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Hercule Poirot #20
Hercule Poirot's Christmas
In Hercule Poirot's Christmas, the holidays are anything but merry when a family reunion is marred by murder — and the notoriously fastidious investigator is quickly on the case. The wealthy Simeon Lee has demanded that all four of his sons — one faithful, one prodigal, one impecunious, one sensitive — and their wives return home for Christmas. But a heartwarming family holiday is not exactly what he has in mind. He bedevils each of his sons with barbed insults and finally announces that he is cutting off their allowances and changing his will. Poirot is called in the aftermath of Simeon Lee's announcement.
335 pages, Paperback
First published December 19, 1938
About the author
Agatha Christie
4,347 books66.5k followersAgatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.
Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.
Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 7,971 reviews
June 15, 2024
Someone's getting cozy-murdered during the most festive time of the year? Yes, sign me up! That should put me right in the holiday spirit.
Wizened patriarch Simeon Lee wants his family around him for Christmas. So he puts out the call, and his children all answer, coming from far and wide to gather for the holidays. But when he's brutally murdered, no one seems that upset. In fact, they all appear somewhat relieved to be rid of the old man and his tyrannical ways. But who among them actually did the deed? Well, Hercule Poirot will find out.
What a perfectly plotted locked-room mystery this turned out to be. Just about every time I read Agatha Christie, I stand in awe of her genius, and this time it's no different. This has all of her hallmarks: a small cast of characters, clues and red herrings galore, and a reveal that is sure to surprise the pants off any reader.
Speaking of the reveal, I didn't see it coming. And that's what I love about Agatha Christie. Until the actual moment when Poirot gathers everyone together and unveils his hand, I had no idea what was going on. Of course the clues were all there. And on top of which, I've read this book before, although the last time was a decade ago. Obviously, I haven't become a better armchair detective in the meantime.
Every time I pick up an Agatha Christie, I'm just filled with glee and anticipation. I know only goodness awaits me. Add in the festive atmosphere, and this one hits all the right notes for the perfect holiday whodunnit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
See also, my thoughts on:
Murder on the Orient Express
Death on the Nile
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
~~~~~~~~~~~~
✧ Connect with me ✧ Instagram ✧
Wizened patriarch Simeon Lee wants his family around him for Christmas. So he puts out the call, and his children all answer, coming from far and wide to gather for the holidays. But when he's brutally murdered, no one seems that upset. In fact, they all appear somewhat relieved to be rid of the old man and his tyrannical ways. But who among them actually did the deed? Well, Hercule Poirot will find out.
What a perfectly plotted locked-room mystery this turned out to be. Just about every time I read Agatha Christie, I stand in awe of her genius, and this time it's no different. This has all of her hallmarks: a small cast of characters, clues and red herrings galore, and a reveal that is sure to surprise the pants off any reader.
Speaking of the reveal, I didn't see it coming. And that's what I love about Agatha Christie. Until the actual moment when Poirot gathers everyone together and unveils his hand, I had no idea what was going on. Of course the clues were all there. And on top of which, I've read this book before, although the last time was a decade ago. Obviously, I haven't become a better armchair detective in the meantime.
Every time I pick up an Agatha Christie, I'm just filled with glee and anticipation. I know only goodness awaits me. Add in the festive atmosphere, and this one hits all the right notes for the perfect holiday whodunnit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
See also, my thoughts on:
Murder on the Orient Express
Death on the Nile
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
~~~~~~~~~~~~
✧ Connect with me ✧ Instagram ✧
December 10, 2020
Christie siempre es garantía. Una lectura ágil, entretenida, con un final inesperado. Todos los personajes, como siempre, posibles culpables hasta que Poirot descubre lo contrario.
December 14, 2019
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie is a 1938 publication.
A masterful Golden Age mystery!!
Simeon Lee, a difficult old man, blessed with wealth, but cursed with bad health, has invited his adult children home for the holidays. One might believe the old man has become sentimental and is hoping for a reconciliation and perhaps forgiveness from his family before he passes on.
However, that doesn’t appear to be the case. It would seem that Lee, the host of this less than cheerful gathering, is playing some dastardly tricks on the people who hope to inherit his fortune.
Unfortunately, his game backfires horribly, leaving investigators with a house full of suspects and a puzzling locked room mystery on their hands. Thankfully, Hercule Poirot has kindly offered his assistance in solving the case.
"Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?"
When I was younger, if I were to grab an Agatha Christie novel, for some reason, I always chose a Miss Marple mystery.
But, over the years Hercule Poirot became my favorite of Christie’s detectives. However, there are still many books in this series I have yet to read- and this was one of them.
While I understand that some aficionados have suggested it might be wise to read ‘Three Act Tragedy’ or ('Murder in Three Acts"), before reading this one, but I wanted to read a holiday themed mystery so I skipped way ahead. ( I honestly don’t think it really matters what order you read them in- but purists will be purists-😁😁 - and I'm just in this for the fun- so... )
Christie’s trademark twists kept me on my toes in this solid whodunit/locked room mystery!!
I didn’t figure out who the murderer was and loved the clever red herrings Christie used. I also enjoyed her tongue in cheek humor, poking fun at her own tendency to avoid too much graphic violence and her slight sarcasm about ‘locked room�� mysteries, carefully avoiding any insult to the reader’s intelligence.
Although I thought Poirot was maybe a bit subdued in this installment, I can’t think of a better way to wind up my 2019 holiday reading than with a solid Golden Age mystery written by the queen of crime herself!
4 stars
A masterful Golden Age mystery!!
Simeon Lee, a difficult old man, blessed with wealth, but cursed with bad health, has invited his adult children home for the holidays. One might believe the old man has become sentimental and is hoping for a reconciliation and perhaps forgiveness from his family before he passes on.
However, that doesn’t appear to be the case. It would seem that Lee, the host of this less than cheerful gathering, is playing some dastardly tricks on the people who hope to inherit his fortune.
Unfortunately, his game backfires horribly, leaving investigators with a house full of suspects and a puzzling locked room mystery on their hands. Thankfully, Hercule Poirot has kindly offered his assistance in solving the case.
"Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?"
When I was younger, if I were to grab an Agatha Christie novel, for some reason, I always chose a Miss Marple mystery.
But, over the years Hercule Poirot became my favorite of Christie’s detectives. However, there are still many books in this series I have yet to read- and this was one of them.
While I understand that some aficionados have suggested it might be wise to read ‘Three Act Tragedy’ or ('Murder in Three Acts"), before reading this one, but I wanted to read a holiday themed mystery so I skipped way ahead. ( I honestly don’t think it really matters what order you read them in- but purists will be purists-😁😁 - and I'm just in this for the fun- so... )
Christie’s trademark twists kept me on my toes in this solid whodunit/locked room mystery!!
I didn’t figure out who the murderer was and loved the clever red herrings Christie used. I also enjoyed her tongue in cheek humor, poking fun at her own tendency to avoid too much graphic violence and her slight sarcasm about ‘locked room�� mysteries, carefully avoiding any insult to the reader’s intelligence.
Although I thought Poirot was maybe a bit subdued in this installment, I can’t think of a better way to wind up my 2019 holiday reading than with a solid Golden Age mystery written by the queen of crime herself!
4 stars
December 25, 2023
A Hercule Poirot story dealing with Christmas during the Christmas time is the perfect way to celebrate the Christmas season for book lovers.
A Hercule Poirot story dealing with Christmas during the Christmas time is the perfect way to celebrate the Christmas season for book lovers.
Christie tells us the story of the wealthy person, Simon Lee. He was found murdered one day, along with some precious diamonds missing. Simon was having a peculiar type of personality
Everyone in his family comes together to celebrate Christmas. Instead of trying to stay happy, Simon is more interested in insulting his sons. He also said that he is planning to write a new will.
I am a person who loves to predict the ending when I start reading a murder mystery. Agatha Christie is an author who always tricked me with her red herrings and writing style in predicting the murderer or the primary culprits in her stories. I am glad that I was able to predict the murderer correctly in the initial part of this book itself. It is mainly because the author gives some real clues at the start itself if you try to read between the lines in the initial part of this book more carefully.
