha Christie' biographer: 'One of the most real, least schematic of crime novels. It is also unusual in that it employs the device of the possible miscarriage of justice...And it works superbly as a murder mystery.'

22. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (1940) (1940) 'Nineteen, twenty, my plate's empty.'But the reader's plate is full indeed, as Hercule Poirot must follow a familiar nursery rhyme through a course of murder. The adventure is kicked off by the apparent suicide of a Harley Street dentist-who would also appear to have murdered one of his patients. Hercule Poirot has himself been this dentist's patient on this very day, and suspects foul play. A shoe buckle holds the key to the mystery. But-five, six-will Poirot pick up sticks, and-seven, eight-lay them straight...before a murderer can strike again?

The New York Times: 'A swift course of unflagging suspense leads to complete surprise.'

23. Evil Under the Sun Evil Under the Sun (1941) (1941) 'There was that about her which made every other woman on the beach seem faded and insignificant. And with equal inevitability, the eye of every male present was drawn and riveted on her.'

Including Hercule Poirot's. She is Arlena Stuart, the famous actress, enjoying-like the famous detective-a summer holiday on Smugglers' Island, and she will become a common enough sight, sunbathing on the hot sands. Then one azure morning her beautiful bronzed body is discovered in an isolated cove, in the shade. She is dead, strangled. And Poirot, as luckless as ever when he attempts some down-time, will learn in the course of his investigation that nearly all the guests of this exclusive resort have some connection to Arlena. But who had the capacity and the motive to kill her?

Of note: The producers ofMurder on the Orient Express andDeath on the Nile released a film version of Evil Under the Sun in 1982; again, as inNile , they cast Peter Ustinov as Poirot.

Daily Telegraph: 'Christie has never written anything better thanEvil Under the Sun , which is detective story writing at its best.'

Times Literary Supplement: 'Christie springs her secret like a land mine.'

Sunday Times: 'Vivacious and entertaining.'

24. Five Little Pigs Five Little Pigs (1943) (1943) A staggering bestseller upon its publication-running through 20,000 copies of its first edition-Five Little Pigs(published in the U.S. asMurder in Retrospect ) concerns a murder committed sixteen years earlier. Carla Crale prevails upon Hercule Poirot to investigate the crime that sent her mother, Caroline, to prison for life (where she died). Caroline had been found guilty of poisoning her estranged husband, Carla's father, Amyas Crale, the famous artist. Poirot's investigation centers upon five suspects, still living, whom he convinces to speak to him and to record their own memories of the long-ago incident. Brilliantly intersplicing the past and the present, memory and reality, the search for truth and ongoing attempts to thwart it,Five Little Pigs has no antecedent. Almost a decade before Akira Kurosawa's famous film introduced the term "Rash.o.m.on effect" into the vernacular, Agatha Christie invited her readers to view a crime from multiple perspectives and to consider the vagaries of such an exercise. Fortunately, however, the great Belgian detective does not deal in vagaries-Hercule Poirot is in the business of precision, and he will reveal the ident.i.ty of the true killer.

Observer: 'Mrs Christie as usual puts a ring through the reader's nose and leads him to one of her smashing last-minute showdowns.'

Times Literary Supplement: 'The answer to the riddle is brilliant.'

25. The Hollow The Hollow (1946) (1946) A murder tableau staged for Poirot's 'amus.e.m.e.nt' goes horribly wrong at The Hollow, the estate of Lady Lucy Angkatell, who has invited the great detective as her guest of honour. Dr John Christow was to have been 'shot' by his wife, Gerda, to 'expire' in a pool of blood-red paint. But when the shot is fired, it is deadly, and Dr. Christow's last gasp is of a name other than his wife's: 'Henrietta.' What was to have been a pleasant country weekend becomes instead one of Poirot's most baffling cases, with the revelation of a complex web of romantic attachments among the denizens of The Hollow. Of note: The phenomenon ofThe Mousetrap tends to distract from Agatha Christie's other stage successes. An adaptation ofThe Hollow was one such triumph, premiering in Cambridge in 1951 and subsequently playing for over a year in the West End. Poirot, however, is not a character in the stage version-the diminutive Belgian with the oversized personality was replaced by a perfectly neutral Scotland Yard inspector. In herAutobiography , Mrs Christie notes that she wishes she had made a similar swap in the novel-so rich are the characters inThe Hollow -but Poirot fans then (The Hollow was a tremendous bestseller) and today would have it no other way.

San Francisco Chronicle(of the novel): 'A grade-A plot-the best Christie in years.'

26. The Labours of Hercules The Labours of Hercules (1967) (1967) Dr Burton, Fellow of All Souls, sipping Poirot's Chateau Mouton Rothschild, offers up a rather unkind remark about his host that sets in motion Hercule Poirot's obsessive, self-imposed contest against his cla.s.sical namesake: Poirot will accept twelve labours-twelve fiendishly complex cases-and then, at long last, genuinely unshoulder the burdens of the hero: hewill retire, and leave the ridding of society's monsters, the sweeping of its criminal stables, to others. The cases that Poirot engages are every bit as taxing of his mighty brain as were the famous labours imposed by Eurystheus, King of Tiryns, on the Greek demi-G.o.d's brawn, and they make for one of the most fascinating books in the Christie canon. (Poirot solves them all but, of course, retirement remains as elusive as ever.)

Sunday Express: 'Twelve little masterpieces of detection. Poirot and Agatha Christie at their inimitable best.'

Margery Allingham: 'I have often thought that Mrs Christie was not so muchthe best asthe only living writer of the true cla.s.sic detective story.'

San Francisco Chronicle: 'A finely shaped book, richly devious and quite brilliant.'

27. Taken at the Flood Taken at the Flood (1948) (1948) A few weeks after marrying an attractive young widow, Rosaleen Underhay, Gordon Cloade dies in the Blitz-leaving Rosaleen in sole possession of the Cloade family fortune. 'Ill will' is in the air, generally, with the close of the war, and it positively contaminates the Cloade household. Now that contamination threatens Poirot-in the form of a visit from the dead man's sister-in-law. 'Guided' to Poirot 'by those beyond the veil,' she insists that Rosaleen is not a widow at all. Though he is no subscriber to the supernatural, Poirot has indeed heard of the somewhat notorious Rosaleen, and he is drawn, seemingly inevitably, to the case when he reads of the death of one Enoch Arden-who had appeared mysteriously in the village of Warmsley Vale, not far from the Cloade family seat. Poirot must investigate-but does he go to Warmsley Vale to bring Rosaleen to justice, or to spare her being dispatched prematurely to 'the other side'?

Of note:Taken at the Flood marks the debut of Superintendent Spence, a Poirot sidekick who will feature in three more Poirot novels.

Elizabeth Bowen,The Tatler : 'One of the best...Her gift for blending the cosy with the macabre has seldom been more in evidence than it is here.'

Manchester Evening News: 'Told briskly, vivaciously, and with ever-fertile imagination.'

New York Herald Tribune: 'Don't miss it.'

28. Mrs McGinty's Dead Mrs McGinty's Dead (1952) (1952) 'Mrs McGinty's dead!' / 'How did she die?' / 'Down on one knee, just like I!'So goes the old children's rhyme. A crushing blow to the back of the head kills a real-life Mrs McGinty in her cottage in the village of Broadhinny-Superintendent Spence's jurisdiction. Then the killer tore up the floorboards in search of...what? Justice presumes a pittance of cash; and justice has condemned James Bentley, her loathsome lodger, to hang for the crime. But Superintendent Spence is not satisfied with the verdict, and appeals to Poirot to investigate-and save the life of the wretch Bentley. Of note: Crime novelist Ariadne Oliver, ofCards on the Table , returns to help Poirot and Spence solve the crime.

Sunday Times: 'So simple, so economical, so completely baffling. Each clue scrupulously given, with superb sleight of hand.'

San Francisco Chronicle: 'The plot is perfect and the characters are wonderful.'

The New York Times: 'The best Poirot since...Cards on the Table.'

29. After the Funeral After the Funeral (1953) (1953) Mrs Cora Lansquenet admits to 'always saying the wrong thing'-but this last remark has gotten her a hatchet in the head. 'Hewas murdered, wasn't he?' she had said after the funeral of her brother, Richard Abernethie, in the presence of the family solicitor, Mr Entwhistle, and the a.s.sembled Abernethies, who are anxious to know how Richard's sizable fortune will be distributed. Entwhistle, desperate not to lose any more clients to murder, turns to Hercule Poirot for help. A killer complicates an alreadyvery complicated family-cla.s.sic Christie; pure Poirot.

Liverpool Post: 'Keeps us guessing-and guessing wrongly-to the very last page.'

30. Hickory d.i.c.kory Dock Hickory d.i.c.kory Dock (1955) (1955) An outbreak of kleptomania at a student hostel is not normally the sort of crime that arouses Hercule Poirot's interest. But when it affects the work of his secretary, Miss Lemon, whose sister works at the hostel, he agrees to look into the matter. The matter becomes a bona fide mystery when Poirot peruses the bizarre 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 a soup. 'A unique and beautiful problem,' the great detective declares. Unfortunately, this 'beautiful problem' is not just one of thievery and mischief-for there is a killer on the loose.

Times Literary Supplement: 'An event...There is plenty of entertainment.'

The New York Times: 'The Christie fan of longest standing, who thinks he knows every one of her tricks, will still be surprised by...the twists here.'

31. Dead Man's Folly Dead Man's Folly (1956) (1956) Sir George and Lady Stubbs desire to host a village fete with a difference-a mock murder mystery. In good faith, Ariadne Oliver, the much-lauded crime novelist, agrees to organise the proceedings. As the event draws near, however, Ariadne senses that something sinister is about to happen-and calls upon her old friend Hercule Poirot to come down to Dartmoor for the festivities. Ariadne's instincts, alas, are right on the money, and soon enough Poirot has a real murder to investigate.

The New York Times: 'The infallibly original Agatha Christie has come up, once again, with a new and highly ingenious puzzle-construction.'

Times Literary Supplement: 'The solution is of the colossal ingenuity we have been conditioned to expect.'

32. Cat Among the Pigeons Cat Among the Pigeons (1959) (1959) A revolution in the Middle East has a direct and deadly impact upon the summer term at Meadowbank, a picture-perfect girls' school in the English countryside. Prince Ali Yusuf, Hereditary Sheikh of Ramat, whose great liberalizing experiment-'hospitals, schools, a Health Service'-is coming to chaos, knows that he must prepare for the day of his exile. He asks his pilot and school friend, Bob Rawlinson, to care for a packet of jewels. Rawlinson does so, hiding them among the possessions of his niece, Jennifer Sutcliffe, who is bound for Meadowbank. Rawlinson is killed before he can reveal the hiding place-or even the fact that he has employed his niece as a smuggler. But someone knows, or suspects, that Jennifer has the jewels. As murder strikes Meadowbank, only Hercule Poirot can restore the peace. Of note: In this novel we meet Colonel Pikeaway, later to appear in the non-PoirotsPa.s.senger to Frankfurt andPostern of Fate , and we meet the financier Mr Robinson, who will also appear inPostern of Fate and who will show up at Miss Marple'sBertram's Hotel .

Daily Express, ofCat Among the Pigeons : 'Immensely enjoyable.'

The New York Times: 'To read Agatha Christie at her best is to experience the rarefied pleasure of watching a faultless technician at work, and she is in top form inCat Among the Pigeons .'

33. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (1960) (1960) 'This book of Christmas fare may be described as "The Chef's Selection." I am the Chef!' Agatha Christie writes in her Foreword, in which she also recalls the delightful Christmases of her youth at Abney Hall in the north of England. But while the author's Christmases were uninterrupted by murder, her famous detective's are not (see alsoHercule Poirot's Christmas ). In the t.i.tle novella, Poirot-who has been coerced into attending 'an old-fashioned Christmas in the English countryside'-gets all the tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, certainly, but he also gets a woman's corpse in the snow, a Kurdish knife spreading a crimson stain across her white fur wrap.

Collected within:The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (novella); 'The Mystery of the Spanish Chest';The Under Dog (novella); 'Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds'; 'The Dream'; and a Miss Marple mystery, 'Greenshaw's Folly.'

Times Literary Supplement: 'There is the irresistible simplicity and buoyancy of a Christmas treat about it all.'

34. The Clocks The Clocks (1963) (1963) 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.