Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie

 

Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie.

Special edition published 14th October by Harper Collins.

From the cover of the book:

It is Christmas Eve. The Lee family reunion is shattered by a deafening crash of furniture, followed by a scream…

Upstairs, the tyrannical Simeon Lee lies dead in a pool of blood, his throat slashed.

But when Hercule Poirot, who is staying in the village with a friend for Christmas, offers to assist, he finds an atmosphere not of mourning but of mutual suspicion. It seems everyone had their own reason to hate the old man…

When a murder takes place during a family reunion, Hercule Poirot offers his assistance and finds an atmosphere not of mourning but of mutual suspicion. Originally published in 1939 and reissued for the AGATHA CHRISTIE COLLECTION.

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When elderly, infirm millionaire Simeon Lee invites his four sons and their respective wives back home for Christmas, including the two sons he hasn't seen for years, his plan is not so much to have a big family reconciliation, but rather to have a little fun at their expense. The plot thickens when they discover Simeon's Spanish grandaughter, a young woman none of them have met, has also been invited to not only stay for Christmas, but to make her home among them, and Simeon announces that he plans to alter his will.

Add to the mix a mysterious South African who claims to be the son of Simeon's former partner in the diamond mining business, and a rag-tag mix of domestic staff and you have the perfect setting for one of Agatha Christie's finest twisty murder mysteries - for, of course, it's not long before wicked Simeon's malicious meddling leads to the old man being brutally murdered and some precious stones he keeps in his safe being stolen.

This is a tricky crime to solve, especially since Simeon's bedroom door was locked from the inside, but fortunately Hercule Poirot is in the neighbourhood and able to offer his famous skills to his friend Chief Constable Colonel Johnson, and to the investigating officer Superintendent Sugden in their endeavour to discover who murdered Simeon Lee and stole his diamonds.

In true Christie style, nothing is straightforward, everyone has something to hide, and motive and opportunity to kill the old man, and it is a delight to follow the investigation through to its classic Poirot conclusion when he gathers them all together for the whos, whys and where-fors and fingers the guilty party!

Fabulous festive whodunnit shenanigans!

Hercule Poirot's Christmas is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats.

About the author: 

Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English, with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.