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Unabridged Digital Audiobook
Runtime: 6 hours, 8 minutes
Read by Hugh Fraser
The holidays can be a contentious time for families. Forced to gather together, their holiday cheer can turn to something less than festive. And in the audio edition of Agatha Christie’s holiday mystery Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, one tense family gathering soon turns to murder.
The story travels home for Christmas with the whole Lee family after aging family patriarch Simeon Lee announces that he’d like to have the whole family together for the holiday. But Simeon Lee has never been one for warmth and togetherness and Christmas spirit, so as soon as his children show up, he lets them know that he’s about to change his will—and that none of them deserve to be in it. Just hours later, Simeon Lee is dead, his throat slashed. And Hercule Poirot joins the less-than-festive gathering to find which member of the family had finally had enough.
The set-up of this deadly holiday gathering sounds a lot like Rian Johnson’s 2019 Oscar-nominated crime comedy, Knives Out: a family gathering, a will, some dark secrets, and a family patriarch who’s brutally murdered in his room. In both book and film, a clever detective arrives on the scene to interview the family. But that’s where the two stories diverge, on their way to very different conclusions.
This holiday mystery is standard Christie: lots of twists and turns, plenty of red herrings, and an ending that you won’t see coming. The story is definitely loaded with family drama, too. Simeon Lee was not a kind, loving husband and father. He was cruel and controlling, threatening his children to keep them under his thumb. That created all kinds of personalities among his children: some beaten down and selfless, some loud and selfish, some rebellious. But, no matter the personality, it seems as though most of the children and their spouses have a perfectly understandable motive. And as they bicker and argue and throw each other under the bus, you’ll dig for clues along with Poirot, relieved that someone’s holiday gatherings are more tense and stressful (and deadly) than yours are.
If you enjoyed the mystery and family drama of Knives Out, you’ll enjoy this Christie holiday classic. It may not be quite as quirky as Johnson’s whodunit, but it’s a holiday mystery that will keep you guessing—whether you listen while wrapping, relaxing, or road-tripping.
Listen to the review on Shelf Discovery:
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