Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie
A classic “whodunit” written in 1938, but the then acknowledged “Queen of Crime”; this did indeed prove a treat enjoyed by all, despite being obviously of its period. If anyone would like to write a sentence or two about these books, please email me janet.bayliss@esneft.nhs.uk – so we can post to the book group part of the ESNEFT book group website.
Despite its age, and being a product of its time, Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie proved to be a hit, especially as an audiobook. The twists and turns of the storyline were confusing, but kept the reader involved; and in general, we did not guess who the murderer was. The theme of a family gathering at Christmas and the potential tensions involved rang true; with several commenting on the awfulness of Simeon Lee, the tyrannical father. Naturally, the book is a Poirot mystery, but reviewers commented negatively at the time that Poirot is not such a strong character in this mystery as previously; we actually rather liked this aspect of the characterisation of the great detective, finding him to be more believable, less stereotyped and less annoying than usual. The presence of an unusually intelligent and observant police officer in the novel was also noted; along with the much used theme of a crime in a locked room, handled rather well here by not being too over-used until nearly the end of the story.
Agatha Christie (1890 – 1976) had a long, productive life as a writer, with her first published book, The mysterious affair at Styles appearing over a century ago in 1920. This first mystery featured Hercule Poirot, a Belgian exile who came over the UK during World War I and at the time of the book’s publication, this background for the detective would have felt quite contemporary as the War was very recent history. Poirot, as a foreigner and a refugee is an intelligent outsider, which makes him perfect for observing and deducing from the mores of English society. Christie came to heartily dislike the character, but never killed him off because he proved so popular with the public.
Hercule’ Poirot’s Christmas was adapted for television in 1994 with David Suchet in the title role; but weirdly it has also been televised in France twice, in 2006 and 2018 – it would be interesting to know how they tackled Poirot’s accent! Many distinguished actors have played the character: with the Peter Ustinov portrayals of about 50 years ago coming in for honourable mention amongst our group.
There was some discussion of classic crime fiction, with some readers preferring Miss Marple to Poirot as an Agatha Christie character (less annoying); while others were fans of Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. We also suggested the novels of Wilkie Collins which were amongst the first to feature detectives, including The woman in white, The moonstone and No name. These are long books and there is a great deal more in them than the crime investigation themes, of course.
Lucy Worsley’s television series A very British murder is fascinating watching around the themes of early UK crime fiction. More modern versions of this now seem to be part of a genre called “cosy crime”; a suggestion of an example of this was The Christmas jigsaw murders by Alexandra Benedict. For something a bit meatier, Eeny Meeny by M.J. Arlidge was mentioned again as a good entry in the crime category, if a bit gory in places.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, a fairly recent book group choice was suggested again, with strong feminist themes and an unusual 1960s set premise. In the vein of fiction about women by women, An American marriage by Tayari Jones was enjoyed as a strong novel about what happens as a young black couple have their lives turned upside down, when one of them is falsely accused of a crime
Several of the above are on Libby, check them out at the ESNEFT Libby pages.