Poirot's Yuletide Locked Room Problem

HERCULE POIROT'S CHRISTMAS.
By Agatha Christie.
Collins Crime Club/Dodd, Mead.
1938/1939. 256 pages. $2.00
[a.k.a. MURDER FOR CHRISTMAS and A HOLIDAY FOR MURDER]
Available on Kindle.

The consensus of opinion is that it's a good, but not great, Christie number:

I'm also no expert on locked room mysteries though I've vowed to read more of them. What I would say about the ones I've read is the word "farfetched" often seems to apply. There's the tiniest bit of that quality to this one but overall I think Christie handles this aspect of the book quite nicely. — William I. Lengeman III, TRADITIONAL MYSTERIES (October 12, 2011)

Uncomfortable English family reunion punctuated by stabbing of partriarch with lurid past. H. Poirot on hand. - Slow start, interesting middle, rather incredible conclusion add up to entertaining but grade B Christie. - Verdict: For Poirot fans. — THE SATURDAY REVIEW (February 11, 1939)

In the new Hercule Poirot tale, Murder for Christmas, competent writing, well-ordered action, and deftly limned characters may or may not compensate the reader for a somewhat confused climax and a solution which, among exacting fans, has been taboo since Zangwill's The Big Bow Mystery. — "Books" by S. S. Van Dine, SCRIBNER'S (April 1939)

Yet another highly successful intellectual parody of the detective story . . . The solution is brilliant, blame falling upon a character the reader never suspected. — Nick Fuller, GAD Wiki

Resources:
- Filmed in 1994 (IMDb).
- COLLIER'S WEEKLY serialized MURDER FOR CHRISTMAS in ten installments, November 1938 - January 1939:
- Part 1
- Part 2
- Part 3
- Part 4
- Part 5
- Part 6
- Part 7
- Part 8
- Part 9
- Part 10

Category: Detective fiction