Book Club

Poirot Stories

Poirot is Agatha Christie's most famous and popular detective.  No doubt he would agree that he deserves that accolade!

Here is the place to discuss all of his stories in detail with other fans.  The most insightful comments will be added to the Stories pages.  But remember to beware spoilers!

If you can't find your favourite Poirot story here, don't worry - we'll be adding them all soon.

Warning: These discussions may contain spoilers!

Hercule Poirot's Christmas

Moderator1 09 Nov 09 at 9:04 a.m. GMT

Christie wrote this story specially for her brother-in-law James who wanted a 'good violent murder with lots of blood' and she certainly delivered that with this tale of the death of Simeon Lee.  Found in a locked room with his throat slashed it first appears that it was suicide.  However when Hercule Poirot is brought in to help with the investigation he finds that any member of the assembled family and guests would have had good reason to kill a tyrant.

Is the character of Simeon Lee just so awful that you find yourself on the side of the murderer!?  Is this one of Christie's plots where you have to suspend belief somewhat when Poirot uncovers the murderer?  Why did no-one else realise the indentity?

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37 replies

Reverse order

Angelina_ 20 Nov 11 at 1:24 p.m. GMT

I have just finished this one and I enjoyed it very much. I should have known the guilty one all along, by the fact that he didn 't hand in the evidence he took from Pilar 's hands to his chief, but I didn 't! Once again, I was wondering till the end and felt quite astonished by Poirrot 's disclosure.

I was certain from the start, though, that Pilar was a fake and Stephen Farr was actually Lee 's illegitimate son and I knew they would definately end up getting married.

LauraPoirot 08 Aug 11 at 9:10 p.m. GMT

Butico: Great to have google translator believe me. But if you don't have a Problem with writing English... Maybe you can so that anyone understands...? Regards

butico 08 Aug 11 at 8:56 p.m. GMT

Excelente. Quase impossível descobrir o assassino. Engenhosidade fora do comum, que só a rainha conseguia. Essa ninguém pode copiar.

NightRayDuck 20 Apr 11 at 5:10 a.m. GMT

yep Tommy. M. Poirot tends to go through the "possibility as a murderer" for everyone present, doesn't he? 

I've just glanced through some of the previous posts... MissQuin, the murder scene description put you off the book?!? But the excessive amount of blood on scene and the extra-wrecked state of the room were important clues! 

Tommy_A_Jones 30 Dec 10 at 2:48 p.m. GMT

I finished it last night, I liked it and would read it again but I thought towards the end it got a bit silly,

SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!

One minute Poirot was saying David's wife could be the Killer and then he said the opposite and one minute Stephen was't Simeon's Partners son and then it transpired he was Simeon's son and the Girl was bogus, all in all I thought towards trhe end spoilt the rest of the book which was a shame.

Lone_Wolf 27 Dec 10 at 6:05 a.m. GMT

"Also, I kept thinking to myself, wow, the killer has such a close resemblance to his father, and yet no one else but Poirot seems to notice??"

It's not like anyone didn't notice - Pilar did hint at physical resemblance once. It's more like they didn't draw any conclusions from it. After all, we readers are given ample clues to resemblance, yet few of us noticed it.

Agathasmykid 26 Dec 10 at 6:58 p.m. GMT

Just completed Hercule Poirot's Christmas...I think I have read it 3 times (at least).  I think this is one that needs to be re-read to understand everything. The setting is great, and so are the characters, although I wonder if there are one too many suspects.  Did it really need Harry, Pilar, and Mr. Farr?  I mean two surprise visitors/outsiders would have been enough.

Also, I kept thinking to myself, wow, the killer has such a close resemblance to his father, and yet no one else but Poirot seems to notice??  Agatha, I feel asks us to suspend a lot of disbelief......maybe a bit too much this time?  Even Poirot finding the diamonds feels a bit too easy.

The story though is fast paced, and there is no shortage of suspense.  It is an enjoyable read for one who wants to read a murder mystery on Christmas....thankfully Christmas is a time for suspending disbelief.

