Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie (1938) - Book Review

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Easy Listening

I chose "Hercule Poirot’s Christmas" by Agatha Christie (1938) from the library in audiobook form because I wanted something easy to listen to as I fall asleep, and the title fits the season. In general, I enjoy Agatha Christie although her characters tend to be two dimensional and her plots formulaic. To be fair, some of these formulae were invented by Agatha Christie herself.

What I enjoy about Agatha Christie novels is that you know what you are going to get before you read the novel: the story will be suspenseful, hold your attention, one or more people will get killed, many people will seem likely suspects, and in the end, the brilliant detective will solve it. Nothing terribly upsetting happens. Oddly, the murders in Agatha Christie novels always feel more puzzling than upsetting.

In many ways this novel was no exception to the typical Agatha Christie novel. It was a locked door mystery, which I think she invented. This is a mystery in which the person who was murdered dies inside a room with the door locked from the inside.

Summary (Some Spoilers)

The story begins with the wealthy, but elderly and ailing Simeon Lee inviting his family to his mansion for Christmas. Although his family comes, they are suspicious of his motives because he has never been generous. At the same time, Simeon’s orphaned grand-daughter, born in Spain, Pilar Estravados, comes to live in Simeon’s mansion per his invitation. An unexpected guest arrives in the form of Stephen Farr, the son of Simeon’s former partner in the South African diamond mines.

Simeon plays with his family’s emotions, contriving to have them overhear him on the phone talking to his lawyer, stating that he plans to update his will after Christmas. He deliberately sows the seeds of discord among them. He talks to local police Superintendent Sugden that afternoon about some diamonds that have apparently gone missing from his safe.

Then, on Christmas Eve, after dinner, a clatter and scream are heard. Several of the guests hurry to Simeon’s room to find the door locked. Once they break it down, they discover that he is dead. His throat has been slit.

Superintendent Sugden, already investigating the diamond theft, is already on the premises and is quickly able to come to do the initial investigation. Colonel Johnson is the police investigator put in charge of the murder, and, somehow, the illustrious Hercule Poirot ends up joining in the investigation.

There are several twists and turns. Hercule Poirot comes to a surprising and completely unexpected conclusion.

What I Liked

As I mentioned earlier, there are many things I enjoy in general about Agatha Christie novels, and this one was no exception. It held my attention, was suspenseful, and the ending was a complete surprise.

The character of Hercule Poirot always seems larger than life. He is narcissistic, but also funny and an enjoyable character.

What I Didn’t Like

As usual, Hercule Poirot is a poor man’s Sherlock Holmes. I really like Sherlock Holmes because everything he figures out he actually deduces from the evidence that was shown. I read something by Arthur Conan Doyle (the author of Sherlock Holmes) saying that he wished he was as intelligent as Sherlock Holmes. He had to go backwards from the crime and plant all the clues for Sherlock, but, his point was that, in real life, given those clues, it would be challenging for him to have made the same deductions (if, indeed, he could have done it at all).

The issue I have with Hercule Poirot, and this book was a shining example of it, is that he makes deductive leaps that do not seem logical given the evidence. He turns out to be right, which is truly astonishing. For example, the way he figured out that (spoiler alert…) Pilar was actually impersonating the real Pilar was that she had brown eyes while both her parents had had blue eyes. However, I listened to the book twice and I did not catch a description of her parents’ eye colors until after Poirot had made his discovery. To me, this is unfair to the reader. As a reader, I should be able to put the puzzle pieces together if I am as brilliant as the brilliant detective, but if the writer doesn’t give me the pieces, it cheapens the outcome.

This seems to be a repeated theme with Hercule Poirot: he figures things out seemingly out of nowhere. To me, that takes some of the fun out of a mystery novel. I like it when there is some twist or unexpected ending, but not because the writer was holding out on the audience!

Overall Impression

Despite my negative comments, my overall impression of the book was positive. I was not expecting it to be very good because often when authors write Christmas stories, they just phone it in, knowing that their fans will buy anything with their name on it, and even more so if “Christmas” is also on the cover. However, I was pleasantly surprised because the story had several levels and layers to it.

The plot relied far too much on coincidence and luck, but somehow, it was still interesting. The characters were two dimensional, by which I mainly mean they lack depth. As a reader, it is hard to really care about such characters. Sometimes, that is nice because, for example, in Agatha Christie novels, they tend to drop dead left, right, and centre. So, it’s better if we are not too emotionally invested.

The book received positive reviews when it came out in 1938. On the Goodreads.com website, it received an average rating of 3.98/5 and on Amazon.com, it received an average rating of 4.5/5. I would probably give it a 3/5 because I am an old crank.

Conclusion

I enjoy a good Agatha Christie novel, and I enjoyed this one. I would recommend it to people who like Agatha Christie or mysteries of the cozy detective mystery genre. Although this is not great literature, it is diverting, and certainly served its purpose in being something comforting to listen to while I fell asleep.

That is not to say that it made me fall asleep. I often like to listen to audiobooks last thing in the day as I am dropping off. I find it helps me sleep.

Several Agatha Christie novels are now in the public domain, which means that you can download and read them for free. This one is not in the public domain yet, but if you are looking for her novels that are already in the public domain, you can find them here.

Happy reading! Happy Christmas! Happy Holidays! I hope you and your family are doing well, wherever you are. Life can be such a struggle sometimes. One foot in front of the other for the win!