Hercule Poirot's Christmas
👤| Published | December 1938 |
| Genre | Locked-Room Mystery |
| Publisher | Collins Crime Club |
| Language | English |
| Series | Hercule Poirot #20 |
📝My Honest Review: Hercule Poirot's Christmas
If you think Christmas stories should be all about cocoa and kindness, stay away from this one. The victim, Simeon Lee, is a disgusting, multi-millionaire tyrant who invites his estranged family home for the holidays just to enjoy watching them fight over his money. He’s the kind of guy who actually says out loud:
"I'm an old man and I'm a rich man. I've got a lot of money to leave. And I'm not going to leave it to any of you!"
When he is found in a locked room with his throat cut—surrounded by a literal pool of blood—it’s a shocking scene for an Agatha Christie novel. As a critic, I have to give her props for the atmospheric tension. The house feels like a pressure cooker. But, I also have to point out that the "locked-room" gimmick here is a bit over-the-top. The solution involves a mechanical trick that feels more like a Wile E. Coyote cartoon than a serious crime scene.
The suspects are also a bit cliché. You have the "stiff-upper-lip" English son, the "rebel" son, and the "mysterious Spanish granddaughter." It’s very much a "by-the-numbers" cast. However, the sheer brutality of the crime and the psychological cruelty of the victim make it a much darker, grittier read than your average Poirot. It's Christie's version of a horror movie.
⏱️ 1-Minute Summary (for busy readers)
Simeon Lee, a cruel old man, gathers his family for Christmas at Gorston Hall. After a loud crash and a scream are heard from his locked room, the family breaks down the door to find him murdered in a blood-soaked room with no way for a killer to have escaped. Hercule Poirot is staying nearby and joins Colonel Johnson to investigate.
The solution is one of Christie's boldest "disguised identity" plays. The killer is actually Superintendent Sugden, the very policeman who arrived to "investigate." Sugden was Simeon Lee's illegitimate son from a past affair. He faked the scream using a balloon and a mechanical noise-maker to create a fake time of death, allowing him to kill Simeon earlier while appearing to have an alibi. The motive? Revenge for his mother's abandonment and Simeon's lifelong cruelty.
🔹 The Critic's Report Card
| ⭐ Rating | 4.1 / 5 A gore-filled holiday treat, even if the "trick" is a bit silly. |
|---|---|
| 👍 What I Loved | The bravery of the twist. Making the investigating officer the killer was a huge risk that pays off in a major "shook" moment for the reader. |
| 👎 What I Didn’t Like | The blood logistics. The book makes a huge deal about the "amount" of blood, and the mechanical trick used to explain the scream is honestly a bit ridiculous when you think about it for more than five minutes. |
| 😐 Overrated or Underrated? | Properly Rated. It’s a fan favorite for the holidays and definitely one of her most memorable setups. |
👤 Human Take: Family is the Real Mystery
What I find most "human" about this book is the cycle of abuse. Simeon Lee was a terrible person, and he turned his children into broken, bitter people. The murder is almost an inevitability. It shows that you can't treat people like garbage for decades and expect a "Merry Christmas" at the end of it. The real tragedy isn't that an old man died; it's that he destroyed his family's happiness long before he ever met a knife.
The Final Word: It’s a violent, theatrical, and deeply cynical Christmas tale. Perfect if you’re tired of "happy" holiday stories and want something with some teeth.
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