Poirot is brilliantly using some information from Medicine in this book (I can’t mention more about it here as it will be a big spoiler for those who haven’t read this book yet.) But Medicine is also a science of exceptions, and nobody should say with certainty what Poirot told as there are exceptions to what Poirot mentions in this book.
What I learned from this book
1) Why is the Christmas season special?
The Christmas season is one of the best seasons in the entire year. It is the time for celebration for most of us. The author gives some interesting views about Christmas in this book.
2) Lies
I remember reading about ten types of lies once in a book. They are the white lie, façades, ignoring the plain facts, deflecting, omission, stereotypes and clichés, groupthink, out-and-out lies, dismissal, and delusion. It is pretty easy to determine whether a person is lying if we closely examine their body language. The way their eyes move, the body movements, heart rate, and everything related to the body will be different when a person is lying
3) What makes Agatha Christie’s books unique?
There are some unwritten golden rules that murder mysteries or thrillers should follow. It is Agatha Christie herself who indirectly mentioned a few of these rules. In this book, we can see Poirot mentioning one among them. It is about coincidence which Poirot mentions here.
The authors should try not to include the luck factor or coincidence favoring the protagonist or the villain more than once in their story. It is said that the authors bring these coincidences and luck factors into their books when they face writer’s block due to their inability to convey or carry forward the story in a convincing manner.
I have written about the authors waywardly using coincidences in a few of my reviews earlier. (You can read more about this in what could have been better section of this review for the book, No exit)
My favourite three lines from this book
What could have been better?
In this book, Agatha Christie says some controversial things through Poirot’s character about Christmas. I can’t fully agree with what she mentions in this book.
I think the author should have used better and less incisive words to convey what she wanted to tell in this novel. Poirot is saying that the British are sentimental about Christmas, which is why they don’t like what he mentioned about Christmas. The answer is that it is not just British, but all of us are sentimental about Christmas, and the author should learn to convey meaning without hurting the sentiments of the readers, This book was published almost a century ago, in 1938, and we can’t criticize it through our views of the 2020s. But still, I think the author should have done a better job here.
Rating
3.5/5 Despite its flaws, this is one of the best Agatha Christie books you can read in the Christmas season due to its theme.
—————————————————————————
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A Hercule Poirot story dealing with Christmas during the Christmas time is the perfect way to celebrate the Christmas season for book lovers.
Christie tells us the story of the wealthy person, Simon Lee. He was found murdered one day, along with some precious diamonds missing. Simon was having a peculiar type of personality
Everyone in his family comes together to celebrate Christmas. Instead of trying to stay happy, Simon is more interested in insulting his sons. He also said that he is planning to write a new will.
I am a person who loves to predict the ending when I start reading a murder mystery. Agatha Christie is an author who always tricked me with her red herrings and writing style in predicting the murderer or the primary culprits in her stories. I am glad that I was able to predict the murderer correctly in the initial part of this book itself. It is mainly because the author gives some real clues at the start itself if you try to read between the lines in the initial part of this book more carefully.
Poirot is brilliantly using some information from Medicine in this book (I can’t mention more about it here as it will be a big spoiler for those who haven’t read this book yet.) But Medicine is also a science of exceptions, and nobody should say with certainty what Poirot told as there are exceptions to what Poirot mentions in this book.
What I learned from this book
1) Why is the Christmas season special?
The Christmas season is one of the best seasons in the entire year. It is the time for celebration for most of us. The author gives some interesting views about Christmas in this book.
“But Christmas, you’ll remember, is the season of forgiveness! We’ll welcome the prodigal home.
Ah, but bygones must be bygones. That’s the spirit for Christmas, isn’t it, Lydia?”
2) Lies
I remember reading about ten types of lies once in a book. They are the white lie, façades, ignoring the plain facts, deflecting, omission, stereotypes and clichés, groupthink, out-and-out lies, dismissal, and delusion. It is pretty easy to determine whether a person is lying if we closely examine their body language. The way their eyes move, the body movements, heart rate, and everything related to the body will be different when a person is lying
“Everyone lies—in parts like the egg of the English curate. It is profitable to separate the harmless lies from the vital ones.”
3) What makes Agatha Christie’s books unique?
There are some unwritten golden rules that murder mysteries or thrillers should follow. It is Agatha Christie herself who indirectly mentioned a few of these rules. In this book, we can see Poirot mentioning one among them. It is about coincidence which Poirot mentions here.
The authors should try not to include the luck factor or coincidence favoring the protagonist or the villain more than once in their story. It is said that the authors bring these coincidences and luck factors into their books when they face writer’s block due to their inability to convey or carry forward the story in a convincing manner.
I have written about the authors waywardly using coincidences in a few of my reviews earlier. (You can read more about this in what could have been better section of this review for the book, No exit)
“Poirot said: ‘That is quite possible. I am always prepared to admit one coincidence.”
My favourite three lines from this book
“I believe the present matters --- not the past! The past muust go. If we seek to keep the past alive, we end, I think, by distorting it. We see it in exaggerated terms --- a false perspective.”
“Marriage is an extraordinary thing—and I doubt if any outsider—even a child of the marriage—has the right to judge”
“It is the quietest and meekest people who are often capable of the most sudden and unexpected violences for the reason that when their control does snap, it goes entirely.”
What could have been better?
In this book, Agatha Christie says some controversial things through Poirot’s character about Christmas. I can’t fully agree with what she mentions in this book.
“You have said that Christmas is a season of good cheer. That means, does it not, a lot of eating and drinking? It means, in fact, the over eating! And with the overeating there comes the indigestion! And with the indigestion there comes the irritability!
And families now, families who have been separated throughout the year, assemble once more together. Now under these conditions, my friend, you must admit that there will occur a great amount of strain. People who do not feel amiable are putting great pressure on themselves to appear amiable! There is at Christmas time a great deal of hypocrisy, honorable hypocrisy, hypocrisy undertaken pour le bon motif, c’est entendu, but nevertheless hypocrisy!
I am pointing out to you that under these conditions—mental strain, physical malaise—it is highly probable that dislikes that were before merely mild and disagreements that were trivial might suddenly assume a more serious character. The result of pretending to be a more amiable, a more forgiving, a more high‐minded person than one really is, has sooner or later the effect of causing one to behave as a more disagreeable, a more ruthless and an altogether more unpleasant person than is actually the case! If you dam the stream of natural behavior, mon ami, sooner or later the dam bursts and a cataclysm occurs!”
I think the author should have used better and less incisive words to convey what she wanted to tell in this novel. Poirot is saying that the British are sentimental about Christmas, which is why they don’t like what he mentioned about Christmas. The answer is that it is not just British, but all of us are sentimental about Christmas, and the author should learn to convey meaning without hurting the sentiments of the readers, This book was published almost a century ago, in 1938, and we can’t criticize it through our views of the 2020s. But still, I think the author should have done a better job here.
Rating
3.5/5 Despite its flaws, this is one of the best Agatha Christie books you can read in the Christmas season due to its theme.
—————————————————————————
You can also follow me on
Instagram ID - Dasfill | YouTube Channel ID - Dasfill | YouTube Health Channel ID - Dasfill - Health | YouTube Malayalam Channel ID - Dasfill - Malayalam | Threads ID - Dasfill | X ID - Dasfill1 | Snapchat ID - Dasfill | Facebook ID - Dasfill | TikTok ID - Dasfill1
December 30, 2020
I haven't read much Agatha Christie but thoroughly enjoyed this. The mystery starts on Christmas Eve and stretches over the Christmas season; however, it's not exactly festive so I don't think you'd have to save reading this for December!
As with her other books, it's really fast-paced and dialogue-heavy. All backstories and evidence come from the mouths of characters, as opposed to an omnipresent narrator, which means you can't quite be sure of anything (even right at the very beginning where Lydia acts an expository character and gives the family backstory through dialogue).
Loads of twists and turns, each one more unexpected than the last.
As with her other books, it's really fast-paced and dialogue-heavy. All backstories and evidence come from the mouths of characters, as opposed to an omnipresent narrator, which means you can't quite be sure of anything (even right at the very beginning where Lydia acts an expository character and gives the family backstory through dialogue).
Loads of twists and turns, each one more unexpected than the last.
