Hickory Dickory Dock is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 31 October 1955 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in November of the same year under the title of Hickory Dickory Death. The title is taken, as are other of Christie's titles, from a nursery rhyme: Hickory Dickory Dock. This is nevertheless one of her most tenuous links to the original nursery rhyme, consisting of little more than the name of a road. Mrs Hubbard ran a student hostel at 24-26 Hickory Road. Twelve items had been missing in the last two to three months at the house; each of them belonged to a student. Some then turned up themselves somehow. A harmless prank or a targeted act? At any rate, she was not amused. Then She told about the incidents to her sister Miss Lemon, who then passed on the former’s accounts to her sleuth employer. Poirot agreed to come to the hostel and gave a talk to the students after dinner. He suggested involve the police in the matter. As a result, one of the inhabitants then admitted having stolen half of the items. Shockingly, two days later she was found dead in her room with a suicide note. What struck Mrs Hubbard as strange was the colour of ink that had been used in the note. As for Poirot, the death came as a surprise, for he had not warned the deceased but another student whose diamond ring turned up in a bowl of soup. Enjoy free online English audiobook “Hickory Dickory Dock”, a novel by Agatha Christie.
