One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (Hercule Poirot, #23) in Appointment With Agatha

Jan 29, 2023 Wanda Pedersen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: public-library, mysteries-thrillers, read-in-2023, brit-lit, female-authors

I had a long library wait for this book! The previous borrower hung onto it for several weeks past the due date. I had begun to fear it had been ingested by a dog or dipped in the bath or some other mishap!

It always amazes me when people keep Christie books overdue—I always find them quick reads, easily consumed over a day, two if my schedule is hectic. I was intrigued by this title, referencing a rhyme that I learned as a child. And Christie did indeed structure the story around the rhyme, quit ...more

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Jan 19, 2023 Teresa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: agatha-christie

I enjoyed this. A lot. There is a large cast of characters to keep track of. This was easy to do listening to the audio book as Hugh Fraser is great at doing different voices.
As usual the murderer was well concealed until the end. I wouldn't have guessed who it was except for having seen the tv adaptation, numerous times.
Good plot and mystery. ...more

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Jan 17, 2023 Mike Finn rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-series, audiobook, crime, golden-age-mystery

I have mixed feelings about 'One, Two, Buckle My Shoe'. It has a lot of strengths but when it was over, I felt slightly distant from the outcome.

I'm sure this is an Agatha Christie book that many of her readers will thoroughly enjoy.

The plot is very clever. It has more than one unexpected twist. The exposition is skilfully done, with the evidence being presented calmly over a period of some months and with each piece of the puzzle adding to the possible solutions to the death of a dentist but I have mixed feelings about 'One, Two, Buckle My Shoe'. It has a lot of strengths but when it was over, I felt slightly distant from the outcome.

I'm sure this is an Agatha Christie book that many of her readers will thoroughly enjoy.

The plot is very clever. It has more than one unexpected twist. The exposition is skilfully done, with the evidence being presented calmly over a period of some months and with each piece of the puzzle adding to the possible solutions to the death of a dentist but shedding little light on the inner workings of Poirot's mind.

Hastings' absence from this mystery added some things that I liked: Poirot's interactions with Jaffe took on a more peer-to-peer character that seemed appropriate and made the exposition easier and more credible and Poirot didn't seem as smug as he sometimes does, perhaps because he had no Hastings to patronise.

I liked the ending. The Poirot-explains-it-all scene was relatively low-key and served to do more than flourish the solution to the puzzle like a stage magician at the finale of his best trick. This time, Poirot's explanation also served to place him on the horns of a dilemma. Given his actions in previous books, I was surprised and pleased by the decision he made.

So why aren't I placing 'One, Two, Buckle My Shoe' up with 'The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd' as one of Christie's best books?

Mostly it is because it felt too mechanical to me. The plot was elaborate but clever and just about plausible but the storytelling had all the emotional depth of a science thought experiment. Most of us are more interested in the cleverness of Schroedinger's box than whether or not his cat lived. The use of the nursery rhyme verses to structure the chapters was clever but added to the emotional distance of the book. The characterisation of the people in the book, especially the young men, was paper-thin or trope-heavy if you prefer. They were well enough described to serve their purpose as plot devices - a distraction here, an annoyance there - but, with two exceptions, there was no one in the book that I cared about.

It's the two exceptions that kept me engaged with the book. The first is Mr Morely, the dentist who dies. He is not an important, exotic or charismatic man. He's an ordinary man who is a competent dentist. He appears only briefly before his demise and yet Christie managed to make him a real. A man whose sister loved him and whose staff respected him. A man prone to irritability and tied to habit. A man who worried about his secretary having a relationship with someone he judges to be untrustworthy. A man with a life that should not have been taken from him. The second exception is Poirot. For once, I saw Poirot as more than a slightly vain outsider with a compulsion to solve puzzles. This time I saw him as a man affronted by the death of someone he knew, albeit only in a professional capacity and who was determined that that death should not go unpunished.

I recommend the audiobook version, narrated by Hugh Fraser. I think his performance this time was particularly strong. ...more

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Jan 01, 2020 Laura rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, suspense-thriller, audio-books, read-2020, fiction-20th-century

From BBC radio 4 Extra:
The terrified Belgian detective pays a visit to his dentist. But he can hardly anticipate the gruesome events to follow ...

Agatha Christie's whodunit stars John Moffatt as Hercule Poirot.

From the book published in 1940 and dramatised by Michael Bakewell

Hercule Poirot ...... John Moffatt
Alfred ...... Tom George
Morley ...... Matthew Devereaux
Miss Sainsbury Seale ...... Joanna McCallum
Chief Inspector Japp ...... Philip Jackson
Georgina Morley ...... Caroline Wildi
Gladys Nevill ...more

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Jun 09, 2014 Ariadne Oliver rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: murder-mystery

This novel perfectly showcases one of the things I love about Poirot: the way he values human life.

