Saturday, December 26, 2020

"Hercule Poirot's Christmas" by Agatha Christie

I have discovered a newfound appreciation for Hercule Poirot over the last couple years.  I entirely blame Kenneth Branagh and his 2017 adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express.  

I read almost this whole book yesterday, and it was great fun!  I mean, great fun considering it's a book about a severely dysfunctional family and murder and so on.

Poirot isn't even in the first third or so of this book, which is all about this old man and his children, most of whom hate each other.  The old man gets killed, Poirot and some British policemen get called in to solve the crime, and the rest of the book is about that.

This was a fast read, and I'm happy to say I did not solve the crime before the hero did, which is the sort of mystery I like best.

Particularly Good Bits: 

"I believe the present matters -- not the past!  The past must go.  If we seek to keep the past alive, we end, I think, by distorting it.  We see it in exaggerated terms -- a false perspective" (p. 33).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for a lot of talk about a man having illegitimate children through his many love affairs, and a pretty gory murder.

This was my 4th book read and reviewed for the Literary Christmas reading link-up hosted by In the Bookcase, my 13th for my third Classics Club list, and my 51st for #TheUnreadShelfProject2020.

6 comments:

  1. Murder on the Orient Express made me start reading a lot more of her books too.

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    1. Skye, I can't wait to see Death on the Nile, whenever it finally arrives :-) Branagh has become one of my favorite directors -- I love how straightforward, yet beautiful, his films are.

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  2. Oh I hate Kenneth Branagh's portrayal of Poirot so much, I refuse to watch his next Agatha Christie movies!
    I have read this one long ago, and quite forgotten what it's about. It's a novel, right? Not short stories collection? Seems to be a perfect Christmas reading!

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    1. Fanda, lol! Well, to each her own Poirot, eh?

      Yup, this is a novel. I've read a short Christmas Poirot story too, in The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries that I got from the library. That one was less serious than this is.

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  3. This was my first Christie book. I still remember the exact moment when I read who the murderer was. I think I said “Oh snap!” Lol. I still haven’t seen the new Orient Express. I want to read the book first.

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    1. Phyl, that's fun! I think Murder on the Orient Express was my first. I read it in a big mystery anthology my dad had when I was a teen. Definitely a good read! Happy New Year :-)

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