Name: The Clocks
ISBN: 9780061002793

Agatha Christie

The Clocks

A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Mystery Masters Series)

Emily

If I could give quarter stars, I'd rate this book a 3.5/5 stars. But I'll settle to give it 4 stars.

The Clocks is an interesting addition to the Hercule Poirot series. An old man had been murdered and it's up to Richard Hardcastle to figure out who killed him. 

I was surprised to see someone besides Hercule take the ropes in solving the mystery, but a welcome temporary change.

The Clocks A Hercule Poirot Mystery

Wynter

A perfect little mystery for Poirot that feels like Christie's best classics. The set up is great: a mysterious phone call, the odd clocks, an unidentified deadman. Unfortunately there is very little of Poirot himself, just like with his other later books, and the most interesting clues turn out to be red herrings- to my great disappointment. Agatha also loved to dabble with espionage in her fiction, so she threw in an awkward Cold War bit in there that just didn't fit. Stick to the cozy mystery, lady! I'm sad I'm running out of Poirot books.

Liz B

Like this one a lot. Hard to figure out & there's some good red herrings but once the explanation is revealed you realize there were clues all along, which is my favorite kind of mystery.

Haley Murray

Taylor🩸

so many little clues but I couldn’t make any sense of them!! had no idea what the truth was until Hercule revealed all, and then it was obvious

Hercule Poirot, the relentless Belgian detective, investigates when a body is found in Miss Millicent Pebmarsh's sitting room with four strange clocks set at 4:13.

The clocks

Rose Stanley

A reread but I'm counting it as my May Christie https://www.agathachristie.com/news/2... (yes yes I am apparently only managing the odd-numbered months) as it is dedicated to "my old friend Mario with happy memories of delicous food at the Caprice" (counts as both a dedication to a friend or family member AND something of a humblebrag by Ms Christie I think https://le-caprice.co.uk/our-history/ ) 

ANYWAY, back to the actual review. I like how this mixes in a cold war espionage subplot (bang on trend for 1963) with the murder shenanigans, but felt like the random section in the middle with Poirot talking about different authors' styles (yes yes I know later it turns out to be relevant SORT OF) could have been taken out to allow more time to develop the ending, which felt very abrupt.

Special mention to Miss Pebmarsh, who I thought was superbly written.