Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie

Synopsis From Back Over:

Christmas Eve, and the Lee family's reunion is shattered by a deafening crash of furniture and a high-pitched scream.  Upstairs, the tyrannical Simeon Lee lies dead in a pool of blood, his throat slashed.

When Hercule Poirot 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...

So I am ridiculously slow on my Agatha Christie self challenge.  How the hell was I naive enough to think I would be able to do this in one year?  I'm not even half way through, and it's almost five years later.  One piece of good news though, with this book, I am officially over halfway through the Hercule Poirot books!  I don't hate him anymore, but I prefer to spend my time with Jane, Parker, Tommy, and Tuppence.  They don't grate on my nerves the way Hercule does.

This wasn't a book I had read before, at least I don't remember anything about it.  I'm not even sure I've ever seen the PBS Mystery version of it.  So I was able to go into with a fresh, open mind, and I loved it.  There was nothing about it I didn't like, though it was the setting and the characters that made me fall in love and not let go.

Dame Agatha was brilliant at setting her stories, and she was on her A game here.  Who doesn't want to spend Christmas in an English manor house, with all the odd assortment of relatives and hanger-ons.  Add in a good old fashioned murder, and you have me hooked.  It's the perfect Christmas, and why someone hasn't made it happen for me yet, disappoints me every year.  So if one of you guys would be so inclined to make this happen for me this Christmas, I would really appreciate.