December 2013 Book of the Month: Hercule Poirot's Christmas

Tuppence

We're spending Christmas with Poirot and the Lee family and a rather unpleasant patriarch, whose family reunion turns bloody. Another classic case for Poirot as he strives to find a clever murderer among the chaos of a traditional English Christmas.

Come and tell us what you think of the story - pose questions, start debates, or just tell us how you found the book.

MissQuin

I didn't really enjoy the story much. I have no idea why. The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding does have a Christmas atmosphere despite the crimes. I don't think I actually liked any of the characters except Poirot. I didn't guess the solution though. 

I liked the adaptation better. Although seeing as there was a throat cutting, there wasn't that much blood! 

Tommy_A_Jones

I liked this book, but I don't know why, I like the Characters and the plot but still I can't say why I Like it, It doesn't have that Pazzazz factor but I do like it, It isn't particularly Christmassy, because it is just a story of a Family reunion but I like it and will watch the Adaptation this Christmas and probably listen to the Audio Cassette

glalonzo0408

I have not read this book...so glad it is book of the month...Now i will read it.....

cameronjhw

I read this novel during my Christmas break some years ago and watched the Suchet film version of this story and I liked them both. I was watching the film version last night and it's sort of been a personal Christmas tradition with me to watch this and also the other Christmas story the Theft of the Royal Ruby. I really liked this book because for one thing it is set during Christmas and it has a very dysfunctional British family as is the case with most of Christie's works. Also I liked this because it has a grisly murder--throat-cutting set in a locked room which is reminiscent of the mystery novels by the American author John Dickson Carr. I like how Christie sprinkles suspicion and conflict among the suspects making the reader suspect one person and then suspects another. By the time I read the solution I was surprised and it should have been obvious to me. While there is not much of a Christmas atmosphere I was more interested in how a family who have not been very close in years and hardly see each other come together to spend Christmas together-a time of peace on earth and good will toward men(not in this case that's for sure). This is a good mystery and especially to read around the holidays, I would like wish all of you a merry Christmas and hope that when you are with your families this year they won't be violent and tense as in Hercule Poirot's Christmas 

kaberi.chakrabarty

I was just thinking about this story because I recently heard on the radio an audio version of Macbeth and recognized the quote: "Who would have thought the old man would have so much blood in him?" I had forgotten where the quote was from but now I will always associate Macbeth (another kind of family murder mystery) with Hercule Poirot's Christmas.

Miss Sainsbury Seale

I must re-read. We watched it last Christmas Day on DVD (a rewatch for me, first time for my husband), which was rather lovely. 

Pat_september

Hercule Poirot's Christmas give me a feeling of uneasiness - especially Simeon Lee's youth memories - maybe because I live in South Africa. I hated him from the beginning and hated him even more in the movie, as Vernon Dobtcheff was fantastic in this role!

I liked the Christmas atmosphere though and the plot, the plot was fantastic, nothing like a policeman to commit the murder, isn't it!  and yes, The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding has more of a Christmas atmosphere. I've actually always wanted to make such a Christmas pudding, not really a tradition with our family.

I might pick up Hercule Poirot's Christmas again during this Christmas.
I also like the Christmas picture on the homepage of the Agatha Christie website! Well done!

Tuppence

I might pick up Hercule Poirot's Christmas again during this Christmas.
I also like the Christmas picture on the homepage of the Agatha Christie website! Well done!

Thanks! Our designers had fun creating a Christie-mas feel. It was partially inspired by our Winter Reading Pinterest board: pinterest.com/agathachristie

malu.meyre

it's so good cause it was my first novel by Agatha and for it i became in love with her novels  >-

kaberi.chakrabarty

Pat_september said:

Hercule Poirot's Christmas give me a feeling of uneasiness - especially Simeon Lee's youth memories - maybe because I live in South Africa.

Don't know if this is the forum for this comment, but I just wanted to express my condolences to all South Africans on the loss of Mandela. Now I'm rereading the novel, and every time she makes a reference to South Africa I look at it a bit differently now. Of course it's not Christie's fault that she didn't express the totality of the situation there, the novel isn't set there, and she didn't write political novels anyway. She lived at a time when the British Empire still existed, and I don't blame her for not reflecting the reality of that. But you can see how limited the British view of the world was at the time, in her constant references to Pilar's "exotic creamy pallor", black hair and eyes and "scarlet lips". Again, not criticizing it as a mystery novel, outstanding solution to the crime, but rereading it at this point does remind one that these works always have a historical context, which can be jarring for readers who come at it from a different perspective.

roamingrover86

As Miss Quinn rightly said, the book lacks a Christmas atmosphere. However it is nicely written , the plot is epic a bit far-fetched may be but the suspense was maintained right till the end as opposed to many of her other books( Where you get an idea mid way) . I really liked Harry Lee . The plot has a few debatable points but overall the book is worth reading . I Would class it as one of her better works. Like many said it has a shocked ending with a sound explanation that will satisfy you.

