Resumo de Hickory Dickory Death

Hickory Dickory Death, also sometimes called Hickory Dickory Dock, published in 1955, was one of Agatha Christie?s later Hercule-Poirot-whodunnit mystery stories. This story, like so many of her other mystery stories, strives to identify the psychological make-up of a murderer. The philosophical phrase so commonly found in Christie?s stories that once a killer always a killer?indicating Christie?s belief that once a murderer sees how very simple it is to take a person?s life, there is very little to keep him or her from doing so again?is found in this story too. In this story, it is the deduction of the murderers true identity and his murdering past that serves as Poirot?s most helpful clue for identifying the murderer.
Poirot becomes involved in this mystery when Miss Lemon, his secretary, introduces him to what Poirot thinks of as the uniquely beautiful problem of Mrs. Hubbard, her sister. Mrs. Hubbard is the housekeeper for a student hostel. For the past several months a series of petty thefts and other peculiar events have left the residents of the hostel in a terror. The list of thefts and misdeeds include one evening shoe, a bracelet, a diamond ring, a powder compact, a lipstick, a stethoscope, ear-rings, a cigarette lighter, old flannel trousers, electric light bulbs, a box of chocolates, a silk scarf and a rucksack both cut to shreds, boracic powder, bath salts, and a cookery book. To the shrewd mind of Poirot the list does not point to a kleptomaniac nor does it have any obvious pattern, cohesion, or form. But the events must be significant because soon one of the girls in the hostel is found murdered; soon after that, two more residents are murdered. Finally he realizes that it is the order of thefts that is significant and not just the thefts themselves. Soon Poirot?s investigations lead him to discover a smuggling ring, its ringleaders, and the murderer of all three victims plus a past victim.
While this novella has a terrific and convincing story line, it is one of Christie?s latter novels and some careless weaknesses in the plot do, unfortunately, show. Christie is known for laying out all of the clues in the novel so that the reader might possibly be able to find the solution. At the end of Hickory Dickory Death, however, we find that the two clues Poirot has in mind to help him discover the murderer are not two clues previously laid out in the book. In the end Poirot informs us that the first murdered victim knew the true identity of the murderer and that that was part of the motive for murder. Poirot also informs us that the second murdered victim is another characters mother. There is nothing in the book that could have alluded to either of these points.

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