A classic mystery by Agatha Christie, how can you not pick it for a book club. Pick one up, and you’re sure to be in for a twisty turn of murder and mystery.

Hercules Poirot’s dentist has committed a suicide. Yes, it’s an irritation to Poirot’s own meticulously planned life that he has to find a new dentist but it seems a bit suspicious, non. Dr. Morley was a perfectly genial man, nothing wrong with his life that he’d do such a drastic act. When it’s revealed that his last patient died of an overdose of dentist syringe (I forgot the drug name), the supposed explanation does not fit when there is a much more prominant man with many enemies who had been in the dentist chair just a few minutes earlier, Mr. Blunt.
Was Mr. Blunt the real object of the murder? Then how did Dr. Morley get caught in the crossfire?

An then the last witness to see who may or may have not murdered Dr. Morley goes missing. . . well that convinces Poirot that this is definately a murder.

There’s lots of missing threads and half-baked explanations that just don’t fit, and we all know Poirot’s skill in deduction lies in his irritation of unaligned items be it clues, hairs of his mustache or anything else.

As one can guess, the titular rhyme is the chapter title scheme of the book and the unbuckled shoe plays a pivotal part to figuring out the mystery so pay attention to it. Which you could but Poirot’s explanation is as twisty as all his movie monologues so you might have to read it twice to understand how and why the murders happened the way they did.

I must confess this is the first time I read a Hercules Poirot mystery. I mainly know him from the movies, so I was surprised by the humor here. Not haha funny but deadpan English way like Poirot’s fear of the dentist and whimsical musings on courting couples in the park.

Filled with distinct red herrings, there are plenty of potential suspects for one to question who benefits the most, but I’ll leave you one hint, who has no disregard for human life because the safety of a nation matters more than a one human life, something Poirot cannot abide.