The Clocks by
Agatha Christie
hbk out July 02
Published by HarperCollins
at £16.99
This lively and unusual book, one of the most enjoyable of the later Christies, opens
in memorable fashion. Sheila Webb, a young stenographer, is sent out on an
assignment to 19 Wilbraham Crescent, the home of a new client called Miss
Pebmarsh. She finds the house apparently deserted, but the sitting room has been
filled with clocks, all showing the same time – just after ten past four – and behind the
sofa is the body of a man. Then Miss Pebmarsh arrives, and turns out to be a blind
woman.
The set-up is so bizarre that some commentators have regarded the solution to the
mystery, eventually uncovered by Hercule Poirot, as something of a let-down. But in
fact, it offers a clever spin on a particular type of detective fiction: indeed, a lecture
about detective fiction that Poirot gives to his young friend, the secret service agent
Colin Lamb, who narrates part of the story, is not only entertaining in itself; it also
offers a clue to what actually happened at 19 Wilbraham Crescent.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
