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Clocks
by Christie
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Pocket (1985-02-03)
ISBN: 0671558226
EAN: 9780671558222
Paperback
SKU: 11179
Condition: Good
Comments: Binding: Softcover. Condition: Good. Slightly creased spine.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Hercule Poirot, the relentless Belgian detective, investigates when a body is found in Miss Millicent Pebmarsh's sitting room with four strange clocks set at 4:13.
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Customer Reviews
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WILL SOMEONE LET THE WOMAN SPEAK?
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-05-21
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
What "improvements" have been made for the Berkley edition? There are already major differences in punctuation, word choices, and scene breaks between the original Collins and Dodd Mead editions of this novel. There are further differences between the Dodd Mead editions republished by Random House/Avenel and the Dodd Mead editions republished by Simon & Shuster/Pocket. There are further differences still in the Signet, Bantam, and Black Dog & Leventhal editions. For every publishing house putting out her works, there seem to be a new batch of editors altering Agatha Christie's words and the sound of her voice. What's the matter with these publishers? Whose voice do they think we want to hear when we sit down to a novel by Agatha Christie? And what will she sound like twenty years from now? It's frightening that her estate has failed to see the importance of guarding her words as she wrote them. Please tell me I'm not the only one here who senses that a crime has been committed.
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Great late-period Christie
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-01-17
Published in 1963, "The Clocks" is a great example of Christie's ability to morph a myriad of her previous ideas into a nicely-written single mystery. Here, we have murder, international intrigue and, most of all, an aging Hercule Poirot at his best.
A man is murdered, apparently dumped in a house where a blind lady lives and other unfortunate, seemingly innocent people, are dragged into the mess. The identity of this well-dressed murdered man remains a mystery until Hercule Poirot is invited to discover his identity and thus solve the crime from his armchair.
A sub-plot involves the unveiling and arrest of a dangerous subversive international criminal and Poirot allows his secret agent friend, Colin Lamb, to handle this one on his own. But the crimes seem to be linked and that has Lamb worried as he appears to aid his friend, Inspector Hardcastle, in following up on the murder.... which turns into TWO murders.
Poirot shows up late in this one, (a previously-observed Christie idiosyncracy), and, in fact, it is Colin Lamb who appears as the principal protagonist, a fact that might make Poirot devotees a bit edgy. But we have to remember that Poirot is getting along in years and we can't have him running about interviewing suspects as he did in the early '20s (publication date) in "The Mysterious Affair at Styles," (actually, he was "retired" by that time and Hastings even observed that he "limped a little" way back then, while WWI was ongoing!)
So, one can expect a matured Christie writing here, and very well-done too!
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Agatha Christie Being Playful
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-11-14
I am convinced that in "The Clocks" Agatha Christie is writing for the fun of it and inviting her readers to come along and enjoy the fun. The key is in the scenes where Hercule Poirot is discussing detective fiction and points out traits and weaknesses of various detective story writers (some real, some imaginary, and Ariadne Oliver who represents Agatha Christie herself). So many of the factors mentioned (bizarre circumstances, overreliance on coincidence, etc) are exactly the characteristics of "The Clocks".
"The Clocks" does not rate among the greatest of Miss Christie's books. However, it is a satisfying story and lots of fun.
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3.5 stars
Rating  (3)
Date: 2006-08-04
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
good writing, as can always be expected from agatha christie...and fairly gripping. interesting premise of the clocks and a typist summoned for no apparent reason at the scene of the crime.
but definitely not one of her best. Ending is novel, but contrived. too much reliance on coincidence, the design of the murder is far-fetched, and there are a couple of loose ends. also, hercule solves this mystery from his armchair, but there are really no definite clues that pointed him in that direction. like inspector hardcastle points out, it is simply poirot's hunches, that turn out to be miraculously true!
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Tick Tock
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-02-21
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Christie's longest book (except for the non-mystery GIANTS BREAD) and in some ways the one with the most difficult plot to unravel. Some of the bits of detection seem forced; Christie has a reputation for fair play but I can't see any way that Colin Lamb discovers who is the owner of one of the eponymous clocks except, well, he's just guessing. And Poirot's deductions are even more far fetched. And yet the whole thing hangs brilliantly on an astonishing misdirection which will fool you no matter how many times you read the darn thing.
I sometimes wonder if Christie was paying tribute to Virginia Woolf and her epic novel TO THE LIGHTHOUSE in this book. Those of us who love Woolf's novel cherish it partially for its acutely observed portrait of "Mrs. Ramsay," an idealized mother figure who is the warm, lambent center of a household that revolves around her, one that without her at its heart simply falls off the tracks. THE CLOCKS features another Mrs. Ramsay, likewise a mother who must make an immensely tough decision about her own children. I think by and large it might be the tribute of one English modernist to another, but check it out for yourself! Some people prefer Woolf's characterization, but I always admire Christie for her adherence to the facts about human nature, no matter how unpleasant.
Colin Lamb isn't the perfect hero, nor is Sheila Webb, the girl with the cornflower eyes who works as a professional typist, the perfect heroine. Both of them are deeply flawed, and they know it. Colin knows Sheila is a liar, and even more disturbing, that she will never actually be able to change, but he loves her anyhow and he will find a way to make their union work.
Loose ends department: how did the killer know that his victim had a scar behind his ear in the first place?
The central, traumatic confrontation between mother and daughter, was this entirely a coincidence? I still can't work it out. The brilliant mind behind the byzantine plot is exactly the person you just can't believe it will ever be!
One of the neighbors on Wilbraham Crescent is called "Bulstrode," isn't that the name of the headmistress in Christie's CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS, the preceding Poirot novel?
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