February 19, 2022
Hercule Poirot, book #20 was written in response to fans criticising Agatha Christie's lack of the use of gore, violence and blood, and it's a cracker. This when first read was one of my fave Poirot cases, featuring a 'locked room' murder scenario at a family reunion, at the home of a hard-boiled entrepreneurial millionaire.
As ever it's Poirot who has to join the dots to attempt to solve the case. I feel that in this case Christie's fleshing out of the characters/suspects works really well. 7.5 out of 12.
2013 read
As ever it's Poirot who has to join the dots to attempt to solve the case. I feel that in this case Christie's fleshing out of the characters/suspects works really well. 7.5 out of 12.
2013 read
June 19, 2024
Hercule Poirot's Christmas is a detective novel, written in 1938 by the so-called "Queen of Crime", Agatha Christie. It is the 20th book in the canon of 45 featuring the diminutive Belgian detective whom she invented. If you tend to lose track as to which Poirot novels you have read, it may be helpful to note that Hercule Poirot's Christmas was published in the USA a year later, under the title "Murder for Christmas", and again underwent a change of title in 1947; a paperback version then being entitled "A Holiday for Murder".
Agatha Christie was well into her stride by now, and this is a fairly typical mystery for her, of the locked room variety. In the introduction she states that she had been asked to write "a good violent murder with lots of blood", since her readers at that time felt that the murders in her novels were getting too refined and abstract. There is certainly a lot of blood in this one, although the story itself is still more of a jigsaw puzzle (to use an analogy made by one of the characters) than anything else, and the copious amount of blood
It also feels ... a little tired. There is no life to Hercule Poirot himself - no depth, or even lively characterisation. In the early novels, which feature his good friend Captain Hastings, there is a dynamism about such a chalk and cheese relationship. We watch gleefully as Poirot uses Hastings as his sounding board, and frequently - inadvertently - as his straight man. In these Poirot speaks English only in a rudimentary fashion, and does not appear to care how his intellectual arrogance appears to strangers. We constantly see his gaffes smoothed over by the genial Hastings. By the time of Hercule Poirot's Christmas though, Poirot comes across merely as a mouthpiece for certain theories or ideas, or as one critic at the time put it, as a "colourless expert".
The story is set in a country house, the home of the elderly Simeon Lee, a multi-millionaire who has amassed his fortune by means of a ruthless business empire. Hated by nearly all the members of his family for his selfishness and cruelty, this eccentric patriarch has unexpectedly invited each of them to a family gathering at his home for Christmas. Most of the family have not been on good terms with each other for many years. They are therefore both uneasy about Simeon Lee's motives, and also suspicious of their fellow guests.
We are introduced to each of the three sons and their wives in turn. There are Alfred and Lydia Lee, George and Magdalen Lee, and David and Hilda Lee. All six are poles apart in terms of what they want out of life, and most have a history of spiteful or petty attitudes. All they seem to have in common is what they see as their unfair treatment by their father. They are then all equally shocked by the invitation of a fourth son, Harry. We gather that Harry is in disgrace, and had been banished from the family for some time. Another surprise for everybody is the arrival of Simeon's granddaughter, Pilar Estravados, whom nobody has ever met before.
It is quite clear that Simeon Lee relishes the prospect of playing a sadistic game with his family's emotions, and that any idea of reconciliation could not be further from his mind. The guests keep arriving. Tresillian the butler (a doddery character with a welcome smattering of humour) is confused by a further unexpected guest. Stephen Farr, the son of Simeon Lee's former partner in the diamond mines, turns up on the doorstep. By the middle of the book we see that every single character is uneasily walking on tiptoe round the others, and apparently in dread of whatever Simeon Lee has up his sleeve.
We see here some of Agatha Christie's favourite themes. There is a family who are all at loggerheads with each other, trapped together in a mansion for a short but finite space of time. There are heightened emotions very near the surface: jealousy, resentment, ambition and avarice, all held by a group of suspects many of whom are keen to conceal their past. The whole is well set up for the murder, which occurs halfway through the book, our favourite detective only entering at that point. We are aware of several questions. Who killed the victim? How were they killed inside a locked room?
Hercule Poirot then proceeds to prove point by point that each of the family had not only a good motive for killing the victim, but also ample opportunity. There is confrontation, and a surprise denouement where the murderer proves to be the person least suspected, followed by a closing scene, where the reader is told what happens to each of the characters. It's all a bit ... ho hum.
A quotation from "Macbeth",
"Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?"
appears as an epigram at the start of the novel. It is then used by one of the characters on discovering the corpse, and repeated several times more during the course of the novel. It is almost as if Agatha Christie has taken this a motif, and worked a plot - a procedural mystery using her regular pattern - around it. In this kind of detective novel, the interest lies almost entirely with the ability to accurately and logically deduce the answer from recorded facts, within a drama played out by characters we recognise as believable human beings. The fewer elements of luck or coincidence employed the better. This mystery contains rather too many.
It has to be said though, that the actual device for the murder itself is ingenious - both devious and clever. The scene is dramatic, with the so that the reader is unlikely to guess correctly. As one critic said,
"Agatha Christie once more abandonedly dangles the murderer before our eyes and successfully defies us to see him."
If read in tandem with the actual dates over Christmas, Hercule Poirot's Christmas is quite an undemanding and entertaining Christmas read. Interestingly, this novel has exactly the same premise as its immediate predecessor, "Appointment with Death", in that Agatha Christie was also to use this theme again in "Crooked House (1949) and "Ordeal by Innocence" (1958).
However I do feel that the Dame cheated somewhat. It is not merely that she broke one of the major rules of detective writing, in her choice of perpetrator. After all she had done that before (in a different way) quite brilliantly with her early novel "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd". But here she has Surely that is excessive and unbelievable.
"There is something here - some violence..." He stopped a minute, then went on: "Yes that is it - violence...And blood - an insistence on blood...There is - how shall I put it? - there is too much blood. Blood on the chairs, on the tables, on the carpet...The blood ritual? Sacrificial blood? Is that it?"
Agatha Christie was well into her stride by now, and this is a fairly typical mystery for her, of the locked room variety. In the introduction she states that she had been asked to write "a good violent murder with lots of blood", since her readers at that time felt that the murders in her novels were getting too refined and abstract. There is certainly a lot of blood in this one, although the story itself is still more of a jigsaw puzzle (to use an analogy made by one of the characters) than anything else, and the copious amount of blood
It also feels ... a little tired. There is no life to Hercule Poirot himself - no depth, or even lively characterisation. In the early novels, which feature his good friend Captain Hastings, there is a dynamism about such a chalk and cheese relationship. We watch gleefully as Poirot uses Hastings as his sounding board, and frequently - inadvertently - as his straight man. In these Poirot speaks English only in a rudimentary fashion, and does not appear to care how his intellectual arrogance appears to strangers. We constantly see his gaffes smoothed over by the genial Hastings. By the time of Hercule Poirot's Christmas though, Poirot comes across merely as a mouthpiece for certain theories or ideas, or as one critic at the time put it, as a "colourless expert".
The story is set in a country house, the home of the elderly Simeon Lee, a multi-millionaire who has amassed his fortune by means of a ruthless business empire. Hated by nearly all the members of his family for his selfishness and cruelty, this eccentric patriarch has unexpectedly invited each of them to a family gathering at his home for Christmas. Most of the family have not been on good terms with each other for many years. They are therefore both uneasy about Simeon Lee's motives, and also suspicious of their fellow guests.
We are introduced to each of the three sons and their wives in turn. There are Alfred and Lydia Lee, George and Magdalen Lee, and David and Hilda Lee. All six are poles apart in terms of what they want out of life, and most have a history of spiteful or petty attitudes. All they seem to have in common is what they see as their unfair treatment by their father. They are then all equally shocked by the invitation of a fourth son, Harry. We gather that Harry is in disgrace, and had been banished from the family for some time. Another surprise for everybody is the arrival of Simeon's granddaughter, Pilar Estravados, whom nobody has ever met before.