Christery

I read this one a while back so I don't remember much but I do remember that Christie wrote it in response to critics who complained that her murders were boring bloodless affairs that were too neat and tidy and not gory or gruesome at all. So she purposely made the murder in this one over-the-top, going on at length about all of the blood splattered all over the walls and furniture. Her way of saying "I'll show you!". I agree that it does not have much Christmas flavor to it - last Christmas I read "Adventure of the Christmas Pudding" and it was much more satisfying in that respect.

TinaC - MC

:-*

Laisaac

I read this novel a few months ago, and I really enjoyed it. I agree that it hasn't much Christmas spirit, but I read it in February, so that didn't bother me much. What did bother me a little was that I guessed the murderer as soon as he entered the plot. It was a little interesting though, to read the whole book and observe how the suspicions were cast in different directions and sit with the solution in your head. I'm really looking forward to read The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding now, since you say it has more Christmas feeling to it

AlexBarry

Actually began this book last night, December 22nd, after coming across it in my boxed volumes (long story, but suffice to say I finally have a proper bookcase for shelving not only all my Christies and some other notable fiction, as well as my most important history books).  I saw that it was written with each part corresponding to a consecutive date beginning with the 22nd, so thought it a ripping idea to begin it on that date, and read it nightly, keeping up with each day's events.  Alas, I cheated last night and read through the 24th, so I'm a bit ahead of time.  So far so good.  I'm enjoying it!

AlexBarry

Finished last night (Dec 29), one day late, but daily progress was delayed due to holiday activities and other priorities.  Quite enjoyable read!  I harbored some suspicions now and again about the ultimately identified killer, but I was never certain, and Dame Agatha practiced her art well, leading me astray in my suspicions of other possible perpetrators.  

As always, I loved reading the dialog half-aloud at times, effecting the familiar accent and cadence of that most definitive of Poirots, David Suchet.

On to the next adventure, when I'll begin at the beginning with The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and then follow my plan of reading (or rereading, as the case may be) each book in order of its publication.

3rdGirl

I absolutely love this novel. Who doesn't feel a little murderous being exposed for prolonged periods around their extended family around this time of year. Especially when everything is so forced and cheerful? The perfect antidote to the overload of Christmas schamltz (which I also love!). Simeon Lee is the most unsympathetic of victims and the people around him are all tolerant of it just because they want his money. What a lovely bunch. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding is, for me, a little bit too typical for a Christmas mystery. I love this as it's darker and more sinister. 

3rdGirl

AlexBarry said:

On to the next adventure, when I'll begin at the beginning with The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and then follow my plan of reading (or rereading, as the case may be) each book in order of its publication.

A man after my own heart AlexBarry! I can only read book series in order. I have just last month completed (in order) every Poirot mystery and I am very chuffed. I am almost envious of you starting at the beginning!

snowwhite.gayatri

I love this book so much!! I got it as a Christmas present last years and I'm loving it....,.. Poirot at his best!! love him!! My favourite character besides Poirot was Stephen farr

Tommy_A_Jones

I watched The Adaptation again yesterday, I really enjoyed it. :-)

maryamalbulushi

I didn't get a chance to read it . I downloaded it on my laptop but the ecopy was ruined and not clear.i Think I am going to buy it in this year's bookfair .

maryamalbulushi

I didn't get a chance to read it . I downloaded it on my laptop but the ecopy was ruined and not clear.i Think I am going to buy it in this year's bookfair .

Slipper

In part 2, set on December 23rd (page 39), Tressilian answers the door to find Harry Lee there.  In his thoughts he says "That bold arrogant jaw, the high-bridged nose, the rollicking eye.  Yes, they had all been there three years ago." 

There are many references to Harry being away about twenty years e.g. Lydia says "Harry, had been abroad for a great number of years" (page 85)

And Harry tells us "It's nearly twenty years since I last set foot in this house" (page 93). 

What do others make of Tressilian's thought?

