History Literature / HickoryDickoryDock

Literature/HerculePoirot notices that his secretary Miss Lemon, usually machine-like in her precision, made three, count 'em, three mistakes in the letter she typed for him.

* ASpotOfTea: Poirot is served tea at 5 pm, but he doesn't like the English ritual of tea, so he gives his to Inspector Sharpe.

* PhoneyCall: [[spoiler:Nigel appears to have an ironclad alibi for Patricia's murder when Pat]] calls into the police station when he's being interviewed. Nigel and the cops, go back to the hostel together to find out that Patricia has been freshly murdered. It turns out that [[spoiler:Nigel's partner Valerie placed the phone call pretending to be Patricia]], and Nigel had actually killed Patricia before he went to the police station.]]

* ContinuityNod: When Poirot arrives at the hostel in Chapter 4, one of the students mentions that he got a man off the hook for the murder of a charwoman, which was the plot of ''Literature/MrsMcGintysDead''. In that same chapter Poirot tells a story of subtly suggesting to a client that it would not be a good idea for the client to murder his wife--that's short story "The Nemean Lion" from ''Literature/TheLaborsOfHercules''. Later he makes a random reference to Countess Vera Rossakoff, a character from "The Capture of Cerberus", another story from ''The Labors of Hercules''.

* TheAlcoholic: Mrs. Nicoletis is irrational and prone to mood swings. The reason why is revealed when the cops force open her cabinet and a bunch of liquor bottles spill out.

* DeadManWriting: Sir Arthur Stanley's will contains a letter to his lawyer Endicott in which Stanley recounts how Nigel murdered his mother, and how Sir Arthur made Nigel write a confession that would serve as Sir Arthur's "in the event of my death" letter.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: Poirot actually says "She knew too much" when explaining Celia's murder--Celia had found out that Nigel had changed his name and she also found out that Valerie had left the country with a false passport.
* NeverOneMurder: A frequent Christie trope. Mrs. Nicoletis, who owns the student hostel, is poisoned a little more than halfway through, and poor Patricia is bashed over the head and killed near the end.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Poirot is flabbergasted when Miss Lemon makes ''three'' mistakes in a letter.
* PhoneyCall: Nigel appears to have an ironclad alibi for Patricia's murder when Pat calls into the police station when he's being interviewed. Nigel, and the cops, go back to the hostel together to find out that Patricia has been freshly murdered. It turns out that Nigel's partner Valerie placed the phone call pretending to be Patricia, and Nigel had actually killed Patricia before he went to the police station.

* TheSociopath: In a letter to his lawyer, Nigel's late father describes his son as "one of those dangerous misfits who have neither conscience nor pity."

* StickyFingers: Played with, when it seems there's one of these at large in a student boarding house. Not only was Celia actually faking to get the attention of a psychiatry student she's in love with, but she was actually given the idea by a fellow lodger... who turns out to be the accomplice of a third resident who is a smuggler and used Celia's faked condition to disguise the creeping around he had to do in the course of his activities.

* YearX: A pretty weird example since there was no need to not be precise. But Nigel's confession to the murder of his mother dates the crime to "November 18, 195--."

Literature/HerculePoirot notices that his secretary Miss Lemon, usually machine-like in her precision, made three, count 'em, three mistakes in the letter she typed for him. When he asks Miss Lemon about this she explains that she's worried about her sister, Mrs. Hubbard, who supervises a student hostel in London. It seems that one of the residents in the hostel has been stealing various items, including a stethoscope, a backpack that was found cut to pieces, a cookbook, lightbulbs, a diamond ring later found in a bowl of soup, a makeup compact, and others.

''Hickory Dickory Dock'' is a 1955 mystery novel by Creator/AgathaChristie.

* HeKnewTooMuch: Poirot actually says "She knew too much" when explaining Celia's murder--Celia had found out that Nigel had changed his name and she also found out that Valerie had left the country with a false passport.