The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie

Though she has no proof, she knows he did it. She is confident he did not do it and blames her husband's secretary. Her husband was murdered several days before, and her nephew was charged with the crime. Lady Astwell has requested the aid of Hercule Poirot in clearing her nephew’s name of murder. I could not correctly identify the culprit though I had the right motives. Agatha Christie is the queen of closed-door mysteries. Can Hercule get to the truth of the matter? Will the wife have to accept that she might be wrong? This was one I had recalled from long ago but found I did not quite remember the ending as I thought I had. There is only one person who could have possibly done it, no? However, the victim's wife is adamant that her friend could never do such a thing. Monsieur Poirot is called to help solve the murder of a man who was found after a party in the host's living room hidden in a large Spanish Chest. His lack of wanting to deal with an English winter in the countryside and how a good mystery can’t keep him away. I always find myself chuckling at Monsieur Poirot and his frustrations. While there, he befriends his host family and, of course, solves the crime. Hercule is off to the English countryside for Christmas to catch a thief. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding- Is an extended version of the alternate titled The Theft of the Royal Ruby. I’m also a fan of short stories, and this fit the bill nicely for winter evenings … one story per night. Of course she (and Poirot in his cases) is right.Īgatha Christie is one of my go-to authors when I want a break from everyday life and heavier, more literary reads. I’m less a fan of Miss Marple, and in this case she’s really in the background until she comes in and tells everyone how the murder REALLY happened and who the culprit is. I also enjoyed the subtle differences in plotting from the televised episodes to the original stories as written by Christie. Still, I didn’t always remember the culprit and was happy to read how Poirot and his little grey cells put together the clues to solve the case.

I have seen the BBC dramatizations, starring David Suchet as Poirot, of most of these stories, so the plots were vaguely familiar. Poirot takes center stage in all but the last story, which features Miss Marple. This is actually a collection of short stories, which are:

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie