Original language: English
Original title: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
Year of publication: 1938
Translation: J. Majorcan Figuerola
Rating: Okay
Joy, jubilation and jingle bells, friends of ULAD, because tonight is Christmas Eve and tomorrow is Christmas! Take out your boot, María, I’m going to get drunk… Finally these important dates have arrived in which family and friends gather in an atmosphere of peace and love, in which good feelings prevail everywhere, in which we show the world the best of human beings… Well, okay, no: let’s recognize that the most common thing is thatYou may feel like throwing a bottle at your brother-in-law’s grief or sticking a turkey carving knife at your naughty mother-in-law… It’s understandable, after all, with the stress that is generated at family dinners, between great uncle fachorro and cousin creepy… (not to mention the traditional meetings with schoolmates, business dinners and other events sacaquartos).
Anyway, as I say, expeditious and effective Christmas plot: in the Midlands mansion of the elderly billionaire Simeon (like that, with an accent… things from the translations of yesteryear) Lee, he summons his four offspring and their wives to spend Christmas together. The meeting is joined by his Spanish granddaughter, the daughter of his deceased daughter, and the young son of a former partner of his in South Africa. Now, they do not get to spend such an endearing celebration in peace and harmony, because the previous afternoon (that is, on Christmas Eve. That is, today…) old Lee is brutally murdered. Now, within such a fatality, the good fortune occurs that the famous detective Hercule Poirot was spending the evening with the chief of police of Middleshire and accompanies him to the crime scene to help catch the murderer (i.e. , good luck is not for this one or that one, predictably).
(Wait a minute… a rich guy who feels sympathy for a beautiful young woman of Hispanic origin and who is murdered in a bloody way in his room during a family gathering? The best detective in the world who intervenes to unravel the case? Is that Haven’t I seen it somewhere? Well yes, there is a successful movie from a few years ago, starring a James Bond and a Bond girl that, who knows where, starts from the same premise as this novel… although, well It is true, then its development goes for others course… or not, you will have to read it to know).
Well, logically, I am not going to reveal who the murderer is. I will only say that this is a quite entertaining novel, with many of the typical elements of Agatha Christie’s: upper class characters with secrets, family quarrels, apparently unsolvable crime – it is true, not very fine, in this case – with fourth closed included and the best-known Belgian detective, the ineffable detective Hercule Poirot. releasing his observations here and there, somewhat disconcerting for the British mentality… it is true that in this novel he seems a little more benevolent, less impertinent than in others (I must also admit that it has been a long time since I read one of his). And, of course, the mandatory final meeting with all the suspects cannot be missed, dazzled by Poirot’s deductive brilliance… As a curiosity, and given that the story takes place in the late 1930s and one of the deceased’s relatives comes from Spain, there are certain references to the Civil War that I suppose at the time served to give it an attractive touch of current events for its readers. In any case, Mrs. Agatha gave him good in the noses a good lesson to his brother-in-law, which is what is important. Take note, for these holidays and don’t let yourselves be overwhelmed… And if the brother-in-law is you, don’t touch anyone’s nose, Pussyit’s -almost- Christmas…
Source: https://unlibroaldia.blogspot.com/2024/12/agatha-christie-navidades-tragicas.html
