Four-And-Twenty Blackbirds

The twist in this, the fourth story in the Crime Club Choice selection is that Hercule Poirot appears to anticipate a murder – all on account of a blackberry pie reminiscent of the Four-and-Twenty blackbirds in the “Sing a Song of Sixpence” English nursery rhyme that inspired Agatha Christie to write the piece.

The regular waitress of the Gallant Endeavour at which the Belgian Detective dined one day with his friend Bonnington, shared the friend’s impression that men, like me, rarely change their meals in their favourite restaurants, so, when she told these two men that ‘Old Father Time’ had suddenly done so, and what is more, deviated from one of his normal two particular days a week over ten years, this piqued Poirot’s interest.

We were kept waiting and wondering how Hercule could have predicted the crime, the victim, and the perpetrator, until he confronted the killer with definite proof.

“They nodded to each other, swaying about, hanging on to adjacent straps. Then at Piccadilly Circus there was a general exodus……” is just one example of Dame Agatha’s descriptive encapsulation of location as she presents the two friends travelling in a crowded tube train.

33 comments

  1. Great review. One question is the word really change or rarely change? “The regular waitress of the Gallant Endeavour at which the Belgian Detective dined one day with his friend Bonnington, shared the friend’s impression that men, like me, really change their meals in their favourite restaurants, so, when she told these two men that ‘Old Father Time’ had suddenly done so, and what is more, deviated from one of his normal two particular days a week over ten years, this piqued Poirot’s interest.”

      1. Boy, do I get that. I have some old ones, too. Every now and again, I pick one out. Last one was Rumer Godden’s Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy, that I found in a pile at my mother’s house. I love discovering new to me authors.

  2. Fabulous review! I’ve been reliving my Agatha Christie reads and movie-watches through your reviews. I need to do some rereading now. She was such an amazing story teller…sharing remarkable characters, fascinating adventures, intriguing mysteries, twisty-twists and twisty-endings. Ha! 🙂
    (((HUGS))) ❤️❤️
    PS…”The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.” – Agatha Christie 🙂

  3. Anything by Agatha Christie is worth reading. Crime thrillers/Who Dun It have been at the top of my reading list since I was an eleven-year-old babysitter in a home without television but with a full bookcase belonging to the father.

    1. Thank you very much, Rose. I’ll see if I’ve got that one – left to me by my Auntie Ivy

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