Major Themes
This is the first of the Poirot novels to reflect the pervasive gloom of the Second World War, and is also one of Christie’s most overtly political novels. Frank Carter is a British fascist and a representative of one set of political forces threatening Britain. Howard Raikes (although his direct politics are never stated) represents the competing force of communism. Alistair Blunt’s credentials as a champion of conservative reaction are made obvious throughout the text. Nevertheless, given the choice between setting free a murderer and expediently allowing an unpleasant but innocent man go to the gallows, Poirot (with marked reluctance) saves Carter. The fact that throughout the novel Poirot has striven for the truth on behalf, principally, of an insignificant victim, a dentist, shows Christie’s sensitivity to the lives of ordinary people in time of war.
Read more about this topic: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (novel)
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—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)