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The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding, And A Selection Of Entrées
Don’t eat the pudding…
On a silver dish the Christmas pudding reposed in all its glory. A large football of a pudding, a piece of holly stuck in it like a triumphant flag and glorious flames of blue and red rising round it. There was a cheer and cries of “Ooh-ah”.
Hercule Poirot merely surveyed the portion on his plate with a rather curious expression on his face. A result, no doubt, of finding a cryptic note in his bedroom which had read,
DON’T EAT NONE OF THE PLUM PUDDING. ONE WHO WISHES YOU WELL.
(Publisher’s description)
Contents: The adventure of the Christmas pudding — The mystery of the Spanish chest — The under dog — Four and twenty blackbirds — The dream — Greenshaw’s Folly
On a silver dish the Christmas pudding reposed in all its glory. A large football of a pudding, a piece of holly stuck in it like a triumphant flag and glorious flames of blue and red rising round it. There was a cheer and cries of “Ooh-ah”.
Hercule Poirot merely surveyed the portion on his plate with a rather curious expression on his face. A result, no doubt, of finding a cryptic note in his bedroom which had read,
DON’T EAT NONE OF THE PLUM PUDDING. ONE WHO WISHES YOU WELL.
(Publisher’s description)
Contents: The adventure of the Christmas pudding — The mystery of the Spanish chest — The under dog — Four and twenty blackbirds — The dream — Greenshaw’s Folly
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1934
13 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
Agatha Christie
5,867 books76.4k followersAgatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.
Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.
Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)
Ratings & Reviews
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 26, 2016
An entertaining collection of short stories, with all but one featuring Hercule Poirot. The final story, Greenshaw's Folly is a Miss Marple story. I recognized the basic plots of some from the TV series but the stories and results were for the most part nice and fresh. Every story was enjoyable. I liked the investigations and the solutions. It's been so nice to get into Christie's works and mysteries. I don't know why I didn't sooner. If you want a nice quick, enjoyable selection of mysteries, this is the book for you.
January 2, 2016
Because of time constraints and the need to return this inter-library loan book, I only read the title story (58 pages). The others look like fun. Maybe someday I will get the book again and finish it.
May 5, 2011
See my review on my book blog: http://quirkyreader.livejournal.com/2...
February 19, 2026
Agatha Christie is my safest and most comfortable book world. witty, elegant with a perfect pinch of humor and adequate exercise for ze grey cells, mes amis!
February 4, 2026
This collection of Agatha Christie short stories was published in the UK in 1960. It was not released in the US, but all of the stories appeared in other collections. This collection includes stories featuring Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.
I have previously reviewed all of the Poirot stories as they were published in other short story collections.
The Mystery of the Spanish Chest appeared in The Regatta Mystery and other Stories as The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest. The Dream was also included in this same book. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding is a re-working of two earlier stories, Christmas Adventure and Theft of the Royal Ruby. I read the original story as part of The Early Cases of Hercule Poirot, and read/reviewed Christmas Pudding at that time as well. Four and Twenty Blackbirds was included in Three Blind Mice and Other Stories. And, Underdog was published in The Underdog and Other Stories.
This collection includes:
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding/Christmas Adventure
The Mystery of the Spanish Chest/The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest
The Underdog
Four and Twenty Blackbirds
The Dream
Greenshaw's Folly
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding/Christmas Adventure: (from a prior review)
This tale was first published as Christmas Adventure in Sketch Magazine on December 12, 1923. It was later re-published in an expanded short novella form as The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. The later version expands the plot, changes character names, etc. I wanted to read the original version of the story before delving into the longer 1960's version....but it seems the original story has only been re-published in one UK anthology, While the Light Lasts and Other Stories. In the US this was published as The Harlequin Tea Set and Other stories. BUT....the Harlequin Tea Set collection did not include Christmas Adventure. So each time I search for the UK story collection, the search pulls up Harlequin Tea Set instead.....
ARGH!!!
So I turned to my local library....found an anthology "The Early Cases of Hercule Poirot" which includes all the early Poirot stories. But.....instead of Christmas Adventure (the version published first in 1923)...it includes The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. Foiled again! So I turned to Amazon...they used to sell an ebook version of Christmas Adventure published in 2014. It now says "unavailable.'' Tried to find the ebook on a UK or Australian site.....all say unavailable.
