Poirot Retrospective #15: Poirot's Christmas

 

Poirot Retrospective #15: Poirot's Christmas

Mixed feelings about Poirot's Christmas, although it's certainly above average. My main objection: hardly any damn Christmas in the thing!!

Sure, it takes place over Christmas, and sure, holiday spirit is mentioned a few times. But that's really it. No Christmas tree, no dangerous decorations, no one stabbed with a mistletoe branch... This could have happened at any time of year. Could easily have been Poirot's Easter or Poirot's Labor Day.

Plot is typical: lengthy exposition where a contentious family who hates each other gathers at the request of the horrible patriarch, who is going to change his will. Unsurprisingly he's murdered before this can occur.

Poirot happens to be nearby (Cabot Cove Syndrome) and steps in to help. The solution to this is sort of a ripoff of Christie's other novels, but it's still good, if not particularly unique. My biggest complaint instead is: too many twists!!

There are a series of reveals at the conclusion which are meant to come across as Very Dramatic, but instead seem super forced and convoluted. I predicted one of the three, but didn't feel any satisfaction in it.

Part of the problem is that I'd seen these exact same plot devices before in other books, so I felt no surprise whatsoever; a new reader might get more out of it.

Poirot is also underused a bit. He just wanders around uttering pithy French proverbs and then suddenly solves the crime.

Still, the big manor house full of argumentative family members, the violent murder, and Christie's obvious attempt to push the boundaries (although failing) elevate this above the more pedestrian novels.