Hello everyone!
Obviously you can have all the sweetness and Christmas-y adorable feelings whenever you pick a book up, but every once in a while there can also be another thing happening, and it's kind of fun to deviate a little.
Plus, I'm a huge Agatha Christie fan, so naturally I'll try and sneak in one of her books if I possibly can along the way.
It doesn't help that watching His Dark Materials and hearing David Suchet's voice as he portrays one of the daemons is one of the best things that's happened in a while, because honestly, I LOVE this man, and his portrayal of Hercule Poirot is probably one that will last for all time.
The fact remains there is only one REALLY good Belgian detective.
And he also had an interesting Christmas a couple of times.
Hercule Poirot's Christmas covers just one of those adventures.
Off we go!
As you know, my admiration and adoration of Christie and her little mustache-ioed maverick mincing about knows no bounds. So I generally enjoy whatever time of year the books describe, but it's kind of helpful when they talk about holidays I might also have a use for.
This Christmas adventure might be one of the best, too (there are a couple of others and I might actually review another later).
Our story begins as the characters for this drama begin arriving for a typical English Christmas. It seems the elderly father, Simeon, decides to spend Christmas with his children, his wife having passed away many years ago, and so he invites the lot of them back to the family manor.
Some already live with him - Alfred and his wife Lydia - and others are coming specifically for the holiday - George and his wife Magdalene, David and his wife Hilda, the estranged son, Harry, and Pilar, the only granddaughter Simeon has.
The old man is one of those who love toying with their family, however, because he hasn't really called them here to do them any favours, oh no.
He just called them to be a pain in the arse, and he doesn't even particularly like any of them.
This is all brought to the forefront when, after dinner one night, a monstrous shriek is heard from above and when they break in the old man's door, they find the room in disarray, and him murdered in a pool of blood, his throat slit from ear to ear.
This is where Poirot comes in.
At that moment, he's spending some quality time with his old friend, Colonel Johnson, and lamenting the other's refusal of central heating, when Superintendent Sugden gives a call explaining what's happened. Johnson hustles over with Poirot, and the three of them immediately begin investigating who had the motive, desire, and opportunity to actually do away with the old man.
Simeon Lee is a character all by himself even when dead as they explore his past, his no-good ways, the fact he held on to grudges long and that apparently the motive was the rough, uncut diamonds he had in his safe in his room.
But the problem is that the door seems to have been locked from inside, and no window is open or big enough for anyone to slip through, though they soon find out someone turned the key on the outside to make it LOOK like the inside process.
We also learn everyone is lying, basically, but then again this is a lesson you learn quickly in Christie's novels: everyone always lies.
Whether or not the lies are big or small is the thing you have to uncover.
Lydia will probably do anything to protect her husband, who seems a little lost after the death of his father; George and Magdalene are both lying about a telephone call; Pilar is lying about her entire identity; Harry might be lying about some other things; the guest who was there unexpectedly, Stephen, also lies about his identity.
Poirot slowly and methodically establishes just where everybody was and who did what, and it all eventually boils down to the murdered man's psychology and character, of course.
It turns out the diamonds were a ruse, and they're found in one of Lydia's small, artful gardens she creates to escape the dreary place, but no one actually stole them. The murderer put them there to draw attention from the murder.
Alfred and Harry were having an argument in the kitchen, as Harry was supposed to come home for good, though he'd been exiled after forging a check and stealing some money, when the shriek came from above. Hilda was in the hallway, having wanted to speak to Simeon about leaving with David (who had been the venting destination for his weakling mother and adored her memory, though she was certainly no saint, but she unloaded it all on him and only with his father's death did he forgive the man), George DID make a call but then snooped around Alfred's desk, and Magdalene was trying to figure out a way to get her bills covered. As for Stephen, he was listening to music, waiting for Pilar, but Pilar, who had tried to get in to see her grandfather earlier, was hiding with the statues in the gallery.
This is in contrast to what everyone said earlier, that they were all down below, because everyone has their own motive and desire in this book, though none of them actually killed Simeon Lee.
Poirot goes a step further and uncovers that the old butler who'd been with the family for ages and can't see in the distance very well anymore has told him that he keeps thinking things had already happened, which is based on some of the men in the family having very distinct faces.
When Harry, Sugden and Stephen all arrive one after another, the butler thinks it's the same person because they look practically identical.
Because both Stephen and Sugden are Simeon's bastards.
But only Sugden killed him, for dallying with his mother and then leaving her in 'disgrace', though Simeon did give her a handsome sum and she found herself a nice husband, and we never know if she actually missed him or what.
How he did it?
He went in earlier and slit the man's throat BEFORE dinner, then rigged a rope around the room to be pulled through the window so the furniture would all crash about, and released a balloon that made the ghastly noises sounding like a dying something.
He also attempts to murder Pilar when she uncovers part of the plan, but that's thankfully prevented.
Johnson is aghast that one of his own would dare commit murder, and the family also learns Pilar isn't actually Pilar - she's Conchita, as Pilar had died when a bomb fell on their car as they drove through Spain.
Everyone then disperses, and Stephen and Pilar actually want to get married, while Alfred and Lydia plan to sell the house. The rest go back to their own haunts, Poirot included, who returns with Johnson to the roaring fire in the fireplace.
Still lamenting the absence of central heating!
But Merry Christmas to him, right?
Christie's books really need to be read so you see her brilliance in leaving little breadcrumbs along the way, but this one certainly is quite a doozy for Christmas, though honestly I enjoy Poirot any day of the year. He really has no equal save Sherlock Holmes.
Hopefully he returns to his own flat in London, and his heating!
xx
*images not mine
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