HERCULE POIROT`S CHRISTMAS

"It is, then, your opinion that Christmas time is an unlikely season for crime?"

Christmas Eve. A time for good cheer - eating, drinking and over-indulgence; an opportunity to bring together families; who have grown apart.

The Lee family reunion is shattered by a deafening crash of furniture, followed by a high-pitched wailing scream. Upstairs, the tyrannical Simeon Lee lies dead in a pool of blood, his throat slashed. Despite the festivities, it seems that everyone in the family hated the old man, one of them enough to kill him...

• "Christie makes one departure here... this is a "good violent murder with lots of blood". - Times Literary Supplement
• "Agatha Christie once more abandonedly dangles the murder before our eyes and successfully defies us to see them." - Observer