It is quite clear that Simeon Lee relishes the prospect of playing a sadistic game with his family's emotions, and that any idea of reconciliation could not be further from his mind. The guests keep arriving. Tresillian the butler (a doddery character with a welcome smattering of humour) is confused by a further unexpected guest. Stephen Farr, the son of Simeon Lee's former partner in the diamond mines, turns up on the doorstep. By the middle of the book we see that every single character is uneasily walking on tiptoe round the others, and apparently in dread of whatever Simeon Lee has up his sleeve.
We see here some of Agatha Christie's favourite themes. There is a family who are all at loggerheads with each other, trapped together in a mansion for a short but finite space of time. There are heightened emotions very near the surface: jealousy, resentment, ambition and avarice, all held by a group of suspects many of whom are keen to conceal their past. The whole is well set up for the murder, which occurs halfway through the book, our favourite detective only entering at that point. We are aware of several questions. Who killed the victim? How were they killed inside a locked room?
Hercule Poirot then proceeds to prove point by point that each of the family had not only a good motive for killing the victim, but also ample opportunity. There is confrontation, and a surprise denouement where the murderer proves to be the person least suspected, followed by a closing scene, where the reader is told what happens to each of the characters. It's all a bit ... ho hum.
A quotation from "Macbeth",
"Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?"
appears as an epigram at the start of the novel. It is then used by one of the characters on discovering the corpse, and repeated several times more during the course of the novel. It is almost as if Agatha Christie has taken this a motif, and worked a plot - a procedural mystery using her regular pattern - around it. In this kind of detective novel, the interest lies almost entirely with the ability to accurately and logically deduce the answer from recorded facts, within a drama played out by characters we recognise as believable human beings. The fewer elements of luck or coincidence employed the better. This mystery contains rather too many.
It has to be said though, that the actual device for the murder itself is ingenious - both devious and clever. The scene is dramatic, with the so that the reader is unlikely to guess correctly. As one critic said,
"Agatha Christie once more abandonedly dangles the murderer before our eyes and successfully defies us to see him."
If read in tandem with the actual dates over Christmas, Hercule Poirot's Christmas is quite an undemanding and entertaining Christmas read. Interestingly, this novel has exactly the same premise as its immediate predecessor, "Appointment with Death", in that Agatha Christie was also to use this theme again in "Crooked House (1949) and "Ordeal by Innocence" (1958).
However I do feel that the Dame cheated somewhat. It is not merely that she broke one of the major rules of detective writing, in her choice of perpetrator. After all she had done that before (in a different way) quite brilliantly with her early novel "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd". But here she has Surely that is excessive and unbelievable.
"There is something here - some violence..." He stopped a minute, then went on: "Yes that is it - violence...And blood - an insistence on blood...There is - how shall I put it? - there is too much blood. Blood on the chairs, on the tables, on the carpet...The blood ritual? Sacrificial blood? Is that it?"
December 29, 2022
Not especially Christmas-y. <--for those of you looking for a seasonal read
The gist is that Poirot is staying with his friend Colonel Johnson during the holiday. As they discuss the particulars of a case they were both involved with (Three Act Tragedy), a knock sounds on the door.
What can it be other than news of a brand new murder just asking to be solved?!
A nasty (but rich!) old coot has just been found dead in his study.
There are signs of a struggle, but it's really the fact that his throat had been slit that impresses upon the local police that he probably didn't die peacefully in his sleep.
Whodunnit?
Well, due to his sadistic personality, almost everyone in the house would have gleefully stabbed him through the eye just for the sheer joy of it.
Unfortunately, he had just called them in for a meeting, told them they were all useless pussies, and announced that he would be changing his will to...what? Disinherit them? Give all his money to a charity for orphaned cats? He didn't say.
But his family knew him well enough to assume it meant nothing good for them.
To top it all off, he had just spoken with a local police officer hours before his death about his suspicions that someone in the house had stolen some uncut diamonds from his safe.
So. With so many suspects under one roof, it's up to Poirot to unravel the mystery of the life and death of a terrible human being.
That said, I love it when you aren't at all sad that someone got murdered. It makes it more fun (for me) to read about the mystery when you are almost rooting for the murderer a little.
Recommended!
The gist is that Poirot is staying with his friend Colonel Johnson during the holiday. As they discuss the particulars of a case they were both involved with (Three Act Tragedy), a knock sounds on the door.
What can it be other than news of a brand new murder just asking to be solved?!
A nasty (but rich!) old coot has just been found dead in his study.
There are signs of a struggle, but it's really the fact that his throat had been slit that impresses upon the local police that he probably didn't die peacefully in his sleep.
Whodunnit?
Well, due to his sadistic personality, almost everyone in the house would have gleefully stabbed him through the eye just for the sheer joy of it.
Unfortunately, he had just called them in for a meeting, told them they were all useless pussies, and announced that he would be changing his will to...what? Disinherit them? Give all his money to a charity for orphaned cats? He didn't say.
But his family knew him well enough to assume it meant nothing good for them.
To top it all off, he had just spoken with a local police officer hours before his death about his suspicions that someone in the house had stolen some uncut diamonds from his safe.
So. With so many suspects under one roof, it's up to Poirot to unravel the mystery of the life and death of a terrible human being.
That said, I love it when you aren't at all sad that someone got murdered. It makes it more fun (for me) to read about the mystery when you are almost rooting for the murderer a little.
Recommended!
December 19, 2016
Feeling bloody christmasy.
*evil laughter*
*embarrassing silence*
*evil laughter*
*embarrassing silence*
January 8, 2022
Agatha Christie Book Reading Challenge
BOOK 25 :- DEC 2020
4.25 STARS
BOOK 25 :- DEC 2020
4.25 STARS
June 21, 2023
Simeon Lee ist ein Familientyrann. An Weihnachten überrascht er seine Familie damit, dass er ein großes Familienfest feiern möchte. Er lädt alle seine Kinder zu Weihnachten zu sich ein. Doch die Idylle trügt; es kommt zu Beleidigungen und Streitigkeiten. Doch dann ist Simeon plötzlich tot - ermordet! Ein Motiv hatte beinahe jeder aus der Familie. Hercule Poirot schaltet sich ein...
**
Mein Leseeindruck:
Schon vor Jahren habe ich die Kriminalromane von Agatha Christie mit Begeisterung gelesen. Jetzt war es für mich mal wieder an der Zeit, mir ihre Lektüre vorzunehmen.
"Hercule Poirots Weihnachten" hat mich wieder überzeugt. Ich habe das Buch innerhalb eines Tages gelesen, da es so spannend geschrieben ist. Es ist ein klassischer Detektiv-Roman. Der Fall des ermordeten Simeon wird von allen Seiten beleuchtet, alle Verdächtigen werden unter die Lupe genommen. Ich mag das sehr gerne und habe das Lesen des Buches sehr genossen!
**
Mein Leseeindruck:
Schon vor Jahren habe ich die Kriminalromane von Agatha Christie mit Begeisterung gelesen. Jetzt war es für mich mal wieder an der Zeit, mir ihre Lektüre vorzunehmen.
"Hercule Poirots Weihnachten" hat mich wieder überzeugt. Ich habe das Buch innerhalb eines Tages gelesen, da es so spannend geschrieben ist. Es ist ein klassischer Detektiv-Roman. Der Fall des ermordeten Simeon wird von allen Seiten beleuchtet, alle Verdächtigen werden unter die Lupe genommen. Ich mag das sehr gerne und habe das Lesen des Buches sehr genossen!
December 10, 2021
Audible credit Narrated by: Hugh Fraser
Series: Hercule Poirot, Book 20
Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
Enjoyed this narrator! One of his accents was a little heavy, but I adjusted to it.
A locked room murder! A family reunion at the mansion of Simeon Lee. He is a cantankerous old guy, a bit of a scrooge and has some revenge in his blood.
Maybe an unexpected guest?
As per Christie, we have interesting characters, red herrings scattered throughout, and Hercule doing his thing as he interviews family and staff. I couldn't figure it out, but it was a fun ride.
In the end, everything fits.... the culprit is caught and Poirot has done it again!
Read December 2021
April 5, 2024
2024 Lunchtime Listen
A wonderful lunchtime listen read by the magic Hugh Fraser and I think now fully deserving of 5 stars.
Synopsis is below, so I wont dwell on that further, just to say Agatha was really good at setting up situations and this is a great one.
