Let’s celebrate the Christmas season with a book review! I generally really enjoy Christie, so I jumped at the chance to borrow this Christmas-themed collection from her! The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding consists of 6 short stories, 5 about Poirot and 1 about Miss Marple. Since there aren’t that many stories, I’ll just give my thoughts on each one:

• The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding is the titular story and extremely fun. Poirot is tempted from his modern, comfortable flat by a mystery and the promise of modern comforts while experiencing a traditional English Christmas. His client, a prince, has asked him to recover a ruby. But when he’s there, Poirot finds other problems, like the unsuitable man that the granddaughter of his hosts is going out with. For a Poirot story, this was relatively low-stakes; no one dies and there’s nothing but cosy vibes and Poirot in his Papa Poirot mood.
• The Mystery of the Spanish Chest moves us from the cosy world of Christmas to Poirot’s usual realm of murder. A man named Clayton is found murdered in a chest and the chief suspect is the man suspected of having an affair with Clayton’s wife. I’ve actually read this one already, but I still enjoyed it; though I find Margharita a rather unbelievable femme fatale – no one can be that innocent and destructive!
• The Under Dog was an interesting tale for me. Lady Astwell sends for Poirot, convinced that her nephew did not murder her husband. Her suspect, however, is the secretary, as mild and meek a man as you will ever meet. And so, Poirot delves into this case, which is as about human nature as it is about the trick of murder.
• Four and Twenty Blackbirds is a murder mystery revolving around food. We start with Poirot dining with his friend, Henry Bonnington, at one of Bonnington’s regular haunts. When another regular turns up dead, Poirot gets to work. This one felt a little too short (I would have liked to see more characterisations), but it’s still quite clever.
• The Dream was something I skipped, since I read it recently in The Last Séance, another collection of Christie’s tales.
• Greenshaw’s Folly is the last story in the collection and the only one to feature Miss Marple. As with some of the Miss Marple stories, she doesn’t have much of a presence until the end – unlike Poirot, Miss Marple is happy to wait until the time is right. We get to see Miss Marple’s nephew, Raymond West in this story, and I hope I get to see more of him when I continue reading more Miss Marple mysteries.

Thematically, I have to admit that most of these stories daren’t actually about Christmas. In a way, putting this as a Christmas read is a little unfair, but the overall tone of the book is cosy, as Christie often is, and I enjoyed the stories very much.