So, it looks like I am going to have to read the revised, longer edition of this story until I can get my hands on a copy of While The Light Lasts and Other Stories. And so far, I have only been able to find copies on Ebay.
Really??? LOL I even tried Internet Archive/Open Library. No luck there either.
So....I have put While the Light Lasts and Other Stories at the top of my "must buy a used copy of this ASAP" list...and I'm having pudding.....sigh. I will backtrack at a later date and read the original story.
The basics: Poirot isn't too keen on spending Christmas at an English country house. But after the the promise of modern conveniences (such as radiators and central heating), good food, and a mystery to solve, he travels to Kings Lacey for an old fashioned English holiday......and a stolen ruby in the plum pudding.
I enjoyed this holiday tale immensely (despite its not being the original story). Poirot did some sleuthing, enjoyed the festivities, and in the end, he decided it was quite the enjoyable holiday. Cute story! Interesting mystery! :)
Adaptations:
This re-vamped story is also known as "The Theft of the Royal Ruby.'' It was under this name that the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot adapted the story for television (Season 3, Episode 8). While the story is still delightful, I think the adaptation changed some of the best parts of the story and some characters were expanded that may have been better left as side notes. Still an enjoyable episode, but just not quite the same as the original story.
I'm still very curious about the shorter, original version of this story.... I will read and review it as soon as I have chased down a copy. :)
The Mystery of the Spanish Chest/The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest: (from a prior review)
This tale was first published in magazines in the UK and US in 1932 as The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest.
The basics: The day after a party, a man is discovered dead in a rather large wooden chest in the very room where the party was held. Poirot is on the case to find the killer!
The original story was later lengthened into a novella and re-titled The Mystery of the Spanish Chest in 1960 (in three installments in a magazine). The novella first appeared in book format in this story collection.
Adaptations:
The television series Poirot adapted it as The Mystery of the Spanish Chest (Season 3, episode 8). The Poirot episode follows the basic plot with some changes to interject Poirot into the story sooner and to flesh the plot out into episode length. Inspector Japp and Captain Hastings are added into the mix as well. I enjoyed the episode. The plot followed the original story more than the expanded novella version. Very well done!
The Underdog: (from a prior review)
The Under Dog was first published in a US magazine in April 1926, and UK publication came later that same year. Its first appearance in book format came in 1929 when it was included in Two New Crime Stories in the UK. The second story in that book was by another author, E. Phillips Oppenheim (Blackman's Wood). In the US, it was later included in the short story collection The Underdog & Other Stories in 1951.
The Under Dog wasn't published in the UK again until this story collection in 1960.
I do not own a physical book that includes this story, so turned to my lovely local library and Hoopla for an audio version (HarperCollins, 2012, narrated by Hugh Fraser, 2 hrs).
The basics -- Sir Reuben Astwell is dead. Not a natural death, but he died as a result of being bashed over the head. His rather ill-tempered nephew has been arrested, but Sir Reuben's wife is adamant that the nephew didn't do it. Poirot steps in to find out the truth...... and, of course, does.
I like these Novella-length stories that are too short to be a novel, but long enough to really let the plot develop. It definitely gives that Christie twistiness time to develop. Family tensions. Servant tensions. Class tensions. Who bumped the old man off? And why? The audio version runs about 2 hours -- definitely long enough for Christie to build up the tension & then have the ultimate reveal.
Great story!
Adaptations:
Poirot - Season 5, Episode 2. There are a few minor changes to the story including adding in Hastings and Miss Lemon. But, this episode sticks pretty closely to the way it was originally written. Excellent as usual!
Christie really was a master of marketing. Publishing these early stories in magazines built up her name and talents, so that her books sold like hotcakes.
Four and Twenty Blackbirds: (from a prior review)
Hercule Poirot is the detective in this short story that first appeared in magazine format in 1940 (US) and 1941 (UK). It did not appear in book form until Three Blind Mice & Other Stories published in 1950.
The basics: Poirot investigates the death of a man who strayed from his usual cuisine and daily routine at a restaurant.
I found this study in behavior very interesting. At times I do enjoy to change my diet or habits up a bit....maybe a bit more spice, a special dish I've never had before, a different restaurant, etc. But if a person who has been a regular daily customer at a restaurant for 10 years suddenly completely goes off their "usual" choices and schedule, I can see how it would seem very odd, especially if they were ordering things they normally didn't like and not showing up for an extended period. Agatha Christie did a marvelous job of turning a situation like that into a interesting little mystery!
