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Hickory Dickory Dock: Level 5, B2+
Hickory Dickory Dock: Level 5, B2+
Hickory Dickory Dock: Level 5, B2+
Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

Hickory Dickory Dock: Level 5, B2+

Written by Agatha Christie

Narrated by Roger May

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this audiobook

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners.

Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully abridged versions are shorter with the language targeted at learners of English.

Strange items have disappeared from the student hostel on Hickory Road and Mrs Hubbard, the warden, is becoming suspicious.

Detective Hercule Poirot has been a little bored recently and decides to try to solve the mystery. But the investigation turns sinister when one of the students is found poisoned in her room.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 13, 2016
ISBN9780008210595
Hickory Dickory Dock: Level 5, B2+
Author

Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She died in 1976, after a prolific career spanning six decades.

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3.5/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A hostel in London. Students of various nationalities. Petty robberies. Murder. A perfect setting for Hercule Poirot. The mystery is thoroughly confusing and there are racist overtones. But all and all a classic Agatha Christie mystery. A 3/5 star rating. 
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I found this book to be very interesting, the characters were an odd lot, most all with something to hide...The story begins w/ Miss Lemon (M. Poirot's most perfect secretary) handing M. Poirot a letter w/ 3 mistakes in it. Miss Lemon is upset as her sister, who manages agroup of (mostly) students living in a boarding house, is in a quandary as to what to do about various people's belongings gone missing.....Miss Lemon asks M. Poirot to meet with her sister to discover who the thief is... but as soon as the thief reveals herself & her motives she is murdered...Although I didn't feel much for the characters, I didn't dislike them either.... What I did notice was the prejudice with which Christie painted the foreign students...... but it wasn't as blatant as in other of her books.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Poirot begins by looking into odd thefts at the student hostel run by his valued secretary Miss Lemon's sister, but the case escalates to murder.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Miss Lemon makes 3 mistakes in Poirot correspondence. This is an unheard breach of character. We learn that her sister Mrs. Hubbard has been having some unpleasant things happening in the hostel that she is running. Poirot is intrigued by the story and decides to poke his nose in to see what he can see, and he finds murder.This is a good Agatha Christie, several twists and turns a couple deaths and Poirot catches everyone who is guilty.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was written in the 1950s and you can really get a feel for post WWII Britain, taxation and the social change bought about by the war as the hostel at the centre of the novel just would not have existed pre-War. Poirot gets involved in the mystery at the hostel in Hickory Road, because his curosity is piqued. Murder and mayhem ensue.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie is another fun detective story featuring Hercule Poirot. He is brought into this case when his formidable secretary, Miss Lemon, actually hands him a letter with three typing mistakes! When he questions her about what is bothering her, she tells him about her sister who is house mother at a student hostel where a series of thefts and acts of vandalism have been occurring.Of course, these events eventually lead to a series of murders and before the book is through, Hercule Poirot has aided the police not only in revealing the murderer, but also in uncovering a smuggling ring. As is often the case in a Christie novel, there are plenty of suspicious characters and just about everyone has something to hide. Poirot and Inspector Sharpe must sift through the evidence and the testimony to put the pieces together. As always, I had some strong suspicions of my own but again like always, I was totally wrong.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Hercule Poirots Sekretärin, eine sonst unfehlbare Person, macht in einem Brief drei Schreibfehler und zieht damit die Aufmerksamkeit des Detektivs auf sich. Ihre Schwester arbeitet in einem Studentenwohnheim, in dem verschiedene Dinge verschwinden, die scheinbar keinerlei Zusammenhang aufweisen. Poirot wird nun beauftragt, den Dieb oder die Diebin zu finden, doch diese stellt sich schnell selbst. Am nächsten Morgen jedoch findet man ihre Leiche und es stellt sich heraus, dass sie nicht alle Dinge auf der Liste gestohlen hat.Dieser Roman gehört zu einer Reihe, die den Namen „A Christie for Christmas“ trägt. Der damalige Verleger hatte angestrebt, zu Weihnachten einige Romane Christies herauszubringen und dies ist nun einer davon.In diesem Roman tritt der Detektiv ziemlich in den Hintergrund. Nur zu Beginn und zum Ende der Geschichte spielt er eine tragendere Rolle, ansonsten werden andere Personen und ihre Hintergründe abseits Poirots Blickfeld gezeigt. Ein interessanter Aspekt.Christie schafft in ihren Romanen etwas, das heute längst nicht mehr alle Autoren schaffen. Auf wenigen Seiten gelingt es ihr, Persönlichkeiten zu formen, deren Beweggründe und Charaktere dem Leser bereits nach der ersten Vorstellung klar sind. Alles ist nachvollziehbar und klar strukturiert, kein einziges Wort zuviel.Trotzdem keine meiner Lieblingsgeschichten.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Started when the efficient Miss Lemon makes mistakes in a letter, Poirot finds that she is concerned about her sister. Of course he offers to assist, and starts investigating a series of small but mysterious thefts at the youth hostel where Mrs. Hubbard is the manager. Then the deaths start. An excellent plot twist lifts this book above the average mystery. It’s not Christie’s best book, but certainly not a bad book. The least likely suspect...works every time.