Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In my younger days, I read several Agatha Christie novels no doubt inspired by my mom's love of mysteries. "Ten Little Indians" was always my favorite, but I ventured far and wide. And then, many years, probably as many as 15, passed in which I hadn't read any. One day I'm at the library and I see two worn out paperbacks sitting on the free shelf. I pick them up, read them and return them. They were okay. Over the next few years, my desire for a good murder mystery picks up and I occasionally grab one of her books. I find I still have "Hallowe'en Party" in my own collection, a book I always wanted to read (what could be better than a murder at Halloween? Well, after reading that book, nearly anything). Sadly, "Hallowe'en Party" was rather disappointing and hardly dealt with the holiday that it's named after.

I'd never even heard of "Hercule Poirot's Christmas," but nothing could suit me better than a little murder just in time for the holidays (I read this in December). But, as I suspected, the holiday hardly plays into the murder at all. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this book. It's the first Christie book in years that had me thoroughly entertained. This despite rather cardboard characters and a sinister victim who seems to get what is due to him for his long and wicked life. I eagerly turned pages waiting to discover which character had the guts to pull off the murder and yet I was delightfully surprised by the ending. Despite all the other weaknesses of this story, if you're looking for a good murder mystery, I would definitely recommend it.



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