In Agatha Christie’s thriller Christmas Adventure, a prank turns into misfortune. As a young girl lies in the snow, Hercule Poirot tries to determine who in the Christmas party could be… a murderer?
A Book Review of Christmas Adventure… by the murder victim:
My name is Nancy Cardell.
I’m at Aunt Emily’s with seven other friends for Christmas. And a funny old man with his curious egg-shaped head, fierce moustache and piercing emerald-green eyes.
“It is my business to know things,” he says.
Johnnie suggests a snowball fight. Jean says let’s make a snowman who looks like the great detective. Yes, the funny man is Hercule Poirot. A famous crime buster in his day, I hear.
We all rush outdoors. All, except Evelyn Haworth who sat near the fireplace, having a conversation with Mr.Poirot. I wonder what they’re talking about. Maybe her upcoming marriage with Oscar Levering.
In a while, the two of them come out hand in hand. “Love’s young dream,” Johnnie remarks. The couple pause to look at our snowman, a nice likeness to Hercule Poirot.
“Wait till the moustache goes on.”
Somebody suggests it would be interesting to have a murder to go along with our detective. And someone else draws up a plan to fake one, just to try and fool him. We excitedly make arrangements.
That night at dinner, the irascible Mr.Endicott bit into a colored piece of glass in the Christmas pudding. Poirot took the ruby-red stone from him, examined it closely, and slipped it into his pocket while everyone fiercely debated the mystery of how it might have got into the pudding.
I thought I was the only one who noticed.
Early next morning, Johnnie woke up M.Hercule Poirot.
“Something dreadful’s happened,” he cried. “Someone’s been killed!”
On the snow outside the house, a girl’s figure lay motionless.
Clad in scarlet red pyjamas, arms spread wide, head turned aside, I lay silent – the hilt of a dagger rising up from my chest, a patch of crimson coloring the snow around me.
Hercule Poirot looked concerned. The others suppressed giggles, delighted at how well their prank was playing out.
Until…
“Nancy, get up. Don’t lie there all day!”
But I didn’t move. A delicious chill seeped through my body. My hand was numb, senseless.
Dimly I was aware of Mr.Poirot and Johnnie walking up to me; lifting my hand; feeling my pulse; nothing.
“She’s dead,” someone gasped.
I hear footsteps leaving. It was suggested that they call the police. A bike roared away. The others went into the house.
By now you’re probably wondering how I could know all of this, since I’m supposed to be dead!
And that’s exactly what I did, too, when I saw Jean kissing the old dear as he stood under the mistletoe and thought to myself: “Me too.”
How could I?
To find out, you’ll have to read about the remarkable turn of events in “Christmas Adventure : A Hercule Poirot Short Story”.
“It is my business to know things.”
– Hercule Poirot
Christmas Adventure was one of the first Agatha Christie short stories featuring Hercule Poirot. In it, the great detective celebrates an English Christmas even as he is commissioned to trace a precious ruby that has been stolen from a Far Eastern prince.
Agatha Christie’s Poirot sees through the trick a group of rambunctious youngsters play on him, while solving a riddle that seems to defy reason.
‘Christmas Adventure‘ was first published in 1923 as ‘The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding‘, and later expanded for inclusion in a book published in 1960.
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