History Literature / TheClocks

''The Clocks'' is detective fiction by Creator/AgathaChristie first published in 1963, and is a part of the Literature/HerculePoirot series, even though the Belgian himself only plays a small role in the story.

The novel is set some time during the Cold War, and features a spy fiction sub-plot, narrated in first person by Colin Lamb, a British Intelligence agent trying to track down a spy who has been passing information to the enemy. Colin's investigation brought him to the scene of a rather peculiar murder case, in which an unknown man was found stabbed in the house of Miss Pebmarsh, a blind woman. The man carries no identification with him, and no one seem to recognise him. His body was discovered by Sheila Webb, a typist who was apparently hired by Miss Pebmarsh, although the latter denies making such appointment. Colin then brings the case to Poirot, who agrees to investigate the murder through Colin's accounts.

* ComplexityAddiction: The murderers kill a guy and then go through an elaborate scheme in which they dump him nearby and then arrange for the corpse to be identified as a different person. Instead of, say, just killing him and burying him in the woods somewhere.

** Someone kills a guy and dumps that dead body into a neighbor's house. That neighbor is not involved in the murder at all, but ''is'' a Communist secret agent.

* CuckooClockGag: A cuckoo shoots out of a cuckoo clock to chime the hour, just as Sheila is entering on what she assumes will be stenography job. It makes her nervous, but she gets more nervous two paragraphs later when she sees the dead guy.

* ForWantOfANail: Poirot quotes the actual nursery rhyme regarding the fact that if Edna hadn't busted her shoe heel, she wouldn't have returned to the office [[spoiler:at the right time to realize that there was not phone call asking for Sheila]].

** Colin visits Poirot and finds that Poirot has launched himself into a study of detective fiction. Poirot likes the Literature/ArseneLupin books and praises ''Literature/TheMysteryOfTheYellowRoom'' by Gaston Leroux.

* SpannerInTheWorks: Edna is killed because [[spoiler:she was in the office when Mrs. Martindale supposedly]] received the phone call asking for Sheila.

** If that's not bad enough, Agent Harbury's drawing doesn't just have the number 61, it has a 61 with a W underneath it, next to a crescent. The murder takes place at 19 '''''W'''''ilbraham Crescent, and Colin still can't figure it out.

* ContrivedCoincidence: Mrs. Martindale received a bogus message requesting Sheila Webb in particular to a house where a dead body was planted... that just happened to be not just [[spoiler:the headquarters of a Soviet spy ring]] but also [[spoiler:her biological mother's home.]] Not only that, but Edna [[spoiler:happened to be in the office]] when the message [[spoiler:was supposed to have]] arrived.

* ShoutOut: Colin visits a girl who lives across the street from the murder scene who, confined to the apartment with a broken leg, passes the time watching her neighbors. [[Film/RearWindow Sound familiar?]]

* TwoLinesNoWaiting: Two separate investigations are taking place in Wilbraham Crescent. One is of the murder scene in Miss Pebmarsh's home, and one is an espionage plot where one of the occupants of the neighbourhood is believed to have been passing national information to the enemy. Aside from the fact that they take place in the same location and Colin is involved in both investigations, the two plots are not actually related to one another. Though it is worth noting [[spoiler:the address Colin initially wants to investigate houses the murderer (well, some of them), and the house where the body was found is home to the spy Colin is searching for]]. Also, while it's never explicitly spelled out, Colin has his EurekaMoment when he sees Hardcastle writing on some upside-down stationery -- because [[spoiler:he should have been investigating number 19, not 61, all along.]]

* SixIsNine: Colin begins the story trying to find number 61 on a notoriously confusing street--based on a handwritten tip off--when he runs into a murder mystery at number 19. He doesn't connect the dots until the very end of the mystery, so maybe it's for the best that he decides to [[spoiler:quit the intelligence services.]]

* TheWaton: Poirot praises Colin as a particularly good one, especially given his ability to recall conversations rather than the general gist of one.

* DirtyCommies: Colin is in the neighborhood to investigate possible Soviet agents transmitting intelligence back to Moscow.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Inspector Hardcastle, Poirot, and Colonel Beck (Colin's superior) all realise that Colin has fallen hard for Sheila due to his obstinate conviction that Sheila is innocent. Colin himself insists (truthfully) that he has a perfectly logical reason for believing her innocence, and does not admit that he has less-than-professional feelings towards her until halfway through the book.

* ImpersonationExclusiveCharacter: Mrs. Valerie Bland is revealed to be Mrs. Hilda Bland, her husband's second wife, posing as the first one to get her inheritance. The only things we therefore know about the real Valerie was that she came from a rich Canadian family and had really poor judgment of men, considering her choice of husband.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Inverted in-universe. The killer used an unpublished mystery novel manuscript as the basis of their murder scheme.

* RedHerring: The titular clocks are not as important to the plot as one would believe them to be.

* TwoLinesNoWaiting: Two separate investigations are taking place in Wilbraham Crescent. One is of the murder scene in Miss Pebmarsh's home, and one is an espionage plot where one of the occupants of the neighbourhood is believed to have been passing national information to the enemy. Aside from the fact that they take place in the same location and Colin is involved in both investigations, the two plots are not actually related to one another. Though it is worth noting [[spoiler:the address Colin has been given to investigate the spy ring houses the murderer (well, some of them), and the house where the body was found is home to the spy Colin is searching for]].

The novel is set some time during the Cold War, and features a spy fiction sub-plot, narrated in first person by Colin Lamb, a British Intelligence agent trying to track down a spy who has been passing information to the enemy. Colin's investigation brought him to the scene of a rather peculiar murder case, in which an unknown man was found stabbed in the house of Miss Pebmarsh, a blind woman. The man carries no identification with him, and no one seem to recognise him. His body was discovered by Sheila Webb, a typist who was apparently hired by Miss Pebmarsh, although the latter denies making such appointment. Colin then brings the case to Poirot, who agrees to investigate the murder through Colin's written accounts.

* DecoyProtagonist: Colin may initially seem like the protagonist, being the "outsider" who stumbles into the crime scene and was dragged into the subsequent investigation. However, his role in the case was secondary to Hardcastle. Even the suspects they interrogate see him as nothing more than Hardcastle's extra hand.

* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Inspector Hardcastle, Poirot and Colonel Becks (Colin's superior) all realise that Colin has fallen hard for Sheila due to his obstinate conviction that Sheila is innocent. Colin himself insisted that he has a perfectly logical reason for believing her innocence, and did not admit that he has less-than-professional feelings towards her until halfway through the book.
* FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator: Zigzagged. Colin is only tangentially involved in the murder investigation, and barely makes any contribution in the interrogation of suspects. However, he's an undisputed lead of his own sub-plot. On the other hand, the first-person accounts only make up less than half of the actual narrative, while the novel is mostly written in third person.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Despite being the (occasional) narrator of the novel, and whose accounts of the investigation is what led Poirot to the solution of the mystery, Colin's main concern is to find TheMole who has been selling British secrets to the Soviets, a spy sub-plot that is somewhat glossed over in the actual events of the books.
* LoveAtFirstSight: Sheila Webb runs into Colin Lamb, and the latter immediately declares her as "his" girl.

* MotorMouth: Nora couldn't stop talking, to the amusement (and sometimes annoyance) of her co-workers.
* ParentalAbandonment: Sheila lives with her aunt, who tells her that her parents is dead. In truth, [[spoiler: she's an illegitimate child. Her mother, Mrs. Lawton's sister, gave her up because she was an ambitious woman who doesn't want a child to hinder her career.]]
* PhoneInDetective: Poirot never sets foot in the crime scene, nor does he actively take part in the investigation. He makes all his deductions based on Colin's written reports.

* TwoLinesNoWaiting: Two separate investigations were taking place in Wilbraham Crescent. One is of the murder scene in Miss Pebmarsh's home, and one is an espionage plot where one of the occupants of the neighbourhood is believed to have been passing national information to the enemy. Aside from the fact that they take place in the same location, and has Colin's involvement, the two plots are not actually related to one another. Though it is worth noting [[spoiler:the address Colin has been given to investigate the spy ring houses the murderer (well, some of them), and the house where the body was found is home to the spy Colin is searching for.]]

* DecoyProtagonist: Colin may initially seem like TheProtagonist, being the "outsider" who stumbles into the crime scene and was dragged into the subsequent investigation. However, his role in the case was secondary to Hardcastle. Even the suspects they interrogate see him as nothing more than Hardcastle's extra hand.

The novel is set some time during the Cold War, and features a spy fiction sub-plot, narrated in first person by Colin Lamb, a British Intelligence agent trying to track down a spy who has been passing information to the enemy. Colin's investigation brought him to the scene of a rather peculiar murder case, in which an unknown man was found stabbed in the house of Miss Pebmarsh, a blind woman. The man carries no identification with him, and no one seem to recognise him. His body was discovered by Sheila Webb, a typist who was apparently hired by Miss Pebmarsh, although the latter denies making such appointment. Colin brings then brings the case to Poirot, who agrees to investigate the murder through Colin's written accounts.