2019/20 group Series Read
Well, I was meant to read this in the run up to Christmas, but my reading tailed off as we got nearer Christmas, due to the necessity of fetching family members from stations and airports, and so Poirot's Christmas was rescheduled to the New Year :-)
In the end despite the delay, it was a very enjoyable read. I have at the moment given it 4 stars but I am deliberating on whether that should be 5 stars.
Sometimes in Poirot's books the clues that Poirot follows are deeply buried and I often miss them, but in this book I picked up the clues as I read and whilst I didn't come to the same conclusion as Poirot , I hadn't even come to any conclusion, I could see given what I'd read how he got to his conclusion.
For those who haven't read this book, it centres on an ageing father who invites all his family back for Christmas. Being an evil s-o-b he winds them all up just for fun. The adventurous brother, the artistic sensitive brother, the stay at home yes-man brother and the pompous brother, along with their wives, the daughter of the dead sister, and the son of a family friend all converge on an English family mansion to celebrate Christmas. Needless to say, after accidentally letting his family hear him setting up a will altering meeting with his solicitor, he is found horrifically murdered in a locked room with the key on the inside.
Poirot is spending time locally with his friend the Chief Constable, when the murder occurs, and is called in to help the local Superintendent. So through Christmas he supports the local police in solving the murder
You know the more I think about it, the more this really has to be 5 stars.
A wonderful lunchtime listen read by the magic Hugh Fraser and I think now fully deserving of 5 stars.
Synopsis is below, so I wont dwell on that further, just to say Agatha was really good at setting up situations and this is a great one.
2019/20 group Series Read
Well, I was meant to read this in the run up to Christmas, but my reading tailed off as we got nearer Christmas, due to the necessity of fetching family members from stations and airports, and so Poirot's Christmas was rescheduled to the New Year :-)
In the end despite the delay, it was a very enjoyable read. I have at the moment given it 4 stars but I am deliberating on whether that should be 5 stars.
Sometimes in Poirot's books the clues that Poirot follows are deeply buried and I often miss them, but in this book I picked up the clues as I read and whilst I didn't come to the same conclusion as Poirot , I hadn't even come to any conclusion, I could see given what I'd read how he got to his conclusion.
For those who haven't read this book, it centres on an ageing father who invites all his family back for Christmas. Being an evil s-o-b he winds them all up just for fun. The adventurous brother, the artistic sensitive brother, the stay at home yes-man brother and the pompous brother, along with their wives, the daughter of the dead sister, and the son of a family friend all converge on an English family mansion to celebrate Christmas. Needless to say, after accidentally letting his family hear him setting up a will altering meeting with his solicitor, he is found horrifically murdered in a locked room with the key on the inside.
Poirot is spending time locally with his friend the Chief Constable, when the murder occurs, and is called in to help the local Superintendent. So through Christmas he supports the local police in solving the murder
You know the more I think about it, the more this really has to be 5 stars.
August 11, 2020
This is one of these Agatha Christie books where the Dame had not yet been out of ideas. No wonder I rated this novel 5 stars. I read Hercule Poirot's Christmas in French, and the translation by Louis Postif was delightful.
This is a locked room murder where a wealthy patriarch dies in gruesome circumstances. There isn't a lack of suspects or red herrings. The author kept her cards close to her chest and surprised us readers since this book has been published.
Personally I rate this book very high among Christie's books. All of the very best are classics. This one is better written than The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and may be on par with Murder on the Orient Express. I fully recommend it and hope you find some pleasure in it, in English or some other medium.
This is a locked room murder where a wealthy patriarch dies in gruesome circumstances. There isn't a lack of suspects or red herrings. The author kept her cards close to her chest and surprised us readers since this book has been published.
Personally I rate this book very high among Christie's books. All of the very best are classics. This one is better written than The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and may be on par with Murder on the Orient Express. I fully recommend it and hope you find some pleasure in it, in English or some other medium.
December 31, 2022
In a series where I try to solve the murders in Agatha Christie's books, I decide to tackle Hercule Poirot's Christmas on Christmas Eve to see if I can figure out the whodunit: https://youtu.be/E9frvo1pWYQ
December 23, 2021
Always good for a seasonal rereading!
February 3, 2024
Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie is A Hercule Poirot Mystery #20!
I do hope it's not too late to review this little murder mystery read right after Christmas. I almost forgot to squeeze in an A.C. Mystery for the month and think it's a perfect choice for the last month of the year!
Aging patriarch Simeon Lee calls his family home for a Christmas reunion and on Christmas Eve, he delights in getting them all fired up against each other. What a guy!
Later that night, after a loud crash and a blood-curdling scream are heard coming from upstairs, Simeon is discovered viciously murdered in a room locked from the inside...
Thus begins an interesting 'locked room' murder mystery where everyone has a reason, all seem guilty, none are upset, each suspicious of the others, and all wondering who murdered dear old Dad.
As luck would have it, Hercule Poirot is staying nearby with a friend and is called in to help with the investigation. Poirot puts the impossible puzzle pieces together and, boy-oh-boy, was I ever surprised whodunit!
Hercule Poirot's Christmas audiobook is narrated by Hugh Fraser who, once again, does a stellar narrative and voicing performance.
I love how Agatha Christie uses the "British-Speak" so cleverly in her novels. The players all seem to understand each other even though, at times, I have absolutely no idea what they're saying but it's just so bloody entertaining. Once again, Hercule Poirot's Christmas is highly recommended!
4⭐
Originally published on December 19, 1938, Hercule Poirot's Christmas was previously titled Murder for Christmas and A Holiday for Murder.
I do hope it's not too late to review this little murder mystery read right after Christmas. I almost forgot to squeeze in an A.C. Mystery for the month and think it's a perfect choice for the last month of the year!
Aging patriarch Simeon Lee calls his family home for a Christmas reunion and on Christmas Eve, he delights in getting them all fired up against each other. What a guy!
Later that night, after a loud crash and a blood-curdling scream are heard coming from upstairs, Simeon is discovered viciously murdered in a room locked from the inside...
Thus begins an interesting 'locked room' murder mystery where everyone has a reason, all seem guilty, none are upset, each suspicious of the others, and all wondering who murdered dear old Dad.
As luck would have it, Hercule Poirot is staying nearby with a friend and is called in to help with the investigation. Poirot puts the impossible puzzle pieces together and, boy-oh-boy, was I ever surprised whodunit!
Hercule Poirot's Christmas audiobook is narrated by Hugh Fraser who, once again, does a stellar narrative and voicing performance.
I love how Agatha Christie uses the "British-Speak" so cleverly in her novels. The players all seem to understand each other even though, at times, I have absolutely no idea what they're saying but it's just so bloody entertaining. Once again, Hercule Poirot's Christmas is highly recommended!
4⭐
Originally published on December 19, 1938, Hercule Poirot's Christmas was previously titled Murder for Christmas and A Holiday for Murder.
December 28, 2022
Book #5 Nephew chooses my December TBR
December 12, 2018
4+ Stars
Guess Who's Coming For Christmas?
The family's all been invited to Gorston Hall for Christmas and the devilish and domineering "old coot" Simeon Lee has a trick up his sleeve plus two surprise guests to wreak havoc and add to the fun until the big crash and then......the scream from the souls of hell......and then......
"Blood......so much blood......blood everywhere......fresh, wet, gleaming blood"......
Oh, this is a good one. Superintendent Sugden has his work cut out for him, but with the expertise of Hercule Poirot, they make quick work of the interviews to sleuth out the culprit.
Thank you Agatha Christie; adding this one to my favorites! Fast moving with a few good twists along the way!
July 12, 2022
Esta vez las células grises me sirvieron de algo.
En realidad 3.5★
Navidades trágicas sería casi lo mismo que el libro anterior que he leído de Agatha (Cita con la muerte). Comparten muchas características, en especial la de un tirano que es la cabeza de toda una familia que luego termina convirtiéndose en la víctima del caso y del que los principales sospechosos son los familiares. Y es que teniendo un padre como ese, que disfruta del caos, menospreciándolos, manipulándolos y haciéndolos enfrentarse lo más seguro es que tarde o temprano cualquiera de ellos quiso mover un dedo para quitárselo de encima, ¿o no? Lo importante es que fue en Navidad, justo cuando el viejo pudo reunir a todos sus hijos para estar juntos después de muchos años sin verse las caras. Quién diría que en una fecha muy especial surgiera tal tragedia.
