I usually read an Agatha Christie novel when I am at home on Christmas vacation. I had this on my shelf, so I decided to bring it with me.

"Appointment with Death" has Hercule Poirot on yet another holiday, this time to The Holy Land. As usual, Poirot's vacation is interrupted by a suspicious death.

I have read quite a bit of Agatha Christie, and I must say, I found this book somewhat disappointing. The first Christie novel that I ever read, was "Murder on the Orient Express" - to this day it remains one of my favorite books of all time. The great thing about that book was all of the investigating that Poirot does, the constant interviewing of the suspects/witnesses, etc. This book, like many Christie novels, had a fairly large list of suspects, however, unlike "Orient Express" or even "Death on the Nile", there was very little interrogation/piecing together the puzzle. 2/3 of the book takes place before the murder actually happens, and the interrogation of suspects, etc. felt rather rushed to me. Poirot even gives himself a mere 24 hours to solve the mystery.

So in short, "Appointment with Death" was a mildly entertaining, fast read, but it lacked most of what I most enjoy about Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot.