Book Review: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (Hercule Poirot #18) by Agatha Christie

Originally published in 1938 and the 18th book in Agatha Christie‘s Hercule Poirot series, Hercule Poirot’s Christmas follows a family reunion which is marred by murder — and the notoriously fastidious investigator is quickly on the case. The wealthy Simeon Lee has demanded that all four of his sons — one faithful, one prodigal, one impecunious, one sensitive — and their wives return home for Christmas. But a heartwarming family holiday is not exactly what he has in mind. He bedevils each of his sons with barbed insults and finally announces that he is cutting off their allowances and changing his will. Poirot is called in the aftermath of Simeon Lee’s announcement.

Book Review: Halloween Party (Hercule Poirot #32) by Agatha Christie

“You and I have a principle in common. We do not approve of murder.”

Originally published in 1969 and the 32nd book in Agatha Christie‘s Hercule Poirot series, Halloween Party sees a teenage murder witness drowned in a tub of apples at a Halloween party. Joyce — a hostile thirteen-year-old — boasts that she once witnessed a murder. When no one believes her, she storms off home. But within hours her body is found, still in the house, drowned in an apple-bobbing tub. That night, Hercule Poirot is called in to find the ‘evil presence’. But first, he must establish whether he is looking for a murderer or a double-murderer…

Book Review: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot #4) by Agatha Christie

“The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seekers after it.”

Originally published in 1926 and the fourth instalment in the Hercule Poirot series, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie is narrated by the local doctor, Dr James Sheppard, who finds his friend dead after an evening meal together. But Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He suspected also that someone had been blackmailing her. Then, the evening post brought Roger one last fatal scrap of information. But before he could finish reading the letter, he was stabbed to death. Luckily, King’s Abbot has a new resident – none other than Monsieur Hercule Poirot himself – who enlists Sheppard’s help to find out who’s behind the murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Book Review: Death On The Nile (Hercule Poirot #17) by Agatha Christie

“They conceive a certain theory, and everything has to fit into that theory. If one little fact will not fit it, they throw it aside. But it is always the facts that will not fit in that are significant.”

First published in 1937, Agatha Christie‘s most exotic murder mystery, Death On The Nile, sees the acclaimed Hercule Poirot set to board the steamer Karnak to tour along the Nile while on holiday in Cairo when he must investigate the murder of a young, rich and beautiful socialite, Linnet Ridgeway. She had everything – until she lost her life. Nothing is ever quite what it seems in this exotic setting, as Poirot must find out the truth by questioning those aboard, including Linnet’s husband Simon; her best friend Jacqueline de Bellefort; her maid Louise Bourget; her trustee Andrew Pennington; romance novelist Salome Otterbourne and her daughter Rosalie; Tim Allerton and his mother; American socialite Marie Van Schuyler, her cousin Cornelia Robson and her nurse Miss Bowers; outspoken communist Mr Ferguson; Italian archaeologist Guido Richetti; solicitor Jim Fanthorp; and Austrian physician Dr Bessner.