One Two Buckle my Shoe by Agatha Christie

As an Agatha Christie fan, I’m used to her original and complex plots, particularly in the Poirot series. This 24^th outing for the Belgian detective is no exception, leading you down false trails, baffling you with a plot that makes little sense until he reveals all in the denouement.

Poirot visits his dentist, Mr Morley, who is found dead a couple of hours later. It looks like suicide, prompted by an accidental overdose of anaesthetic that kills another patient. Only Poirot isn’t convinced. Morley wasn’t the suicidal type.

The mystery deepens when the body of a woman is found in a flat. Links to an influential banker, who is shot at twice, suggest a sinister, political motive. While Poirot has doubts, the evidence seems overwhelming.

I must admit I struggled with this story, the characters and the plot, which never quite drew me in. Perhaps it was the broader scale of a political motive that didn’t grab me. The confines of a locked room mystery are more immediate and compelling as the tension is heightened by the restrictions.

That said, all the ingredients are there, and Poirot is his usual meticulous self, making his little grey cells work overtime as he tries to cope with the scale of the crimes.

Description

A dentist lies murdered at his Harley Street practice…

The dentist was found with a blackened hole below his right temple. A pistol lay on the floor near his outflung right hand. Later, one of his patients was found dead from a lethal dose of local anaesthetic. A clear case of murder and suicide. But why would a dentist commit a crime in the middle of a busy day of appointments?

A shoe buckle holds the key to the mystery. Now – in the words of the rhyme – can Poirot pick up the sticks and lay them straight?