She eyed her brother thoughtfully and asked whether the bath water had been cold again.' His sister, who kept house for him, was a large woman rather like a female grenadier. ' Mr Morley was a small man with a decided jaw and a pugnacious chin. There is some delightful description in this novel.Through Poirot however Christie seems to be making the point that dictatorships can exist even within democracies, and it is how life is valued that is important. Poirot himself is witness to just such an attempt.

Is the death of Morley somehow connected to attempts on Blunt's life? Earlier novels have reflected Christie's awareness of political and economic issues and they surface in this novel too.Īlistair Blunt, a banker who has great influence in Britain's economic policies and has been responsible for the nation's healthy solvency, was also a patient in Morley's surgery that morning.

It was published in 1940 and England has just begun war with Germany.

There are 3 other aspects of ONE, TWO, BUCKLE MY SHOE that I was conscious of. And then another patient walks out of her hotel and does not return. He seems to have been poisoned by Mr Morley. As Poirot and Japp begin to interview other patients from the day they discover that one of them, Mr Amberiotis, has died. Morley's death appears to have the hallmarks of suicide but Poirot is puzzled how someone contemplating suicide could have appeared so 'normal'.Īnd then there is the fact that Morley's young female assistant received a bogus telegram luring her out of the dental surgery for the day. Hercule Poirot (and his good friend Inspector Japp) become involved in this investigation because Poirot has a 6-monthly checkup with the dentist Morley only hours before he dies. Nor was he the first.Įvery now and then in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge I come across a title I genuinely don't think I have read before, and this is one of them. Morley wasn't an unlikely murder victim after all.

Poirot therefore takes it upon himself to question the good doctor's patients, partners and friends. What he did have was an appointment with Hercule Poirot, who is not persuaded by the suicide story. Morley have for committing suicide? He didn't have emotional difficulties, money problems, or love trouble. What reason would an amiable dentist like Dr. (aka AN OVERDOSE OF DEATH also THE PATRIOTIC MURDERS)

Publisher: HarperCollins Masterpiece ed edition (October 14, 2010).

Poirot one two buckle