Hercule Poirot's Christmas

The house is full of Simeon Lee's put-upon sons and their put-upon wives, any one of whom might have had reason to do Simeon in, especially as he had just announced that he was about to change his will to include his beautiful young granddaughter Pilar, just arrived from Spain, whom none of the family had ever set eyes on before. The family are anxious to insist that the murder was an outside job, but Poirot is equally convinced that it was not.

This is one of the best Poirot mysteries, with lots of interesting characters, especially the delightfuly vivacious, high-spirited and unconventional Pilar, and a cunning murderer to unmask. A real Christmas treat.


Agatha Christie's locked room murder mystery.   May 21, 2003
John Austin (Kangaroo Ground, Australia)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful

Although generally regarded as typifying the cozy murder mystery writer in whose books there is either a murder in a locked room or a murder at a family reunion in a country house, Agatha Christie rarely tried her hand at either of these murder mystery genres. In “Hercule Poirot’s Christmas”, however, she combines both.
The family is the dysfunctional Lee family, summoned to pass Christmas together in the house of old Simeon Lee, the patriarch. During this stressful reunion, a commotion followed by a blood-curdling scream is heard from the room on the first floor occupied by old Simeon. When the locked door is forced open, the furniture is found upended, the safe rifled, and Simeon is found lying dead with his throat cut. The door key is in place, on the inside of the door.

Having depicted how the family members despise, hate, or resent each other up to this point, Agatha Christie next allows the investigations and theories to develop. Poirot is on hand, but she cleverly allows other police inspectors and investigators to do most of the work and make most of the mistakes.

The solution is one you will never forget, but also one that you will probably never arrive at before Poirot reveals all. Agatha Christie is wonderfully clever at laying out all the clues in an arrangement that directs the reader away from the vital ones.

Apart from a few lines of description, almost everything in the text is dialogue. To anyone in the world who has not yet read this 1940 mystery nothing more need be said. To those who are re-reading it, I suggest they notice how cleverly it is plotted and planned.