Agreed.Moonraker wrote:I probably say this every year, but Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot's Christmas is a must.
If you like to read classic/vintage mystery books with Christmas theme, I recommend some books that I have read and like.
Below are the books.
The pictures are same with my books that I own.
Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie(1938)
It is Christmas Eve. 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. But when Hercule Poirot, who is staying in the village with a friend for Christmas, 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
The Sittaford Mystery aka Murder At Hazelmoor by Agatha Christie(1931)
It was a typical Dickens Christmas: deep snow everywhere, and down in the little
village of Sittaford on the fringe of Dartmoor probably deeper than anywhere.
Mrs. Willett, the winter tenant in Captain Trevelyan'ss country house, was,
with her daughter Violet, giving a party.Finally they decided to do a little
table rapping and after the usual number of inconsequential messages from the
"other side", suddenly the table announced that Captain Trevelyan was
dead.His oldest friend, Captain Burnaby, was disturbed. He quickly left the
house and tramped ten miles of snowy roads to Exhampton.There was no sign of
life in Trevelyan's house.A back window was broken in and the light was
"burning”and there, on the floor, was the body of Trevelyan.Inspector
Narracott took the case in hand, and after wandering through a maze of false
clues and suspects, he ultimately discovered the murderer of Captain
Trevelyan.Mrs. Christie has never
formulated a more ingenious or enthralling plot and her characterisation is of
the vivid type which marked The Murder at the Vicarage and The Murder of Roger
Ackroyd.
Tied Up In Tinsel by Ngaio Marsh(1972)
Christmas time in an isolated country house and, following a flaming row in the kitchen, there's murder inside. When a much disliked visiting servant disappears without trace after playing Santa Claus, foul play is at once suspected -- and foul play it proves to be. Only suspicion falls not on the staff but on the guests, all so unimpeachably respectable that the very thought of murder in connection with any of them seems almost heresy. When Superintendent Roderick Alleyn returns unexpectedly from a trip to Australia, it is to find his beloved wife in the thick of an intriguing mystery...
Death And The Dancing Footman(1941)
It began as an entertainment: eight people, many of them enemies, gathered for a winter weekend as guests of a host with a love for theatre. Everybody had an alibi - and most a motive as well. But for Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn the case rested on the dancing footman.
Note:The cover is different from my own copies.I could not find the same cover.
Envious Casca by Georgete Heyer(1941)
It is no ordinary Christmas at Lexham Manor. Six holiday guests find themselves the suspects of a murder enquiry when the old Scrooge Nathaniel Herriard, who owns the substantial estate, is found stabbed in the back. Whilst the delicate matter of inheritance could be the key to this crime, the real conundrum is how any of the suspects could have entered the locked room to commit this foul deed. For Inspector Hemingway of Scotland Yard, 'tis the season to find whodunit.
An English Murder aka The Christmas Murder by Cyril Hare(1951)
A classic detective story from one of the best-loved Golden Age crime writers, Cyril Hare, originally published in 1951. The setting of An English Murder seems, at first, to be a very conventional one. A group of family and friends come together for Christmas at a country house, Warbeck Hall. The house is owned by Lord Warbeck, a dying and impoverished peer who wants to be among loved ones for what he thinks will be his last Christmas. The holiday decorations are up and snow is falling fast outside. The guests range from the Lord’s difficult son to a visiting Czech historian. There is, of course, a faithful butler and his ambitious daughter. But when the murders begin, there is nothing at all conventional about them - or the manner of their detection. This ingenious detective story gleefully plays with all of our expectations about what an ‘English murder’ might be and offers enough twists and turns to keep us reading into the night. 'Of Cyril Hare’s detective stories my only complaint is, that they are too infrequent.’
'By a long shot, the best crime story I have read for a long time. Everything is traditional, but originality does not suffer. The setting is perfect.'-Irish Press
