Hercule Poirot's Christmas

To be honest, I find the title of Hercule Poirot's Christmas a bit strange. It features Hercule Poirot and takes place around Christmas, but it's not about Hercule Poirot's Christmas. Oh well, the fact that the mystery is decent is more important than the title Christie chose for it.

Hercule Poirot's Christmas is about the Christmas of the Lee family. The family is led by patriarch Simeon, a rich, abrasive invalid who has gathered his family together for Christmas mostly so that he can bully them, and who is hated by nearly all of his relations. You know, the usual.

The book is all about the Lees. We spend the first part of the book seeing their family dynamic leading up to the murder, the middle section getting every character's account (in typical Christie fashion), and the last part observing the Lee household in the aftermath of the crime. It's not an unusually compelling read, but dysfunction tends to be sufficiently entertaining. It could sometimes be a bit difficult remembering which Lee was which, but they're all distinct enough in personality that this issue quickly resolved itself.

Hercule Poirot is visiting his police friend when the report of the murder comes in, so he gets involved. He comes in, solves the case, and leaves. That's all there is to it. There's nothing particularly special or involvement about his connection to this case, despite the title. Although it is kind of funny how clearly fed up he is with every single family member by the end. (The fact that it's Christmas also doesn't really tie into the plot besides providing an excuse for the family to gather.)

I don't want to say too much about the mystery, but I did like it. It's my favorite style of Christie plot. On the other hand, Christie breaks the one unbreakable rule of detective fiction, so... I guess it's not unbreakable anymore. I don't see much of a reason for it to have been broken, so that was probably just Christie's Christmas present to the cast. The murder takes place in a locked room, but the police find marks on the key that show it was turned from the outside with pliers. The room is in complete disarray and they find some strange knick-knacks at the crime scene, so there are some peculiar things going on, but it was a bit funny how the hook of the locked room is dangled in front of us only to be immediately snatched away.

There's some really subtle cluing in this book, but a lot of it for ancillary points, which helps prevent the book from feeling unfair. Although in the solution Christie starts pulling out random previously-unmentioned chemicals without even an explanation of what they do, which was quite bizarre. It also turns out this book has two plot points that John Dickson Carr decided to borrow and combine into one in his Dark of the Moon.

I kind of thought Hercule Poirot's Christmas would just be a hokey holiday special, but it turns out it's a solid Christie that can compete with the best of them. I'm a bit surprised it's not more popular given the Christmas theming and strong plot, but the strongest Christie novels tend to be the most undervalued ones.