Griselda

Hi Slipper, what I make of the comment is that Agatha Christie has gone back over her story, after she has written it to her satisfaction, and planted some indicators of confusion on the part of Tressilian to mask the big clue which is coming through his references to those SPOILER ALERT brothers looking the same. Tressilian must appear doddery, tired: loyal but apt to get the past and the present mixed up. We, the readers, see the clue, feel it is significant, but can't grasp and connect up the significance. We see that Pilar has spotted something too, when she sees Superintendent Sugden. She see the family likeness, and she is shrewd, we know that because she has divined the character of old Mr Lee. We should have realised that she was on to something, but her character is so forward, impertinent, pleased with itself, keen to,shock and be irreverent, that we dismiss her challenging insight as just a piece of mockery and impertinence to throw the serious policeman off his balance. " her eyes dwelt with naive pleasure on his handsome face, which had turned brick red at the compliment." Perhaps it was not the compliment but the threat which turned him brick red. Agatha Christie is here slipping into that narrative form where certain phrases, though written in the third person, express the thoughts and feelings of one of the characters. We are tricked. We fail to link this suggestion to the other references to Sugden looking like one of the household from a distance, and also, of course SPOILER ALERT, the young South African, Stephen. Agatha Chrisite has gone back perhaps and hammed up Pilar's cocquetry to make this key pertinent clue seems just a piece of flirting, just like she makes the butler seem doddery. . This is a masterpiece story, one of the best ever, for misleading the reader - and a surprising method of murdering, and an extremely unusual motive for murder in terms of Christie's usual. I love reading this over the Christmas holiday. It would be a great one to dramatise again, and see if the director could handle the clue planting to make it misleading but to give a slight chance to the viewer who is unfamiliar with the story. The last Poirot dramatisation got the set up of the machinery in the room really well.

Griselda

The story is so cleverly written too because the beginning, Stephen's approach, and meeting Pilar, sometimes throws us off focussing on the family and the Inspector. We see Stephen's viewpoint of all of them: we focus so much on his motive for coming, and how he could,in his lifetime, have built up a grudge against the family as a unit, or how he could have a claim over their money. It could almost be that Agatha Christie put in Stephen at the second layer of story development in order to throw us that much more off the track of the murderer. It is an interesting at a distance view of the household and then zooming in on it technique. Christie must have really wanted for years to have the actual SPOILER ALERT investigating police officer as the culprit, or implicated, and kind of got close to the idea in Cards on the Table. I feel that this might have been her starting point for choosing the plot: we know from the notes at the front of the book that a friend of hers had requested a plot with a great deal of blood and gore - hence why she choses the style of murder.

taliavishay-arbel

Griselda, Interestingly enough, AC isn't the only detective writer to make a policeman the killer. The same year that HP's Christmas came out, Georgette Heyer also published a book with the policeman as killer. I wonder whether one of them got the idea from the other, both of them got the idea from an extraneous source (e.g. there may have been a real case of murder or another crime by a policeman) or whether it was sheer coincidence.

Griselda

I bet that they were influenced by one another. It must be very difficult to write such a story, because you have the complication of motive. The cop has to be not only prepared to commit a terrible crime and go against all that he has stood for professionally ( in the case of AC's story anyway) but also to finger somebody else for his dastardly work ( that complicates motive and what is put across about his feelings). If he fails to solve the crime he might get pressure put on him, or lose his professional reputation. I think this is really very clever - AC's work. Would you put this alongside A Murder is Announced as one of her cleverest and most complex mysteries?

taliavishay-arbel

I think I would say it is one of the more clever ones detection-wise, but the characters are rather flat - each one has one dominant characteristic and that is it. Going back to the two "policeman-murderer" books, actually there is another similarity - in this book SPOILER the policeman murders the man who seduced his mother, in the Heyer book he murders the man who seduced his sister. In both cases the reason for murder is indeed personal and strong.

ChristieFanForLife

taliavishay-arbel said:

I think I would say it is one of the more clever ones detection-wise, but the characters are rather flat - each one has one dominant characteristic and that is it. Going back to the two "policeman-murderer" books, actually there is another similarity - in this book SPOILER the policeman murders the man who seduced his mother, in the Heyer book he murders the man who seduced his sister. In both cases the reason for murder is indeed personal and strong.

When you first read HERCULE POIROT'S CHRISTMAS did you notice the reoccurring "dominant characteristic" Christie kept referring to or did you glide through them, not giving it much thought?