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When his paragon of a secretary makes several mistakes on a single page of typing, Hercule Poirot is concerned. As it turns out, Miss Lemon is worried about her sister and the student boarding house she manages, which has been plagued by a string of petty thefts and other mischief. Since Poirot is at loose ends, he pays a visit to the boarding house, where he senses something very wrong beneath the surface. When one of the students dies, apparently by her own hand, Poirot deduces it was murder. Poirot serves as a sounding board for Inspector Sharpe as he investigates the sudden death.I wish Christie had given readers more of Miss Lemon when she had the chance in this novel. I did enjoy meeting her sister, who shares some of the same no-nonsense qualities that make Miss Lemon such a valuable secretary. Unusually for Christie, this book also suffers from a surfeit of characters who share too many similarities of age and circumstance. I do enjoy the audio recordings of this, and other Poirot novels, read by Hugh Fraser, who played Hastings in the British TV series. David Suchet is the definitive Poirot for my generation, and Fraser seems to model the voice of his Poirot on Suchet’s portrayal.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Poirot is called in to investigate some petty thieving in a student hostel managed by the sister of his efficient secretary Miss Lemon and discovers something much more serious. Rather a lot of racial stereotyping and only a thin link to the nursery rhyme title but an enjoyable late Poirot.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Always fun reading anything by Agatha Christie, even of it's okay it's never a waste of time, she always know how 2 write a mystery..
    Needed a well written, easy read story and got myself one, thx Christie 4 that, and more..
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This novel begins with a lovely description of Hercule Poirot's very efficient secretary Miss Lemon.She is very much disturbed with a problem her sister Mrs Hubbard, who runs a student hostel in London, is facing. Hercule Poirot frowned. ‘Miss Lemon,’ he said. ‘Yes, M. Poirot?’ ‘There are three mistakes in this letter.’ His voice held incredulity. For Miss Lemon, that hideous and efficient woman, never made mistakes. She was never ill, never tired, never upset, never inaccurate. For all practical purposes, that is to say, she was not a woman at all. She was a machine – the perfect secretary. She knew everything, she coped with everything. She ran Hercule Poirot’s life for him, so that it, too, functioned like a machine. Order and method had been Hercule Poirot’s watchwords from many years ago. With George, his perfect manservant, and Miss Lemon, his perfect secretary, order and method ruled supreme in his life. Now that crumpets were baked square as well as round, he had nothing about which to complain.It is always interesting with these "nursey rhyme" novels to work out what is the connection between the title and the nursery rhyme. In this case, the student hostel is in Hickory Road but that is not the only connection: ‘Hickory, dickory, dock,’ said Nigel, ‘the mouse ran up the clock. The police said “Boo”, I wonder who, will eventually stand in the Dock?’There are two murders in the time frame of this novel and eventually a revelation about an earlier murder committed by the same person. The author cleverly moves the finger of suspicion from one person to another over the course of Poirot's investigation. The sad thing is that the two more recent murders could have been prevented if the opportunity had been taken earlier to report the murderer to the police.At the end Miss Lemon is returned to her usual efficient self by Hercule Poirot and the police discovering the identity of the murderer.I think that Agatha Christie was struggling with this story to create and maintain the nursery rhyme connection, and really didn't do it all that successfully.I read this as part of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge. and this is my 47th novel read mainly in order of publication.My rating: 4.2I did some research into the origins of the nursery rhyme. Here is the most interesting one:Hickory Dickory Dock, is the Anglicisation of 8,9,10 in Cumbric ( North West England- the lake district) and devolved from the ancient Gaelic.. It was a language used by shepherds for their daily sheep count.I don't think that adds much in this case though
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    There was a lot going on in this book and the conclusion tying everything up didn't really work for me. I have lots of unanswered questions. There were more people living in the hostel than I could really keep on top of and I am completely lost as to what went on with the morphia/boracic acid/sodium bicarbonate. The 'romance' in the final pages caught me entirely by surprise and added nothing to the plot.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Just reread this one. Poirot's efficient secretary Miss Lemon makes three typing mistakes one day. He is deeply puzzled. It turns out she is worried about her sister who runs a boarding house for students. A series of thefts and malicious mischief have upset the routine of the house. Poirot agrees to look into the matter. He is able to clear up some of the thefts almost at once. A young lady has taken things to attract the attention of a psychologically-minded young man. But then the girl is murdered. Something much more sinister is at work behind the scenes.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Hercule Poirot's Secretary Miss Lemon is troubled. Her sister Mrs Hubbard is a manager of a hostel which has suffered some thefts. Thefts of various strange items. Enough so that Poirot is intrigued. But events accelerate and the first murder is done.
    An enjoyable mystery
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Hardly plausible and poorly plotted and somehow intriguing.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Hercule Poirot goes to a youth hostel to investigate a series of small thefts. He quickly determines who the culprit is, she apologizes and either returns the items or makes restitution. But the next morning she is dead – an apparent suicide. Or … was it murder?

    As is typical of a Poirot mystery, there are plenty of suspects what with all the students and young people living in the rooming house. The police investigate, but it will be Poirot who solves the crimes. Christie throws in a few false leads and keeps the reader guessing. The 1950s setting is a bit dated, especially the expressed attitudes towards “the coloreds.” It’s an entertaining cozy mystery, but not her best work.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Poirot solves another murder; quelle suprise! No matter how many times it happens, Christie always manages to deliver an entertaining book with style you expect from her.