Adaptations:
Television: The long-running television Poirot adapted this story in 1989. [Season 1, episode 4] The episode makes some changes to extend the story into episode length and flesh out the plot a bit, but it sticks relatively close to the original story. The Japanese anime program, Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple also had an episode in 2005 [episode 34].
I found no other adaptations of this story.
The Dream: (from a prior review)
This tale is another Agatha Christie short story that was first published in magazines. The Saturday Evening Post ran it in 1937 and it appeared in The Strand Magazine in the UK in 1938.
The basics: A man relates a strange dream to Poirot and later carries out the deed from the dream. Poirot investigates to find out if it was a dream.....or an elaborate plot.
I would love to see one of the old issues of The Strand! I'd love to see how these stories were presented, what advertisements were in the issues, and what other authors were featured!
Adaptations:
The only adaptation I found for this Hercule Poirot story is an episode of Poirot (Season 1, Episode 10). The plot for this story is definitely interesting! The Poirot episode was well done and followed the original story relatively closely. Some changes were made to fit the show and expand the plot to episode length.
Greenshaw's Folly:
The only story in this collection I didn't already review previously is Greenshaw's Folly, featuring Miss Marple.
Because I don't own a copy of this story collection, I had to go hunting digital resources through my local library. They had an ebook version of Greenshaw's Folly. (HarperCollins, 2013, 34 pages). Library to the rescue again!!
This short story was written in 1956 as a fundraiser to purchase a new stained glass window for a church. Originally Agatha wrote a Poirot story for the fundraiser (Greenshore Folly), but she had problems selling it. The story was too short to market as a novel but too long to sell to magazines. So, she wrote another story. Glad she did -- I loved reading this one!
The basics -- Old Miss Greenshaw lives in her family home, a very odd place built by her grandfather. The house is a huge monstrosity, featuring odd combinations of architecture styles. Just days after making a new will, the old woman is killed. Her manner of death is just as odd as the house. Miss Marple is on the case!
This story is entertaining, but very short. Miss Marple has the who, what and why figured out incredibly fast. Fun story!
Adaptations:
The television series Agatha Christie's Marple has an episode based on this story (Season 6, Episode 2) starring Julia McKenzie. The episode changes some elements of the story and mixes in plot points from another story, The Thumb Mark of Saint Peter. I'm sure they combined stories because Greenshaw's Folly is only a few pages long. The plot would have required a lot of padding to stretch it to episode length!
I very much enjoy the short stories Agatha Christie wrote, but the fact that some of them were re-titled, reworked, republished, re-everything'd so many times over the years can really can make trying to read them all a bit confusing at times!
I'm going to skip over any short story collections that only have stories I've already read and reviewed. This is the second time I've come across a book where I only needed to read one story!
On to the next!!
I have previously reviewed all of the Poirot stories as they were published in other short story collections.
The Mystery of the Spanish Chest appeared in The Regatta Mystery and other Stories as The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest. The Dream was also included in this same book. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding is a re-working of two earlier stories, Christmas Adventure and Theft of the Royal Ruby. I read the original story as part of The Early Cases of Hercule Poirot, and read/reviewed Christmas Pudding at that time as well. Four and Twenty Blackbirds was included in Three Blind Mice and Other Stories. And, Underdog was published in The Underdog and Other Stories.
This collection includes:
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding/Christmas Adventure
The Mystery of the Spanish Chest/The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest
The Underdog
Four and Twenty Blackbirds
The Dream
Greenshaw's Folly
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding/Christmas Adventure: (from a prior review)
This tale was first published as Christmas Adventure in Sketch Magazine on December 12, 1923. It was later re-published in an expanded short novella form as The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. The later version expands the plot, changes character names, etc. I wanted to read the original version of the story before delving into the longer 1960's version....but it seems the original story has only been re-published in one UK anthology, While the Light Lasts and Other Stories. In the US this was published as The Harlequin Tea Set and Other stories. BUT....the Harlequin Tea Set collection did not include Christmas Adventure. So each time I search for the UK story collection, the search pulls up Harlequin Tea Set instead.....
ARGH!!!
So I turned to my local library....found an anthology "The Early Cases of Hercule Poirot" which includes all the early Poirot stories. But.....instead of Christmas Adventure (the version published first in 1923)...it includes The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. Foiled again! So I turned to Amazon...they used to sell an ebook version of Christmas Adventure published in 2014. It now says "unavailable.'' Tried to find the ebook on a UK or Australian site.....all say unavailable.
So, it looks like I am going to have to read the revised, longer edition of this story until I can get my hands on a copy of While The Light Lasts and Other Stories. And so far, I have only been able to find copies on Ebay.
Really??? LOL I even tried Internet Archive/Open Library. No luck there either.
So....I have put While the Light Lasts and Other Stories at the top of my "must buy a used copy of this ASAP" list...and I'm having pudding.....sigh. I will backtrack at a later date and read the original story.
The basics: Poirot isn't too keen on spending Christmas at an English country house. But after the the promise of modern conveniences (such as radiators and central heating), good food, and a mystery to solve, he travels to Kings Lacey for an old fashioned English holiday......and a stolen ruby in the plum pudding.
I enjoyed this holiday tale immensely (despite its not being the original story). Poirot did some sleuthing, enjoyed the festivities, and in the end, he decided it was quite the enjoyable holiday. Cute story! Interesting mystery! :)
Adaptations:
This re-vamped story is also known as "The Theft of the Royal Ruby.'' It was under this name that the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot adapted the story for television (Season 3, Episode 8). While the story is still delightful, I think the adaptation changed some of the best parts of the story and some characters were expanded that may have been better left as side notes. Still an enjoyable episode, but just not quite the same as the original story.
I'm still very curious about the shorter, original version of this story.... I will read and review it as soon as I have chased down a copy. :)
The Mystery of the Spanish Chest/The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest: (from a prior review)
This tale was first published in magazines in the UK and US in 1932 as The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest.
The basics: The day after a party, a man is discovered dead in a rather large wooden chest in the very room where the party was held. Poirot is on the case to find the killer!
The original story was later lengthened into a novella and re-titled The Mystery of the Spanish Chest in 1960 (in three installments in a magazine). The novella first appeared in book format in this story collection.
Adaptations:
The television series Poirot adapted it as The Mystery of the Spanish Chest (Season 3, episode 8). The Poirot episode follows the basic plot with some changes to interject Poirot into the story sooner and to flesh the plot out into episode length. Inspector Japp and Captain Hastings are added into the mix as well. I enjoyed the episode. The plot followed the original story more than the expanded novella version. Very well done!
The Underdog: (from a prior review)
The Under Dog was first published in a US magazine in April 1926, and UK publication came later that same year. Its first appearance in book format came in 1929 when it was included in Two New Crime Stories in the UK. The second story in that book was by another author, E. Phillips Oppenheim (Blackman's Wood). In the US, it was later included in the short story collection The Underdog & Other Stories in 1951.
The Under Dog wasn't published in the UK again until this story collection in 1960.
I do not own a physical book that includes this story, so turned to my lovely local library and Hoopla for an audio version (HarperCollins, 2012, narrated by Hugh Fraser, 2 hrs).
The basics -- Sir Reuben Astwell is dead. Not a natural death, but he died as a result of being bashed over the head. His rather ill-tempered nephew has been arrested, but Sir Reuben's wife is adamant that the nephew didn't do it. Poirot steps in to find out the truth...... and, of course, does.
I like these Novella-length stories that are too short to be a novel, but long enough to really let the plot develop. It definitely gives that Christie twistiness time to develop. Family tensions. Servant tensions. Class tensions. Who bumped the old man off? And why? The audio version runs about 2 hours -- definitely long enough for Christie to build up the tension & then have the ultimate reveal.
Great story!
Adaptations:
Poirot - Season 5, Episode 2. There are a few minor changes to the story including adding in Hastings and Miss Lemon. But, this episode sticks pretty closely to the way it was originally written. Excellent as usual!
Christie really was a master of marketing. Publishing these early stories in magazines built up her name and talents, so that her books sold like hotcakes.
Four and Twenty Blackbirds: (from a prior review)
Hercule Poirot is the detective in this short story that first appeared in magazine format in 1940 (US) and 1941 (UK). It did not appear in book form until Three Blind Mice & Other Stories published in 1950.
The basics: Poirot investigates the death of a man who strayed from his usual cuisine and daily routine at a restaurant.
I found this study in behavior very interesting. At times I do enjoy to change my diet or habits up a bit....maybe a bit more spice, a special dish I've never had before, a different restaurant, etc. But if a person who has been a regular daily customer at a restaurant for 10 years suddenly completely goes off their "usual" choices and schedule, I can see how it would seem very odd, especially if they were ordering things they normally didn't like and not showing up for an extended period. Agatha Christie did a marvelous job of turning a situation like that into a interesting little mystery!
Adaptations:
Television: The long-running television Poirot adapted this story in 1989. [Season 1, episode 4] The episode makes some changes to extend the story into episode length and flesh out the plot a bit, but it sticks relatively close to the original story. The Japanese anime program, Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple also had an episode in 2005 [episode 34].
I found no other adaptations of this story.
The Dream: (from a prior review)
This tale is another Agatha Christie short story that was first published in magazines. The Saturday Evening Post ran it in 1937 and it appeared in The Strand Magazine in the UK in 1938.
The basics: A man relates a strange dream to Poirot and later carries out the deed from the dream. Poirot investigates to find out if it was a dream.....or an elaborate plot.
I would love to see one of the old issues of The Strand! I'd love to see how these stories were presented, what advertisements were in the issues, and what other authors were featured!
Adaptations:
The only adaptation I found for this Hercule Poirot story is an episode of Poirot (Season 1, Episode 10). The plot for this story is definitely interesting! The Poirot episode was well done and followed the original story relatively closely. Some changes were made to fit the show and expand the plot to episode length.
Greenshaw's Folly:
The only story in this collection I didn't already review previously is Greenshaw's Folly, featuring Miss Marple.
Because I don't own a copy of this story collection, I had to go hunting digital resources through my local library. They had an ebook version of Greenshaw's Folly. (HarperCollins, 2013, 34 pages). Library to the rescue again!!
This short story was written in 1956 as a fundraiser to purchase a new stained glass window for a church. Originally Agatha wrote a Poirot story for the fundraiser (Greenshore Folly), but she had problems selling it. The story was too short to market as a novel but too long to sell to magazines. So, she wrote another story. Glad she did -- I loved reading this one!
The basics -- Old Miss Greenshaw lives in her family home, a very odd place built by her grandfather. The house is a huge monstrosity, featuring odd combinations of architecture styles. Just days after making a new will, the old woman is killed. Her manner of death is just as odd as the house. Miss Marple is on the case!
This story is entertaining, but very short. Miss Marple has the who, what and why figured out incredibly fast. Fun story!
Adaptations:
The television series Agatha Christie's Marple has an episode based on this story (Season 6, Episode 2) starring Julia McKenzie. The episode changes some elements of the story and mixes in plot points from another story, The Thumb Mark of Saint Peter. I'm sure they combined stories because Greenshaw's Folly is only a few pages long. The plot would have required a lot of padding to stretch it to episode length!
I very much enjoy the short stories Agatha Christie wrote, but the fact that some of them were re-titled, reworked, republished, re-everything'd so many times over the years can really can make trying to read them all a bit confusing at times!
I'm going to skip over any short story collections that only have stories I've already read and reviewed. This is the second time I've come across a book where I only needed to read one story!
On to the next!!
February 20, 2026
A fun little collection of short stories compromising mostly Poirot stories (The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, The Mystery of the Spanish Chest, The Underdog, Four and Twenty Blackbirds, The Dream) and one Miss Marple story (Greenshaw's Folly). There was really no overriding theme in the stories, with only the first containing a Christmas theme. Nevertheless they were solid Christie mysteries, as always.
January 1, 2025
Having intended to read at least five Christmas-themed books for the holiday season, I was happy to see that this Agatha Christie anthology of stories was offered for free. I like to mix newer offerings with older, more classic works in order to have a more varied literary diet every now and again, but the truth is that I will almost always choose classic over new, and this book proves the point. Whereas most anthologies contain stories of distinguishing quality, every story here is very good.
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, or The Theft of the Royal Ruby is the initial story and the only story having to do with the holiday, but I wasn't going to read just the one story and not plumb the depths of the others. I mean what type of a reader would I be? Who wouldn't take advantage of reading a Dame Christie collection, especially when they all revolve around Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, herself?
