Book Review: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (Poirot #20) by Agatha Christie

Name:  Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (Poirot #20)
Author:  Agatha Christie
Number of Pages: 272 (Kindle)
Published: Published December 15th 2003 by William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre:  Mystery

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.

My Rating:

My Thoughts:

Time for another mystery with the great detective Hercule Poirot. I’ve read a few of the Poirot novels now, and picked this one up during the holiday season as it seemed the perfect choice.

Simeon Lee has invited his family home for Christmas. Sounds great, and yet the old man has apparently done it only to cause friction amongst his family, and the mention of a will and the prospect of alterations to said will almost guarantee he won’t feature in the tale for long.

Sure enough, he meets a swift end and there are plenty of suspects and truths to uncover. Lucky then that Poirot is on hand to offer assistance in the matter.

Hercule Poirot’s Christmas offers up a locked room murder mystery with a cast of characters harbouring secrets and resentments, and trying to work out whodunit was as usual part of the enjoyment reading this novel. One day I will actually come to the right conclusion, but so far it hasn’t happened. The red herrings and twists really kept me (wrongly) guessing.

I’m still enjoying discovering the Golden Age mysteries of Agatha Christie and am looking forward to choosing my new Poirot novel to read.