The Clocks- A Book that makes Time fly

I ended July with another Christie book (if you haven't guessed by now, I'm a huge Christie fan). This book had a very ingenious and unique premise, and the story managed to live up to it somewhat.

Overview of the Book:

Title: The Clocks

Author: Agatha Christie

Genre: Detective Fiction

Rating: 4/5 ★

Blurb:

Sheila Webb, typist-for-hire, has arrived at 19 Wilbraham Crescent in the seaside town of Crowdean to accept a new job. What she finds is a well-dressed corpse surrounded by five clocks. Mrs. Pebmarsh, the blind owner of No. 19, denies all knowledge of ringing Sheila's secretarial agency and asking for her by name -- yet someone did. Nor does she own that many clocks. And neither woman seems to know the victim. Colin Lamb, a young intelligence specialist working a case of his own at the nearby naval yard, happens to be on the scene at the time of Sheila Webb's ghastly discovery. Lamb knows of only one man who can properly investigate a crime as bizarre and baffling as what happened inside No. 19 -- his friend and mentor, Hercule Poirot.

This book was notable for the main reason that Poirot never visits the scene of crime nor interviews the witnesses, yet manages to solve the crime and render justice served. He is challenged to prove his claim that a crime can be solved by the exercise of the intellect alone, which he does.

There are two interwoven plotlines here: the mystery Poirot works on from the comfort of his armchair and a Cold War spy story told in the first narrative.

This was a good read. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Poirot didn't feature a lot, but the scenes he was in were very memorable. What I found charming is Christie making Poirot peruse the thrillers of that age and give opinions. Colin is a very interesting character. The book is engaging enough, but not upto Christie's usual standards. I managed to guess the side issues correctly and even the main perpetrator to an extent. This isn't one of her best ones, but a damn good work.