Hercule Poirot’s Christmas- Agatha Christie

This was just what the doctor ordered. There’s a reason Agatha Christie’s books are the ultimate bestsellers following only The Bible & Shakespeare.

Don’t get me wrong, holiday romances are wonderful but I’d much prefer a holiday whodunnit!

Hercule Poirot’s Christmas opens with a dedication to her brother in law- a promise to include a “good violent murder with lots of blood” in this book just for him since he thought her more recent novels were getting a bit dull. That’s just so badass to me.

This is a delicious family drama centering around the death of Simeon Lee, an extremely wealthy and extremely repugnant man. His sons, their wives, and a couple of other guests were brought together at his request on what turned out to be the night of Lee’s death. With diamonds and a great inheritance at stake, everyone is a suspect. I enjoyed the many misdirection Christie serves. I didn’t find this particularly gory but I think her brother-in-law would have be content given this was written in the 30s and was probably very risqué for the time.

Christie was such a pioneer for mystery writing in her time, let alone for female writers in general. Her writing is unapologetic and fierce.