The Clocks - Agatha Christie: 1963 **

 

'The Clocks' is one of those Agatha Christie books that has so much potential. I started reading and KNEW it was going to be good, knew that Christie would have this almost impossible plot nailed and knew that I would be captivated throughout. Well this didn't happen. It was a rather excellent book right up until the end, when things came out, secrets were told and I was thoroughly disappointed. To make matters worse, Poirot doesn't appear until half way through the book, and was barely present until near the end. Considering this was a Poirot book, this was a bit of a mistake from Christie, who was obviously thoroughly sick of Poirot by now and probably would've happily got away with keeping him absent the whole way through. To be honest he didn't really lend anything to the story in particular, and it seemed he was a bit wasted here.
The plot is intriguing to say the least - a young typist named Sheila is called for personally to go to a house to do some work for a woman, but when she arrives it is to find a dead body on the floor. Added to which, the owner of the house is blind, was not present at the time, and there are 4 clocks on the mantlepiece that don't belong to her. What a fabulous, yet eerie start! It continues in this creepy, strange way, full of gossip and intrigue and then falls flat on it's face. Disappointed.

Play Misty For Me: Paul J. Gillette - 1971 ****

Being rather obsessed with this film I felt it only right to read the book immediately to compare my viewpoints. I hurtled through the novel in one sitting, partly because I knew exactly what was going to happen, and partly because I hoped some morsel would be left out of the film and I would discover it in the text.

As we know by now, the story follows a DJ named David who becomes the object of desire for a twisted, psychotic fan named Evelyn Draper. After a night of passion with Evelyn, David is less than keen to see her again, seeing her as too clingy and too intense. Added to which, he is starting to fall heavily for his on/off girlfriend Tobie and doesn't want a nutty one night stand to mess things up. Despite this, he can't help taking pity on Evelyn when she reacts badly to his decision and letting her back into his bed. He feels the nicer he is, the easier it will be for her to get over him which of course from a woman's perspective is the opposite approach to take. Evelyn does not understand the word "no", especially when it comes to losing someone she has become seriously obsessed with. She will go to any lengths to keep David near, even if it means hurting him in the process.

Although there are some areas of the film that were not from the book, the general feeling I got was that the novel casts more light on David's character, his background with Tobie and his general life which has now contributed greatly after another viewing of the film. I now understand David more, and whilst I don't agree with his actions and feel he wasn't clear enough about his boundaries, he is rather more the victim than I first imagined. Very well written.