Por un lado, está el hijo pródigo (Harry) que es rebelde y la oveja negra de la familia; el hijo que es siempre leal a su padre (Alfred); el que lo odia profundamente (David) y por último el hijo pusilánime (George). Cualquiera de ellos pudo ser, pero lo cierto es que ese día no eran los únicos en la mesa. Sus esposas, los mayordomos y algún invitado no planeado estaban allí, por lo que el abanico de sospechosos es grande.
En esta historia, al igual que en otras tantas, también hay un robo que puede o no estar conectado al asesinato. Y el crimen es en una habitación cerrada. Y por si fuera poco, hay varios detalles a los que si les pones la suficiente atención seguro que descubres hacia quién apuntan. En este caso pude descubrir al asesino y también cómo lo hizo siguiendo la lógica, así que me vi en la necesidad de felicitarme porque nadie más lo haría. Lo cual se siente como un verdadero logro cuando la reina del crimen y mi querido Poirot siempre me ven la cara cada vez que fallo estrepitosamente. Esta vez sí utilicé bien mis células grises por lo que me doy varias palmadas en la espalda como recompensa.
En realidad 3.5★
Navidades trágicas sería casi lo mismo que el libro anterior que he leído de Agatha (Cita con la muerte). Comparten muchas características, en especial la de un tirano que es la cabeza de toda una familia que luego termina convirtiéndose en la víctima del caso y del que los principales sospechosos son los familiares. Y es que teniendo un padre como ese, que disfruta del caos, menospreciándolos, manipulándolos y haciéndolos enfrentarse lo más seguro es que tarde o temprano cualquiera de ellos quiso mover un dedo para quitárselo de encima, ¿o no? Lo importante es que fue en Navidad, justo cuando el viejo pudo reunir a todos sus hijos para estar juntos después de muchos años sin verse las caras. Quién diría que en una fecha muy especial surgiera tal tragedia.
Por un lado, está el hijo pródigo (Harry) que es rebelde y la oveja negra de la familia; el hijo que es siempre leal a su padre (Alfred); el que lo odia profundamente (David) y por último el hijo pusilánime (George). Cualquiera de ellos pudo ser, pero lo cierto es que ese día no eran los únicos en la mesa. Sus esposas, los mayordomos y algún invitado no planeado estaban allí, por lo que el abanico de sospechosos es grande.
En esta historia, al igual que en otras tantas, también hay un robo que puede o no estar conectado al asesinato. Y el crimen es en una habitación cerrada. Y por si fuera poco, hay varios detalles a los que si les pones la suficiente atención seguro que descubres hacia quién apuntan. En este caso pude descubrir al asesino y también cómo lo hizo siguiendo la lógica, así que me vi en la necesidad de felicitarme porque nadie más lo haría. Lo cual se siente como un verdadero logro cuando la reina del crimen y mi querido Poirot siempre me ven la cara cada vez que fallo estrepitosamente. Esta vez sí utilicé bien mis células grises por lo que me doy varias palmadas en la espalda como recompensa.
December 13, 2022
This is one of the most ingenious plots in the Poirot series. At the 20th installment, Agatha Christie had still managed to keep up the sparkle of the series. Poirot, now; the little old Belgian detective is still in his supreme element.
The story is one which shows Poirot's brilliancy as a detective. His analytical mind and power of observation were the instruments that helped to uncover the mystery behind the murder and apprehend the criminal. This is one story that took me completely by surprise. The culprit was not even on my "suspects" list. I was in awe when the final revelation was made by Poirot in a rather grand manner. It was amazing. Christie really got me there.
This particular installment reminded me of the early ones in the series. Although some middle installments failed to live up to the earlier set standard, with this novel, Agatha Christie shows us, readers, that the queen of mystery is still full of brilliant ideas.
I really enjoyed this read. It is surely one of the best of Agatha Christie.
The story is one which shows Poirot's brilliancy as a detective. His analytical mind and power of observation were the instruments that helped to uncover the mystery behind the murder and apprehend the criminal. This is one story that took me completely by surprise. The culprit was not even on my "suspects" list. I was in awe when the final revelation was made by Poirot in a rather grand manner. It was amazing. Christie really got me there.
This particular installment reminded me of the early ones in the series. Although some middle installments failed to live up to the earlier set standard, with this novel, Agatha Christie shows us, readers, that the queen of mystery is still full of brilliant ideas.
I really enjoyed this read. It is surely one of the best of Agatha Christie.
April 30, 2020
Es el primer libro que leo de Agatha Christie con Hércules Poirot como el detective a cargo del caso, y reconozco que me ha tenido más enganchada que todo lo anterior que he leído de esta autora. Es mucho más ágil, coherente y con buenos personajes.
Me gustó muchísimo acompañar a Poirot en la resolución de este crimen y, sin alardear, no andaba tan desencaminada respecto de quién era el culpable. Estaba tan metida en la lectura que no pasé por alto algunas pistas que, en un principio, podrían parecer irrelevantes.
Lo recomiendo más que otros de sus libros más famosos (lo siento, pero Diez negritos me decepcionó mucho... quizá iba con demasiadas expectativas).
Reto #46 PopSugar 2020: Un libro de un autor que haya escrito más de 20 libros
Me gustó muchísimo acompañar a Poirot en la resolución de este crimen y, sin alardear, no andaba tan desencaminada respecto de quién era el culpable. Estaba tan metida en la lectura que no pasé por alto algunas pistas que, en un principio, podrían parecer irrelevantes.
Lo recomiendo más que otros de sus libros más famosos (lo siento, pero Diez negritos me decepcionó mucho... quizá iba con demasiadas expectativas).
Reto #46 PopSugar 2020: Un libro de un autor que haya escrito más de 20 libros
December 24, 2021
Entre 4 e 4.5
December 5, 2022
“It’s going to be a grand Christmas! All my children around me.”
Oh, you can bet it will be, Simeon, you old rich curmudgeon. Children, children, everywhere, and every one a suspect!
Suspected of what? Oh!, well, the epigraph, even before we meet him, is telling: “Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?” (Lady Macbeth) (should Christie have posted a spoiler alert prior to the quote?! Nah, once you meet this guy, you know he is goin' down.)
This book was written in part as a response to a letter to Christie from her brother-in-law James, who asked her for a “real murder” and no more of the “anemic” killings he had been reading recently from her: “A good violent murder with lots of blood.” James got his Christmas wish, and how. Some describe the scream at the moment of his throat being cut as “like a soul in hell,” or “like a stuck pig.” I certainly hope all the blood made James (not a vampire, wikipedia informs me) happy.
There’s the usual collection of suspected foreigners—A Frenchman, a South African, a Spanish beauty with “huge eyes,” and so on--but the focus is on a family home for the holidays forced to visit (supposedly) Dear and certainly Old and Rich Dad. Whom everyone hates, as it turns out, inheritance notwithstanding, and he hates them all in return, so there.
Simeon has a box full of uncut diamonds (worth thousands of pounds in 1938, now it would be millions?) he likes to sift through his fingers; that image plays out in this story in various ways.
It’s 1938, so at least two mentions are made that there is a war brewing, which is surprising for Ms. Christie, as she typically wants readers to escape the real world in her fictions. (Or she may have meant to set the action in WWI? It's not clear to me). This is one of those closed set murders where, as the constable notes, “one of ‘em did it, one of ‘em did it, but which?” As is typical, the grisly murder is seen by some as the work of a “lunatic” or a “madman” but that’s never the case, and isn’t here. But no, Agatha, I didn’t guess who it was. Merry Christmas, Dame Christie, if you are (ghostly) reading over my shoulder. This book is not one of your best ones; could have used a bit more Christmas and a little more subtlety, but it's generally not bad.
Oh, you can bet it will be, Simeon, you old rich curmudgeon. Children, children, everywhere, and every one a suspect!
Suspected of what? Oh!, well, the epigraph, even before we meet him, is telling: “Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?” (Lady Macbeth) (should Christie have posted a spoiler alert prior to the quote?! Nah, once you meet this guy, you know he is goin' down.)
