Book Club “Hercule Poirot’s Christmas”
For December we chose a classic mystery with a Christmas setting by the Queen of Crime. This seemed like the perfect holiday to keep our minds puzzling out answers to clues.
Book
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie
Description:
On Christmas Eve at Gorston Hall, the Lee family’s festivities are shattered by a deafening crash of furniture and a high-pitched wailing scream. Upstairs—in a locked bedroom—the tyrannical patriarch Simeon Lee lies dead in a pool of blood, his throat slashed.
When Hercule Poirot offers to assist, he finds an atmosphere not of mourning but of mutual suspicion. It seems everyone had their own reason to hate the old man, but which one of them turned a special occasion into an occasion for homicide? The suspects will indeed be stirring this Christmas Eve...
Club
Snack suggestions:
For this holiday book club, you could either lay into the English Christmas feast theme or stock your table with Christmas sweets.
We had a version of cottage pie for our meal and then enjoyed peppermint cookies and fruitcake (or chuckled at the fruitcake on the table.)
Check out Cozy Crimes’ book club questions that can be used for any mystery.
Here are our questions targeted to Hercule Poirot’s Christmas:
1. Have you read other Agatha Christie mysteries before? How did this compare?
2. How did Christmas tie into the story?
3. Who was your favorite suspect?
4. Throughout the book, what were your suspicions about the crime? How did they change as more clues were gathered?
5. What did you think of Hercule Poirot, his “little grey cells”, and his detective style?
6. What did you think about the execution of the crime? How did things go wrong/right for the killer’s plan?
7. What did you think of the victim? How did this affect your suspicions?
8. How did the setting affect the mystery?
9. How did the past come back to haunt the characters within the story?
10. What classic mystery tropes were seen in this book? Which do you believe were created by Agatha Christie?
Reading an Agatha Christie mystery for book club allows you to add some extra Christie-themed fun to your gathering! You could watch a film adaptation of one of her books or play a game such as Agatha Christie’s Death on the Cards.