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?

Login or register to add posts and reply

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.

Tommy_A_Jones 15 Jan 10 at 3:13 p.m. GMT

go_leafs, you and I obviously have different ideas as to what is 'unfair' I think when the Murderer is the Narrator or someone assisting the Sleuth IMHO it shows a lack of imagination, Fortunately AC only had this glitch very Occasdionally, furthermore to use the word banal the way you did is insulting to say the least, ACs work is at its best when the Murderer is not A) assisting the sleuth, B) Not a Narrator, C) Not the Owner or where the Murder Takes place. 

go_leafs_nation 15 Jan 10 at 2:34 p.m. GMT

Playing fair means presenting all the clues, and not just one time in passing- they are preferably emphasized. It does not mean making the killer a person who cannot have played such-and-such a role or did this-and-that. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd did this, as did Hercule Poirot's Christmas. I see no reason why, because 9 out of 10 readers are fooled by their own preconceptions into never suspecting the killer, the book should be thought of as 'unfair'. Such a conclusion strikes me as banal. Rather, it is a sign of pure ingenuity. It isn't as though AC, coming to the end, flipped a coin and the killer turned out to be X. A chain of clues found throughout the story collectively point to the killer.

Tommy_A_Jones 15 Jan 10 at 1:38 p.m. GMT

The Writer should give the reader a fair chance to solver it and if the Murderer is someone who is assisting the sleuth the reader isn't playing fair, Go_leaf you say you don't understand why the book is considered 'unfair', Although I haven't read it I have seen it on Television many times although I first heard it on Radio 4. and I can't see why it shouldn't along with The Murder of Roger Ackroyed be considered 'unfair' btw  originality queerido you should have used spoilers.  

sjoerdbol 15 Jan 10 at 12:50 p.m. GMT

You're right , everyone around should be considered as a possible murderer, except Poirot because you know he's the one solving it.   But if a police officer is so close to the murder scene, and well aquainted with the victim and the family, you should consider the possibility that he might have done it. I watched the Suchet version on christmas day :)

go_leafs_nation 14 Jan 10 at 1:06 p.m. GMT

I never did understand why people consider this book 'unfair'. The hints are all there, and practically scream at the reader upon re-reading. Police officers are people also- they have emotions, too. But mystery readers tend to forget that and the inspector is practically always dismissed as 'the fool who will focus on the wrong end of the stick'. Agatha Christie took advantage of readers' preconception of "the police officer investigating the crime" and made an ingenious twist. To paraphrase Dorothy L. Sayers when she defended The Murder of Roger Acrkoyd: It's the reader's business to suspect everyone.

originality_querido 14 Jan 10 at 2:06 a.m. GMT

In Hercule Poirot's Christmas I tought it was Lydia, but, it turned out to be the policeman. Oh man, that was sick. I really got disappointed with that end, I would have change it. Cause, it's kind of unfair, with us readers, to present us the guilty without giving us the opportunity first to distrust of him. So, what did you think about that end?But, no offence. I love her books. Actually it's the only thing I read almost :p

3rdGirl 12 Jan 10 at 2:52 a.m. GMT

I read it this Christmas too cristina86! The perfect Christmas Eve/Day book for our extremely hot Christmas here in Australia! I found it very bleak and gruesome and really enjoyed that Simeon Lee's family were slowly coming to terms with the fact that it must have been 'one of them' and they couldn't leave.

cristina86 11 Jan 10 at 11:08 p.m. GMT

I read it again in English this Christmas (had read it over and over again in italian in the past) and it was really the perfect holiday mystery. I remembered most of it well enough, though I did pay more attentions to details that I had never noticed in the translated narrative, such as the times Sudgeon was shown to throw his head back and laugh just like Harry, Stephen and the late Simeon Lee.

Fishcake16 11 Jan 10 at 4:07 p.m. GMT

I thought that Sudgeon was guilty but I didn't know his motive. I thought the murder itself was cleverly done. And I agree that Simeon Lee was horrible and I felt sorry for the woman who he spent the night with and then fled I felt so sorry for her...

3rdGirl 10 Jan 10 at 11:15 p.m. GMT

Oh this is the ONLY AC book where I actually guessed the murderer! So now I'm feeling very clever indeed!

I definitely picked up on the butler feeling like he was seeing things and the same person over and over.

I also loved that Simeon Lee was so horrible. I do enjoy her books when I love to hate the victim! He was awful.

christie_greece 10 Jan 10 at 11:22 a.m. GMT

From the first moment that simeon lee was dead, I believed tha Sudgeon was guilty.For a moment I suspected Pilar, but in the end I was absolutely sure tha Sudgeon was the murderer.However, I had NO IDEA about his motive.

Fishcake16 09 Jan 10 at 7:13 p.m. GMT

I thought that this story was really cleverly written. I mean the way the string was tied round the furniture and then was pulled from outside the window to make it look like there was a struggle before Simeon Lee's throat was cut! One of Agatha's best I think! I love the way you can't tell who the murderer is! I just love the story line and plot behind it! By the way I think David Suchet plays Poirot the best no one else quite compares to him!

Inspector_Kelly 08 Jan 10 at 11:37 a.m. GMT

This is one of the best of her stories, and one of my favourites. The most clever thing about it, is who the murderer is. You would never guess.

Attica76 07 Jan 10 at 3:28 p.m. GMT

Nofret, do you mean the Suchet version? (I'm not sure if there are any others though). I liked it in general, although I must say they toned it down a bit - I mean, the atmosphere in the house wasn't as tense and hostile as it's in the book.

Interestingly, while the book pays practically no attention to Sudgeon's mother (only mentioning that Simeon must have paid her a neat sum to turn over a new leaf with the baby and a new man), placing the responsibility for the murder on Sudgeon's shoulders because he inherited Simeon's revengeful spirit. But in the film, there's the mother who was the driving force behind the revenge, probably poisoning his mind for years. What kind of mother does that to her own child? If she wanted Simeon dead she could have done it herself. (But we wouldn't have the excellent plot then ).

I still believe that even if (and it's a big if) Simeon deserved to be murdered, he didn't deserve to be murdered by his own son. 

Nofret 07 Jan 10 at 11:01 a.m. GMT

One of my top 5 Christies! As well as having a totally unexpected ending, the characters are so lively and well-drawn, especially Lydia, MP George and his tarty wife, and David and Hylda.

It's a shame that the IMO excellent TV production of this book entirely omitted the latter couple. But in its dramatisation of Simeon Lee's back history it showed that he certainly deserved to be murdered, Attica! My only quibble is why someone hadn't done for the blighter long ago!

Attica76 03 Jan 10 at 2:41 p.m. GMT

I have long given up trying who the murderer is in Christie's stories and I'm always misled by the red herrings (and I would have never guessed the motive wasn't monetary gain, too). So I enjoyed this book immensely although it's so macabre.

But I must say that in my view, Simeon Lee didn't  deserve to die, unlike, say, the victim in Murder on the Orient Express.

bhar1234 28 Nov 09 at 9:25 a.m. GMT

Simeon Lee mudered and i always suspected Harry Lee,then moving to George Lee and Magdelene.then i got a spur of suspicion with Lydia lee and then Pilar Estravados.but never suspected Sudgeon!!!

Christie's talent is that she can lead her readers to the completely WRONG track!then the real culprit is so unexpected that you admire Christie all the more!!