Tuesday

Hercule Poirot's Christmas - Book Review




I am reading through the novels of Agatha Christie in the order in which they were written and writing a review on each one.








Hercule Poirot's Christmas


1938


Description


It is Christmas Eve. The Lee family reunion is shattered by a deafening crash of furniture, followed by a high-pitched wailing scream. Upstairs, the tyrannical Simeon Lee lies dead in a pool of blood, his throat slashed.

But when Hercule Poirot, who is staying in the village with a friend for Christmas, offers to assist, he finds an atmosphere not of mourning but of mutual suspicion. It seems everyone had their own reason to hate the old man…









My Thoughts


This is the 32nd book by Agatha Christie and the 19th Poirot Mystery


Another one of the Poirot murders that is hard to forget once you have read it because of the memorable incident of the death - hint but not quite a spoiler -the sounds!  


The title comes from the fact that it is Christmas time and Poirot is the detective of the story but otherwise in my mind it is not really a unique descriptive title for this mystery, which does happen at Christmas time but could it have happened other than at Christmas?

If you have seen this one as the TV adaptation it must be noted that there are definite differences there to the actual novel Agatha Christie Wrote and again we must ask the question why. 
Why did they have to make those changes?

I love locked room mysteries and mysteries in a similar vein when we need to know how did the murderer get in? when did they get in? 
As is so much a part of Christie storytelling we also need to look for the misinformation and the twists in this one.

Another good murder to solve and of course Poirot is the best detective to do just that.
So we end up with an enjoyable read as we try to work it out along the way and if we read carefully we could solve it.

Agatha Christie is quoted as having said the following about this book and I have to say I imagine her laughing as she wrote the true words - 

‘You yearned for a “good violent murder with lots of blood”. So this is your special story – written for you.’


So another  "TIC"  from me.



If thinking of reading this book in the future why not pin this pic to go back to later.