* Shout-Out: Colin visits a girl who lives across the street from the murder scene who, confined to the apartment with a broken leg, passes the time watching her neighbors. [[Film/RearWindow Sound familiar?]]
* TwoLinesNoWaiting: Two separate investigations were taking place in Wilbraham Crescent. One is of the murder scene in Miss Pebmarsh's home, and one is an espionage plot where one of the occupants of the neighbourhood is believed to have been passing national information to the enemy. Aside from the fact that they take place in the same location, and has Colin's involvement, the two plots are not actually related to one another.
** Though it is worth noting [[spoiler:the address Colin has been given to investigate the spy ring houses the murderer (well, some of them), and the house where the body was found is home to the spy Colin is searching for.]]

* HeroOfAnotherStory: Despite being the (occasional) narrator of the novel, and whose accounts of the investigation is what led Poirot to the solution of the mystery, Colin's main concern is to find TheMole who has been selling British secrets to the enemy, a spy sub-plot that is somewhat glossed over in the actual events of the books.

* Shout-Out: Colin visits a girl who lives across the street from the murder scene who, confined to the apartment with a broken leg, passes the time watching her neighbors. [[RearWindow Sound familiar?]]

* RedHerring: The titular clocks is not as important to the plot as one would believe them to be.

* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: The changes made in the ITV adaptation gives a lot more dramatic tension to the story and character arcs.
** Colin is an emotional wreck because his lover died while fighting off an MI6 mole, and he blamed himself for her death because he had refused her call of help earlier.
** Sheila does not have an aunt in this continuity. She's an orphan who has lost both her parents ''and'' her adoptive parents, and, in her loneliness, became involved in a love affair with one of her clients. [[spoiler:Her "disgraceful" behaviour is the reason why Miss Martindale decided to frame her for the crime.]] Also, while both versions of the story saw her as the primary suspect of the murder, she was never arrested in the book.
** Miss Pebmarsh lost two sons (which she does not have in the original novel) during the first World War, and [[spoiler:this was the reason why she became a spy/traitor. She believed that, if Hitler takes over England before Churchill, the second War would be avoided.]]
** The Waterhouses, originally a pair of wacky siblings, is turned into Jewish refugees who came to England to escape the Nazi regime, but were still forced to hide their identities due to the anti-Semitic discrimination they faced in the new country.
* AdaptationalNameChange:
** Colin Lamb becomes Colin Race in the ITV version. To be fair, though, "Lamb" is not his actual surname.
** Edna Brent's name is changed to "Nora".
* AdaptationalWimp: Although his temperament may not be suitable for his line of work, Colin is still a competent agent. He questions the suspects, comes up some intelligent deductions and he eventually to complete his Special Branch assignment on his own. All of these accomplishments were stripped away from him in the adaptation, and was given to Poirot to give the great detective a greater involvement in the story.

* TheLostLenore: The ITV adaptation has Fiona Hanbury, Colin's dead lover. His guilt over her death is one of the reasons he was so determined to save Sheila from being arrested, because he refused to let another woman fall by his failure.

* RelatedInTheAdaptation:
** Inverted with [[spoiler:Sheila Webb and Miss Pebmarsh]], who was revealed to be mother-and-daughter in the novel, but is unrelated in the TV adaptation.
** Colin is a rather odd case. In the TV, he's clearly established as the son of Colonel Race, whereas in the novel, his father is implied to be Superintendent Battle.

* SettingUpdate: The setting is changed from the Cold War era to a pre-World War II in the adaptation. This is to keep the story in line with the previous episodes, which were invariably set in the 1930s.

!!Tropes found in ''The Clocks'':

* TwoLinesNoWaiting: Two separate investigations were taking place in Wilbraham Crescent. One is of the murder scene in Miss Pebmarsh's home, and one is an espionage plot where one of the occupants of the neighbourhood is believed to have been passing national information to the enemy. Aside from the fact that they take place in the same location, and has Colin's involvement, the two plots are not actually related to one another.

* DecoyProtagonist: Colin may initially seem like TheProtagonist, being the "outsider" who stumbles into the crime scene and was dragged into the subsequent investigation. However, his role in the case was secondary to Hardcastle, and, in the first place, he's only tagging along with the police because he believes that the murder might be related to his own Intelligence work.

* AdaptationalWimp: Although his temperament may not be suitable for his line of work, Colin is still a competent agent. He questions the suspects, comes up some intelligent deductions and he eventually to complete his Special Branch assignment on his own. All of these accomplishments were stripped away from him in the adaptation, and was transferred to Poirot to give the great detective a greater involvement in the story.

* ParentalAbandonment: Sheila lives with her aunt, who tells her that her parents is dead. In truth, [[spoiler: she's an illegitimate child she was given up to Mrs. Lawton because her mother was an ambitious woman who doesn't want a child to hinder her career.]]

** Colin is a rather odd case. In the TV, he's clearly established as the son of Colonel Race. In the novel, his father's name is not mentioned, but it's heavily hinted that Colin is the son of Superintendent Battle.