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Jan 13, 2022 Roseli Gomes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Relido em Janeiro 2023
Posto resenha de outra fão de AC, para não perder o hábito

RESENHA de Mariana: Uma Dose Mortal

“É como se a morte tivesse escolhido, da forma mais tosca, o homem errado. O grego misterioso, o banqueiro rico, o detetive famoso...como seria natural se um deles tivesse sido baleado.” (CHRISTIE, pag. 31, 2011)

Em uma manhã como qualquer outra, Hercule Poirot enfrenta o seu medo e vai ao dentista. O que o detetive não sabia era que ele seria um dos últimos pacientes a ser atendido Relido em Janeiro 2023
Posto resenha de outra fão de AC, para não perder o hábito

RESENHA de Mariana: Uma Dose Mortal

“É como se a morte tivesse escolhido, da forma mais tosca, o homem errado. O grego misterioso, o banqueiro rico, o detetive famoso...como seria natural se um deles tivesse sido baleado.” (CHRISTIE, pag. 31, 2011)

Em uma manhã como qualquer outra, Hercule Poirot enfrenta o seu medo e vai ao dentista. O que o detetive não sabia era que ele seria um dos últimos pacientes a ser atendido pelo Dr.Morley que, poucas horas depois, estaria morto em seu próprio consultório. Aparentemente a causa da morte fora suicídio, mas parece muito difícil de acreditar que ele tenha mesmo feito isso. Mas então, quem teria motivos para matar Morley? Fora ele pego em meio ao atentado de uma figura poderosa ou teria sido vítima de um inimigo pessoal? E ainda, que fim levara uma de suas pacientes que também consultara com ele no dia de sua morte e depois desaparecera? Essas são algumas das perguntas desta trama de Agatha Christie e, se me permitam o trocadilho, em “Uma dose mortal” a autora soube dosar tudo muito bem.

A mocinha cujo namorado não é bem aceito, o viúvo rico e o ex-espião são alguns dos personagens que a autora une nessa trama onde nada é o que parece ser. Eu ainda me impressiono com a habilidade de Agatha Christie de levar o leitor para um caminho durante o livro inteiro e quando chegar lá no final dizer: “Não, não seu bobinho. Não é por aí é por aqui.” E lá vai você para o lado oposto onde tudo faz sentido. Em “Uma Dose Mortal” ela apresenta uma trama bem articulada para fã nenhum botar defeito e reveste de mistérios intrigantes crimes de natureza simples.

Esse foi uma daqueles livros em que eu consegui captar cada uma das pistas que a autora nos deixa. Identifiquei cada coisinha que estava errada e que levaram à solução do caso, mas ainda assim não fui capaz de juntá-las e resolver o enigma. Se você nunca leu Agatha Christie deve estar pensando: “Puxa, que burrinha.”, mas se você já leu, sabe muito bem do que eu estou falando. Não fui eu que fui burra, Agatha é que foi esperta demais. Ela e, claro, o grande Hercule Poirot.

O livro tem ainda a participação do Inspetor Japp da Scotland Yard, um personagem menos conhecido da obra de Agatha, mas que em alguns livros acompanha Poirot. Claro que o inspetor não se compara ao excêntrico detetive, mas é sempre legal ver a interação desses dois personagens.

Agatha Christie era um poço de artimanhas e uma dose da autora nunca é demais. E quanto mais mortal ela for, melhor.

Título: Uma Dose Mortal
Autora: Agatha Christie
POSTADO POR MARIANA FONTANA ...more

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Jan 01, 2023 Maggie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british, fiction, mystery, agatha-christie

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. While I read through Agatha Christie's novels with the Appointments with Agatha group, I'm putting a templated synopsis of each novel in my review. It has spoilers!

Book: 28 of Christie's novels, 21 of Hercule Poirot novels
Setting: London
Detective and Companions: Hercule Poirot, Inspector Japp
Crime: Poirot's dentist, Mr Morley is found dead. It appears to be a suicide, but Poirot does not think so.
Suspects:
- Frank Carter, boyfriend of Mr Morley's secretary Gladys Nevill
- Mabelle Sainsbury Seale, ...more

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Oct 20, 2022 Debbie Maskus rated it liked it · review of another edition

Agatha Christie writes an intriguing story of twists and turns. The story opens in the unlikely office of a dentist. Hercule Poirot must have his teeth cleaned and checked. The overworked dentist has many patients, but his assistant has been called away and cannot provide help. The dentist finishes with his patients, but the office boy finds the dentist dead. Inspector Japp rules that Henry Morley has committed suicide, due to a patient dying from too much anesthetic. Poirot thinks an evil plot ...more

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Jan 06, 2023 Charity rated it liked it · review of another edition

This one didn't appeal to me as much as other Christies. I didn't really understand the motivations of the characters, even after going back and listening to almost half of the novel again thinking I'd missed something. There's also a more gruesome, more modern crime scene than I'm used to in Christie's mysteries. That's not a negative, necessarily, just a surprise. ...more

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