This book was written in part as a response to a letter to Christie from her brother-in-law James, who asked her for a “real murder” and no more of the “anemic” killings he had been reading recently from her: “A good violent murder with lots of blood.” James got his Christmas wish, and how. Some describe the scream at the moment of his throat being cut as “like a soul in hell,” or “like a stuck pig.” I certainly hope all the blood made James (not a vampire, wikipedia informs me) happy.
There’s the usual collection of suspected foreigners—A Frenchman, a South African, a Spanish beauty with “huge eyes,” and so on--but the focus is on a family home for the holidays forced to visit (supposedly) Dear and certainly Old and Rich Dad. Whom everyone hates, as it turns out, inheritance notwithstanding, and he hates them all in return, so there.
Simeon has a box full of uncut diamonds (worth thousands of pounds in 1938, now it would be millions?) he likes to sift through his fingers; that image plays out in this story in various ways.
It’s 1938, so at least two mentions are made that there is a war brewing, which is surprising for Ms. Christie, as she typically wants readers to escape the real world in her fictions. (Or she may have meant to set the action in WWI? It's not clear to me). This is one of those closed set murders where, as the constable notes, “one of ‘em did it, one of ‘em did it, but which?” As is typical, the grisly murder is seen by some as the work of a “lunatic” or a “madman” but that’s never the case, and isn’t here. But no, Agatha, I didn’t guess who it was. Merry Christmas, Dame Christie, if you are (ghostly) reading over my shoulder. This book is not one of your best ones; could have used a bit more Christmas and a little more subtlety, but it's generally not bad.
December 12, 2019
Conniving, lecherous, vindictive self-server, cheating husband, verbally and emotionally abusive father, family tyrant --wealthy old Simeon Lee, by his own admission, is an impenitent liar and thief, described by one of his own sons as "the old devil." As a member of the human race, he doesn't have much to commend him, except for his money. But there's a LOT of that; he made his pile (probably shadily) in South Africa as a young man, prospecting for diamonds, and vastly added to it since by inventing and manufacturing improved mining equipment. Since he's now aged and pretty infirm, the idea of inheriting this fortune isn't exactly absent from the minds of the younger generation of his mostly estranged and not very loving (and unloved) family, all of whom he's now invited to gather for Christmas at his country mansion in England's Midlands. Sharing the joyous spirit of the holiday, however, isn't his motive. Rather, he just wants to amuse himself at their expense with malicious and sadistic head games, starting with the bombshell revelation that he's about to change his will. (And did I mention the cache of uncut diamonds that he keeps in his bedroom safe?)
This is, obviously, a mystery novel, and any readers who bother to read book dedications will know already that it's a murder mystery. Dame Agatha's beloved brother-in-law, though a faithful fan of hers, had bemoaned the fact that the murders in her previous novels had been too "civilized" and dainty as to methods; he wanted "a good violent murder with lots of blood," and she good-naturedly obliged him here, in spades, and dedicated the result to him. Nor are readers familiar with genre conventions going to need three guesses as to who the victim will be. Fortunately, though, series detective Hercules Poirot, who solved an earlier case in the area (Three Act Tragedy) is spending the holiday season with his friend, the chief constable of "Middleshire," so is available to assist with the investigation. It's one that will furnish his "little grey cells" (and probably those of most readers) with a real workout!
As a reader, I opened this book (which was a common read in one of my Goodreads groups) under what most mystery fans would say is a disadvantage: some years ago, I'd already seen the PBS Mystery! series adaptation of the novel, starring David Suchet as Poirot, so I knew in advance who the killer was. For me, this didn't spoil the read, since much of the pleasure was in experiencing Christie's telling of the story and admiring her artistry (then too, I'd forgotten many details of the plot and characterizations, and the PBS scriptwriters depart from the book in places). But I couldn't experience the story the way the first readers would, or enjoy trying to guess the solution. I believe, though, that this would be a real challenge; Christie did a superb job of hiding clues in plain sight and creating a seemingly insoluble puzzle. As is not uncommon in her novels, the list of suspects is finite; the scene of the murder is a country house with strictly limited ingress and egress, and the discovery of the body and arrival of the police almost immediate. The culprit has to be one of the inhabitants of the house, their guests, or their servants. But while the secret of the locked door actually yields itself up pretty quickly, the other pieces of physical and verbal evidence are mysterious and confusing in the extreme, and plausible suspects abound. This crime was uniquely ingenious, and solving it will require thinking that's way outside the box.
For some mystery fans (including myself), though, a tale needs more than a challenging mental puzzle to make it a truly pleasing read; genuinely rewarding literature is about people, their personalities, needs, motivations and choices, relationships. IMO, Christie measures up here on this level as well. True, Poirot's usual foil, Capt. Hastings, is absent in this book; some readers in my group missed him, and the pair's usual relationship. Also, while Chief Inspector Japp plays an important role in the PBS adaptation, and the Poirot-Japp interactions are actually some of the best parts there, he doesn't appear in the book at all. But Christie makes up for this with a wonderfully lifelike portrayal of all of the members of this dysfunctional family, every one of them a distinct and unique individual, and draws their interactions with a realism that brings them totally to life and has you, the reader, relating to them as people. (Had Christie left murder out of the plot, she'd probably have earned credit for creating a Realist masterpiece of family drama and dynamics; but Realist critical dogma defines crime as a plot element that can't occur in "normal life." Of course, real-life crime statistics would tend to belie that, but critical dogma isn't amenable to any kind of real-life evidence.) One reviewer felt that the portrayal of Poirot here, in comparison to novels Christie wrote earlier, lacks life, depth, and color. But with all due respect (and granting that I'm much less well read than she is in the Poirot canon, and that only three Poirot novels among those I've read were written before this one), my own perception is that Christie's portrayal of the character is actually pretty consistent from book to book, and that here he comes across very much as I would have expected him to. (Of course, I consistently picture him as David Suchet.... :-) )
Despite the backdrop of the Christmas season, this is not the sort of tale that would be typical holiday fare for, say, the Hallmark Channel; it's not a feel-good seasonal read. But neither does Christie succumb to cynicism. In virtually all of her writing, she exhibits a solid moral compass and an essential optimism about life and the working of the world, even in the face of a very real human capability for evil. (The other side of the coin is a very real capability for good, and for good to triumph....) For readers who share her literary vision, I don't think this book would disappoint.
This is, obviously, a mystery novel, and any readers who bother to read book dedications will know already that it's a murder mystery. Dame Agatha's beloved brother-in-law, though a faithful fan of hers, had bemoaned the fact that the murders in her previous novels had been too "civilized" and dainty as to methods; he wanted "a good violent murder with lots of blood," and she good-naturedly obliged him here, in spades, and dedicated the result to him. Nor are readers familiar with genre conventions going to need three guesses as to who the victim will be. Fortunately, though, series detective Hercules Poirot, who solved an earlier case in the area (Three Act Tragedy) is spending the holiday season with his friend, the chief constable of "Middleshire," so is available to assist with the investigation. It's one that will furnish his "little grey cells" (and probably those of most readers) with a real workout!
As a reader, I opened this book (which was a common read in one of my Goodreads groups) under what most mystery fans would say is a disadvantage: some years ago, I'd already seen the PBS Mystery! series adaptation of the novel, starring David Suchet as Poirot, so I knew in advance who the killer was. For me, this didn't spoil the read, since much of the pleasure was in experiencing Christie's telling of the story and admiring her artistry (then too, I'd forgotten many details of the plot and characterizations, and the PBS scriptwriters depart from the book in places). But I couldn't experience the story the way the first readers would, or enjoy trying to guess the solution. I believe, though, that this would be a real challenge; Christie did a superb job of hiding clues in plain sight and creating a seemingly insoluble puzzle. As is not uncommon in her novels, the list of suspects is finite; the scene of the murder is a country house with strictly limited ingress and egress, and the discovery of the body and arrival of the police almost immediate. The culprit has to be one of the inhabitants of the house, their guests, or their servants. But while the secret of the locked door actually yields itself up pretty quickly, the other pieces of physical and verbal evidence are mysterious and confusing in the extreme, and plausible suspects abound. This crime was uniquely ingenious, and solving it will require thinking that's way outside the box.
