While I had a fairly good idea about the murderer and a partial idea about the motive, I’d never have guessed the way the various strands of the case all tied in together. Meanwhile, Poirot keeps circling back to the buckled shoes of the missing lady patient, so you know that it’s a big clue he’s withholding till the end.

Though it’s not one of Christie’s full-on spy novels, there are hints of a complicated political intrigue behind it all.

The rather convoluted plot is busy juggling a large cast of characters who at first glance seem to have nothing to do with each other, among them a powerful and influential banker, a young American with radical political views, and a retired Secret Service agent. Things get even more puzzling when a patient of Morley’s is found dead in his hotel room after an overdose of adrenaline and novocaine – standard local anaesthetic used by the dentists – and yet another patient disappears from her lodgings without a trace. But who would want to murder an unremarkable man like Morley? Neither Poirot nor Inspector Japp find the suicide plausible, and suspect foul play. A few hours after he leaves the dreaded chair, he receives a shocking news that Mr Morley, his amiable and capable dentist, has apparently shot himself soon after Poirot’s appointment. I had the right instinct about who dunnit all along, but this Poirot mystery still boasts plenty of surprises and twists.Įven the great Hercule Poirot is a mere mortal who needs to see a dentist from time to time. I'm going to the dentist.This is only the second Christie novel in my re-readathon that I genuinely don’t remember ever reading before. ♪Fifteen, sixteen, maids in the kitchen ♪ When Amberiotis is found dead in his hotel room from an overdose of Novocaine and Sainsbury-Seale disappears, Poirot rightly expands his list of suspects and connects the crime to events that occurred in India 12 years earlier.

Amberiotis, an enigmatic recent arrival from India suffering from a toothache, and Mabelle Sainsbury-Seale, a charity worker also recently returned from India. They include Alaistair Blunt, a prominent and very influential bank director, Frank Carter, a young fascist thug with a personal grudge against Morley, Mr. Poirot suspects foul play, and all those who entered the doctor's offices after Poirot left are suspect. Morley, his dentist, but shortly after he leaves the clinic, the doctor is found dead with a gunshot wound to his temple, an apparent suicide. Poirot pays what appears to be a routine visit to Dr. Search Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989–2013): Season 4, Episode 3 - One, Two, Buckle My Shoe - full transcript s4e3 - One, Two, Buckle My Shoe - script.

One two buckle my shoe poirot