"In conversation, points arise! If a human being converses much, it is impossible for him to avoid the truth."
A brilliant detective, a crazy family and a story with too many unexpected plot twists to count.
SYNOPSIS
In Hercule Poirot's Christmas, the holidays are anything but merry when a family reunion is marred by murder — and the notoriously fastidious investigator is quickly on the case. The wealthy Simeon Lee has demanded that all four of his sons — one faithful, one prodigal, one impecunious, one sensitive — and their wives return home for Christmas. But a heartwarming family holiday is not exactly what he has in mind. He bedevils each of his sons with barbed insults and finally announces that he is cutting off their allowances and changing his will. Poirot is called in the aftermath of Simeon Lee's announcement.
REVIEW
This is a locked room mystery. There are plenty of suspects. Simeon Lord is found with his throat cut on the other side of a door with the key on the inside.
I was struck right from the beginning with how the author carefully describes the physical appearance of each of the characters. And indeed Poirot pays considerable attention to the portraits of each of the family members in the portrait gallery.
Several times the reader is given an update of the progress of the investigation, so we are given most of the information that Inspector Sugden, the police officer in charge of the case, has as well as Poirot's thinking. In the end though, of course, it is Poirot who comes up with the explanation.
Despite all of the hints and constant updates, we remain clueless and the revelation strikes hard.
There is not one Hercule Poirot book that does not leave us in shock. One would expect there to be pattern, given there are so many books, but every single time the author manages to surprise us.
My Rating: 5/5
Author: Agatha Christie
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