Hercule Poirot's Christmas

By Agatha Christie,

Book cover of Hercule Poirot's Christmas

Book description

It is Christmas Eve. The Lee family reunion is shattered by a deafening crash of furniture, followed by a high-pitched wailing scream. Upstairs, the tyrannical Simeon Lee lies dead in a pool of blood, his throat slashed.

But when Hercule Poirot, who is staying in the village with a friend…

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Why read it?

3 authors picked Hercule Poirot's Christmas as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

In this book, a murder takes place in a manor house just like in my novel, but during Christmas time. There is a connection to a diamond mine in South Africa, and how that played a part in the murder of the patriarch of the family. Detective Hercule Poirot has to delve into the family’s past to connect the dots and determine the motive and the identity of the killer. For those who like murders set during Christmas time, this is a novel for you.

Agatha Christie was one of the first crime authors I read. My dad had loads of books in the garage, so I sometimes used to sneak a bag of sweets in there and read, and this was one of them. I really enjoyed the drama and tension, combined with the Christmas attitude. It stands the test of time, too.

From Ross' list on Christmas nostalgia.

Many of Agatha Christie’s books are “closed circle” mysteries that are mistakenly referred to as locked-room mysteries, but Hercule Poirot’s Christmas is both. Poirot is on the case when a family reunion leads to a locked-room murder of the family patriarch in a locked bedroom at an isolated manor house. Everyone in the family hated the dead man, and Christie is delightfully witty as she plays with genre conventions. Though not one of Christie’s most famous novels, it’s a masterful mystery that deserves a spot with the rest. 

Book cover of The Spanish Diplomat's Secret

Nev March Author Of The Spanish Diplomat's Secret

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Why am I passionate about this?

Author History lover Scriptwriter Reader Nature lover

Nev's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

An entertaining mystery on a 1894 trans-Atlantic steamship with an varied array of suspects, and a detective who must solve his case in six days to prevent international conflict.

Retired from the British Indian army, Captain Jim is taking his wife Diana to Liverpool from New York, when their pleasant cruise turns deadly. Just hours after meeting him, a foreign diplomat is brutally murdered onboard their ship. Captain Jim must find the killer before they dock in six days, or there could be war! Aboard the beleaguered luxury liner are a thousand suspects, but no witnesses to the locked-cabin crime.

Fortunately, his wife Diana knows her way around first-class accommodations and Gilded Age society. But something has been troubling her, too, something she won’t tell him. Together, using tricks gleaned from their favorite fictional sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, Captain Jim, and Diana must learn why one man’s life came to a murderous end.

By Nev March,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Spanish Diplomat's Secret as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In The Spanish Diplomat's Secret, award-winning author Nev March explores the vivid nineteenth-century world of the transatlantic voyage, one passenger’s secret at a time.

Captain Jim Agnihotri and his wife Lady Diana Framji are embarking to England in the summer of 1894. Jim is hopeful the cruise will help Diana open up to him. Something is troubling her, and Jim is concerned.

On their first evening, Jim meets an intriguing Spaniard, a fellow soldier with whom he finds an instant kinship. But within twenty-four hours, Don Juan Nepomuceno is murdered, his body discovered shortly after he asks rather urgently to…


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