Littlegirl 03 Sep 10 at 8:18 p.m. GMT

I guessed practically right off who was the murderer and was fortunate to catch all of the clues and hints also. I have to admit, however that I did not know how he did it, though I did guess why.

ctown28 29 Jul 10 at 1:41 p.m. GMT

I had this one figured out when Poirot was talking to Sugden about his moustache care.  Right then and there I had the suspicion and as I read more I was more sure of it.

One thing I have learned from reading AC books is to suspect everyone at anytime.  I don't see how people can say she didn't play fair because they were fooled.  It's like in the movie"The Prestige"  Now you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it because of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled

gin_gerosa 26 Jun 10 at 5:42 p.m. GMT

I haven't read this particular novel before, but it definately sounds interesting due to everybody's comments.

Katiecars 26 Jun 10 at 9:04 a.m. GMT

This is my favourite book of Christie. It seems so complicated but it is so easy, but sill it's complicated. First, when Sugden didn't show Poirot the pink rubber, it seemed a little bit ... weird, but I'd never guess that he wanted to keep that secret! I suspected Sugden when Poirot bought the fake mustache. But all the story and the characters... amazing.

anonymoose_au 19 Jun 10 at 5:59 a.m. GMT

I've just finished reading this one! I've been reading the Agatha Christie's in order and I'm very excited because I totally figured out whodunnit! I realised very quickly that there was a resemblence not just between Stephen and Harry but the Superintendant as well!

Although...as usually I couldn't figure out how he'd done it...does it still count as a right guess then? LOL.

I have to say I never would have guess that both Pilar and Stephen were not who they said they were. That was a bit far fetched I think.

But still a totally un-putdownable book that.

skulduggery32 30 May 10 at 1:21 p.m. GMT

i loved this book it had, like murder on the orient express a clever ending. I always wanted to have a book which made the inspector do it!

MissQuin 01 Mar 10 at 4:49 p.m. GMT

Yes, I'm afraid I did feel rather light headed at the thought of lashings of blood. (shudder) I didn't swoon like a heroine in a melodrama though. If I faced with an accident in real life, I could deal with it, it's just reading about it! The TV version is done so you dont see the murder. Thumbs up to who filmed it, it was well done.

The murder rather put me off the story.

HeiseiHolmes 01 Mar 10 at 4:39 p.m. GMT

I just read this book again today. All through the school day, I felt so sick, thinking of the murder scene. I was shivering in maths slightly, the cosine rule can't hold my attention compared to a murder. Anyone else feel like this?

HeiseiHolmes 01 Feb 10 at 5:42 p.m. GMT

Didn't you at least get the clue of the false mustache? After Poirot asked that guy for mustache tips and he knew very little about it?

Tommy_A_Jones 16 Jan 10 at 1:54 p.m. GMT

I want to have a fair crack at solveing the Murder, It is not unreasonable to feel the writer has been good enough to make the person who is assisting the Sleuth or who is the Narrator is an innocent person In a Good Murder Mystery the Murderer is NOT the Narrator or Assisting the Sleuth and is in at least 80% of the book. but that ios my opinnion anyway, you say go_leafs you want to be surprised well fair enough but I dfon't want to feel cheated.

go_leafs_nation 15 Jan 10 at 4:31 p.m. GMT

Fair play is a concept that has to do with the clues and how fairly they're presented and how reasonable it is for a reader to deduce it all, not who the killer was. Limiting the amount of twists is rather redundant- "I want to be surprised by the end, but out of A, B, C, and D, A and B can't be killers because they spent more than 20 pages trailing D, and C is Poirot's friend so he can't be the killer."

Tommy_A_Jones 15 Jan 10 at 4:24 p.m. GMT

Perhaps that is why you think it is fair detective conan

HeiseiHolmes 15 Jan 10 at 4:03 p.m. GMT

The book is perfectly fair, I managed to get the killer myself.