What are we reading this December?

There isn’t much I love more than the holiday season. Christmas lights, tasty treats, and cozy reads top my list. Earlier this month, I bought Agatha Christie’s “Hercule Poirot’s Christmas.” I’m eager for this seasonal read, and I invite you all to join me.

All about the book

Here is the book’s excerpt:

“In Hercule Poirot's Christmas, the holidays are anything but merry when a family reunion is marred by murder — and the notoriously fastidious investigator is quickly on the case. The wealthy Sime

on Lee has demanded that all four of his sons — one faithful, one prodigal, one impecunious, one sensitive — and their wives return home for Christmas. But a heartwarming family holiday is not exactly what he has in mind. He bedevils each of his sons with barbed insults and finally announces that he is cutting off their allowances and changing his will. Poirot is called in the aftermath of Simeon Lee's announcement.”

Agatha Christie is one of the best-selling authors of all time, following only Shakespeare and the Bible. She is known primarily for writing detective novels, which she has written 66 of!

Hercule Poirot is one of Agatha Christie’s most well-known recurring characters. With Poirot as the main character, Christie published 33 novels, two plays, and 51 short stories. That is actually an insane level of commitment to one character. And people loved Poirot.

Poirot is a Belgian private detective with a killer mustache. The series follows his life in London, the city he fled to during the First World War, as he solves an alarming number of murder mysteries.

The first Hercule Poirot novel was published in 1920. “Hercule Poirot’s Christmas” was published in 1938, and is the 20th novel in the series, meaning Poirot’s got some experience under his belt by the time this crime needs to be solved.

What am I most excited about?

I’ve actually never read an Agatha Christie novel before, but I’ve been really wanting to try a cozy murder mystery for a while, and she sort of owns the genre. I always worry that really renowned authors won’t live up to their hype and I’ll be left disappointed, but Christie’s legacy seems so solid.

I’m also looking forward to getting into the holiday spirit with a non-romance. Don’t get me wrong — I love a Christmas rom com, but I’ve exhausted that genre over the past few years and am craving something new … like murder!

Something in the book’s excerpt that intrigued me was how all of Simon Lee’s sons are given different archetypes: “one faithful, one prodigal, one impecunious, one sensitive.” I feel like there could be a lot of great meaning-making using those characters, and maybe it will help me solve the mystery.

Join me!

I started this blog to have conversations with people about books, so I think it would be super fun if you guys read this book with me and shared your thoughts along the way — no spoilers, of course.

I will post my final book review of “Hercule Poirot's Christmas”  on December 22. Read the book with me to join the Let’s Get Lit book club!