The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding: Agatha Christie’s Festive Poirot and Marple Stories
An English country house at Christmas should be the perfect place to get away from it all, but nothing is ever simple for Hercule Poirot. In The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (1960), he finds not one but five baffling cases to solve.
Author: Agatha Christie (1890–1976)
Title: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (1960)
Format: English paperback (HarperCollins), 304 pages
Scope: Six short stories: five Poirot cases and one Miss Marple
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/0008164983 (ASIN 0008164983)
Six Stories
The book is divided into six short stories:
- The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (Hercule Poirot)
- The Mystery of the Spanish Chest (Hercule Poirot)
- The Under Dog (Hercule Poirot)
- Four and Twenty Blackbirds (Hercule Poirot)
- The Dream (Hercule Poirot)
- Greenshaw’s Folly (Miss Marple)
Five Baffling Cases
First comes a sinister warning on his pillow not to eat any of the plum pudding... then the discovery of a corpse in a chest... next, an overheard quarrel that leads to murder... the strange case of a dead man who changed his eating habits... and the puzzle of a victim who dreamed of his own suicide. The collection closes with Miss Marple unravelling a strange will and a murder at a Victorian folly.
Christie’s Christmas
In a foreword, Christie dedicates the collection to the memory of the Christmases of her youth at Abney Hall in Cheshire, the home of her brother-in-law’s family, with its enormous meals, its games and its sense of plenty. The title story recreates that atmosphere: an old-fashioned country-house Christmas, with stockings, crackers and a pudding containing more than a sixpence. Poirot, a Belgian sceptic about English food and weather, is lured there to recover a stolen ruby belonging to a foreign prince, and finds himself enjoying the festivities despite himself.
Expanded Versions
Several of these stories are longer versions of tales Christie had published earlier. The title story expands an earlier one known in its shorter form as "The Theft of the Royal Ruby", and "The Mystery of the Spanish Chest" reworks "The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest" from the early 1930s, adding depth to the characters and a stronger sense of place. Comparing versions shows how Christie developed a simple puzzle into a richer story.
Miss Marple’s Turn
The final story, "Greenshaw’s Folly", gives the last word to Miss Marple. Her nephew, the novelist Raymond West, takes a friend to see a monstrous Victorian house built by an eccentric, and when its elderly owner is killed with an arrow, Miss Marple solves the case from her armchair, guided by her uncanny knowledge of village human nature. It makes a neat contrast with Poirot’s methods in the rest of the book.
Small Cases, Big Craft
"Four and Twenty Blackbirds" is a favourite with Christie admirers: Poirot’s interest is caught simply by a waitress mentioning that an elderly regular customer suddenly ordered dishes he had never eaten before. From that tiny anomaly he builds a case for murder. It shows, in a few pages, the attention to ordinary detail on which all of Christie’s best solutions depend.
On Screen
Several stories were adapted for the long-running television series starring David Suchet as Poirot, which is a pleasant companion to the book.
Reading Tip
Keep the title story for Christmas Eve: it is long enough for one evening, and Christie plays fair with the clues, so you can try to beat Poirot to the solution.
Why Read It
Short stories show Christie’s craft at its most concentrated: a handful of suspects, one telling detail and a solution you should have seen coming. It is the ideal Christie for December evenings, and a good introduction for readers who have never met Poirot.
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