For some mystery fans (including myself), though, a tale needs more than a challenging mental puzzle to make it a truly pleasing read; genuinely rewarding literature is about people, their personalities, needs, motivations and choices, relationships. IMO, Christie measures up here on this level as well. True, Poirot's usual foil, Capt. Hastings, is absent in this book; some readers in my group missed him, and the pair's usual relationship. Also, while Chief Inspector Japp plays an important role in the PBS adaptation, and the Poirot-Japp interactions are actually some of the best parts there, he doesn't appear in the book at all. But Christie makes up for this with a wonderfully lifelike portrayal of all of the members of this dysfunctional family, every one of them a distinct and unique individual, and draws their interactions with a realism that brings them totally to life and has you, the reader, relating to them as people. (Had Christie left murder out of the plot, she'd probably have earned credit for creating a Realist masterpiece of family drama and dynamics; but Realist critical dogma defines crime as a plot element that can't occur in "normal life." Of course, real-life crime statistics would tend to belie that, but critical dogma isn't amenable to any kind of real-life evidence.) One reviewer felt that the portrayal of Poirot here, in comparison to novels Christie wrote earlier, lacks life, depth, and color. But with all due respect (and granting that I'm much less well read than she is in the Poirot canon, and that only three Poirot novels among those I've read were written before this one), my own perception is that Christie's portrayal of the character is actually pretty consistent from book to book, and that here he comes across very much as I would have expected him to. (Of course, I consistently picture him as David Suchet.... :-) )
Despite the backdrop of the Christmas season, this is not the sort of tale that would be typical holiday fare for, say, the Hallmark Channel; it's not a feel-good seasonal read. But neither does Christie succumb to cynicism. In virtually all of her writing, she exhibits a solid moral compass and an essential optimism about life and the working of the world, even in the face of a very real human capability for evil. (The other side of the coin is a very real capability for good, and for good to triumph....) For readers who share her literary vision, I don't think this book would disappoint.
December 4, 2023
4.5★
What a page turner!
It's just been too long since I have read a Christie & it had all the elements I look for - an unlikeable victim, a warring family who have reluctantly come together for the Festive Season, an English Manor, an Ancient Family Retainer - bliss!
I have read before but the only thing I remembered was Simeon's granddaughter Pilar. (& some of the Spanish clichés that Christie added really made me want to giggle!) From my own general knowledge
So, I was very proud to have spotted a few red herrings & ecstatic to have been completely fooled by whodunnit! This is what I read Christie for - & no one is better at twisting than she is.
For the Christmas phobic - don't worry, this is a plot device to bring a completely uncongenial caste of characters together. Not a Santa Claus or piece of mistletoe in sight!
Read with the Retro Reads Group
What a page turner!
It's just been too long since I have read a Christie & it had all the elements I look for - an unlikeable victim, a warring family who have reluctantly come together for the Festive Season, an English Manor, an Ancient Family Retainer - bliss!
I have read before but the only thing I remembered was Simeon's granddaughter Pilar. (& some of the Spanish clichés that Christie added really made me want to giggle!) From my own general knowledge
So, I was very proud to have spotted a few red herrings & ecstatic to have been completely fooled by whodunnit! This is what I read Christie for - & no one is better at twisting than she is.
For the Christmas phobic - don't worry, this is a plot device to bring a completely uncongenial caste of characters together. Not a Santa Claus or piece of mistletoe in sight!
Read with the Retro Reads Group
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
December 27, 2020
Me gustó más de lo que pensé que me gustaría. La historia gira en torno al asesinato del patriarca de la familia Lee, el Sr. Simeon Lee, quien es un viejo adinerado un tanto inválido que decide como gran distracción invitar a todos sus hijos a pasar la navidad. Con él viven entre varios sirvientes Sidney Horbury, quien es enfermero recién hace un año, el más antiguo, el mayordomo Edward Tressilian y su hijo mayor Alfred Lee con su esposa Lydia, mujer astuta y que parece manejar a su esposo en cierta medida.
Para navidad los invitados van llegando, los otros hijos: George, David, con sus esposas, la oveja negra de la familia, Harry y dos invitados no tan esperados, Pilar Estravados y Stephen Farr. al final todos empiezan a pasar la navidad aunque lo que hace bastante interesante a la obra, muchos de ellos tienen conflictos internos, sobre todo por la vida que han llevado hasta ahora, muchos de los hijos ni siquiera veían al padre por diferentes motivos. El Sr. Simeon Lee demuestra en sus actos así como en la historia que se cuenta de él, haber sido una persona muy interesada en el dinero, en controlar a sus hijos, inmoral y muchas otras cosas que ganan la antipatía de cualquiera, pues en vísperas de navidad, de pronto resulta asesinado de una manera bastante extraña, sobre todo porque parecen no saber por dónde pudo haber escapado el ladrón.
En esta situación el pobre Poirot, que se encontraba tranquilo con el coronel Johnson hablando de lo poco que hay problemas en Navidad asiste a la gran necesidad del coronel de tratar un caso nuevo que acaba de llegar, desde luego el de la familia Lee.
Personalmente, aunque no soy especialista del género, este libro me gustó mucho creo que un poco más de "Asesinato en el Orient..." y menos que "Diez negritos". Me gustó sobre todo la caracterización (aunque superficial por supuesto) de los intereses y actitudes de cada miembro de la familia, así como de la protección que algunas de las mujeres querían dar a sus parejas o a otras personas. También me gustó la manera de reunir todos los datos de Poirot que muchas veces recibía gracias "al azar" datos que realmente se me pasaron muchísimos que luego pudo utilizarlos en importantes pistas que llevaron al desenlace final. Personalmente, me gustó quién fue el asesino (a) y la manera de ejecutar el crimen. El final también cerró muy bien y definitivamente el toque navideño lo hace algo especial, creo que estará entre mis favoritas de la autora.
Para navidad los invitados van llegando, los otros hijos: George, David, con sus esposas, la oveja negra de la familia, Harry y dos invitados no tan esperados, Pilar Estravados y Stephen Farr. al final todos empiezan a pasar la navidad aunque lo que hace bastante interesante a la obra, muchos de ellos tienen conflictos internos, sobre todo por la vida que han llevado hasta ahora, muchos de los hijos ni siquiera veían al padre por diferentes motivos. El Sr. Simeon Lee demuestra en sus actos así como en la historia que se cuenta de él, haber sido una persona muy interesada en el dinero, en controlar a sus hijos, inmoral y muchas otras cosas que ganan la antipatía de cualquiera, pues en vísperas de navidad, de pronto resulta asesinado de una manera bastante extraña, sobre todo porque parecen no saber por dónde pudo haber escapado el ladrón.
En esta situación el pobre Poirot, que se encontraba tranquilo con el coronel Johnson hablando de lo poco que hay problemas en Navidad asiste a la gran necesidad del coronel de tratar un caso nuevo que acaba de llegar, desde luego el de la familia Lee.
Personalmente, aunque no soy especialista del género, este libro me gustó mucho creo que un poco más de "Asesinato en el Orient..." y menos que "Diez negritos". Me gustó sobre todo la caracterización (aunque superficial por supuesto) de los intereses y actitudes de cada miembro de la familia, así como de la protección que algunas de las mujeres querían dar a sus parejas o a otras personas. También me gustó la manera de reunir todos los datos de Poirot que muchas veces recibía gracias "al azar" datos que realmente se me pasaron muchísimos que luego pudo utilizarlos en importantes pistas que llevaron al desenlace final. Personalmente, me gustó quién fue el asesino (a) y la manera de ejecutar el crimen. El final también cerró muy bien y definitivamente el toque navideño lo hace algo especial, creo que estará entre mis favoritas de la autora.
January 11, 2023
I have often thought about making notes while reading one of Dame Aggie's murder mysteries. I didn't do it this time and I don't think it would have helped anyway. Many suspects - as usual - and a locked-room murder in the house of the patriarch whose family has gathered to celebrate Christmas.
This has to be among Christie's best efforts. Don't pass this one by.
This has to be among Christie's best efforts. Don't pass this one by.
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