Book review: Hickory Dickory Dock

Hickory Dickory Dock is another Agatha Christie. Not one of her finest I fear.

As wiki notes, her attempt to broaden her character set goes badly: the African and Indians are charicatures - well, perhaps that's slightly unfair, most of her characters are usually charicatures, but these ones are badly cut-out. The number of dead bodies that piles up seems excessive; I can't see how any murderer would have hoped to get away with it by the time of number three, or even number two. We're forced to accept - yet again, I think - the idea of an amoral too-clever-for-his-own-good young son who would do anything.

The central idea - of drug smuggling via rucksacks - also seems ill-thought out. The idea that people wouldn't notice if you swap your rucksack for a similar one of the same make is rather odd; I suspect that AC didn't do a lot of backpacking. Similarly, the idea that the Wicked Woman would have a pile of passports seems dubious; they can't be that easy to get; and as a woman of couture she had every reason for frequent trips to Paris. And I guessed the swapping-the-diamond bit, not that that gets me far.

The social setup of the house also seems odd to me, though I am weak on 50s London: but surely retaining a "manservant" and a cook is more of a country house than a relatively cheap hostel.

Lastly, pulling out Mrs Nick as the WW's mother just comes from nowhere. I suppose it gives a reason for her to be living there, which would otherwise be unlikely, but really? No.

What was reasonably good was having a list of stolen things, which then separates out into various categories for unrelated reasons. But again, the kleptomania idea just rings false to me.