One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (1940)
Blurb:
My review:
“For want of a buckle, the shoe was lost;
for want of a shoe, the game was up”
may well be the refrain of this detective story, for it is from an examination of trivia – shoes, stockings and false teeth, those outward appurtenances which maketh the man (or woman, as the case may be) – that Poirot is able to discover one of the most cold-blooded and elaborate plots which even Agatha Christie has devised, and which the reader can – very dimly – see from the moment that Poirot, attending morning service for the only time in the books, discovers that he has very nearly fallen into a trap. One must imagine that Poirot has been meeting Reggie Fortune recently, for, in addition to certain mannerisms (“Oh, my Japp”), he suspects a vast conspiracy behind three deaths (the “suicide” of Poirot’s dentist, the poisoning of a Greek blackmailer and the murder of an unknown woman in a fur-chest) despite police incredulity and a desire to see only the obvious; and, at the end, in a remarkable scene which shows Poirot’s conscience, he condemns the murderer with the Old Testament. Poirot is tempted by the fact that he doesn’t want the murderer found guilty to let him go, but, inevitably, sees that justice must be done and the innocent not allowed to suffer. On finishing the book, we are reminded of Father Brown’s statement in a similar case:
“The
dentist! Six hours in the spiritual abyss,
and all because
I never thought of the dentist! Such a
simple, such a beautiful and peaceful thought!
Friends, we have passed a night in hell, but now the sun is
risen, the
birds are singing, and the radiant form of the dentist consoles the
world.”