The first story involves a clandestine investigation by Poirot into a Royal Ruby that may result in embarrassment on an international level. The Mystery of the Spanish Chest is the second story involving a loveless marriage, an unfaithful spouse, spying from the inside of a chest, and a second suitor wanting to hasten his place in line. The Underdog involves unpremeditated murder, a crime of passion that can very easily happen when one is pushed too far. Four and Twenty Blackbirds involves the predictability of men and their menu choices. I wish I could disagree, but Poirot makes very salient points.
The Dream is the last of the Poirot stories. A man confides in Poirot that he has dreamt that he is going to shoot himself, and a week later Poirot is told that he has shot himself and died. Lastly, Greenshaw's Folly is a mystery that involves impersonation, and gardening. I have not read a Miss Marple in a long while and I was thrilled to have read a story I read so long ago still resonate within my memory. Really a very good collection that I enjoyed. This is my third Christmas-themed book read for the Yuletide season of the five I have set for a goal.
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, or The Theft of the Royal Ruby is the initial story and the only story having to do with the holiday, but I wasn't going to read just the one story and not plumb the depths of the others. I mean what type of a reader would I be? Who wouldn't take advantage of reading a Dame Christie collection, especially when they all revolve around Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, herself?
The first story involves a clandestine investigation by Poirot into a Royal Ruby that may result in embarrassment on an international level. The Mystery of the Spanish Chest is the second story involving a loveless marriage, an unfaithful spouse, spying from the inside of a chest, and a second suitor wanting to hasten his place in line. The Underdog involves unpremeditated murder, a crime of passion that can very easily happen when one is pushed too far. Four and Twenty Blackbirds involves the predictability of men and their menu choices. I wish I could disagree, but Poirot makes very salient points.
The Dream is the last of the Poirot stories. A man confides in Poirot that he has dreamt that he is going to shoot himself, and a week later Poirot is told that he has shot himself and died. Lastly, Greenshaw's Folly is a mystery that involves impersonation, and gardening. I have not read a Miss Marple in a long while and I was thrilled to have read a story I read so long ago still resonate within my memory. Really a very good collection that I enjoyed. This is my third Christmas-themed book read for the Yuletide season of the five I have set for a goal.
December 22, 2025
This is a selection of short and sweet murder mysteries. The first is a festive Poirot treat and the last is a Miss Marple tale. They all whizz by in a flash and have that trademark Christie brilliance. So engaging are the plots and so uncluttered is the writing that they're a joy to read.
December 4, 2023
Not much to read. Kind of disappointing…
December 16, 2024
"The Dream" was really good. The others stories were pretty meh.
January 8, 2025
Agatha Christie never misses
December 25, 2025
A simple mystery with guest Periot at an inn. A murder was planned, a jewel theft prevented. Period wins the day!
January 7, 2026
Some quite good stories in here. This was my first introduction to both Poirot and Miss Marple in book form, and both are very intriguing and intelligent characters.
January 28, 2026
I prefer Poirot in short stories.
Most of these were familiar to me; only "The Dream" was new.
A nice selection of tales that show Christie's talent.
Most of these were familiar to me; only "The Dream" was new.
A nice selection of tales that show Christie's talent.
December 2, 2011
I had forgotten how very much fun these are. And there's something so very comforting about M. Poirot or Miss Marple always being able to catch the culprit, no matter how clever and devious they are.
I went through a major Agatha Christie phase when I was in highschool, and then just stopped reading them for some reason. (Maybe I ran out of books? But she wrote a lot. I don't remember.) Anyway, happily, aside from Murder on the Orient Express, I don't seem to remember whodunnit from any of them either. I'm thinking some re-reading might be in my near future.
I went through a major Agatha Christie phase when I was in highschool, and then just stopped reading them for some reason. (Maybe I ran out of books? But she wrote a lot. I don't remember.) Anyway, happily, aside from Murder on the Orient Express, I don't seem to remember whodunnit from any of them either. I'm thinking some re-reading might be in my near future.
November 27, 2025
Who doesn’t love a well-written crime story? Even more when it’s written by the empress of them all, Agatha Christie.
With a Christmas mystery to set the tone, followed by the perfect murder, then a bunkum crime, a blackberry tart case, and finally a clever conclusion…
Agatha’s Poirot keeps you on your toes with light prose and brilliant leaps of logic.
She’ll make you laugh with her perfectly placed humor “He was an extremely English-looking person. Tall, cadaverous and unemotional“, and her quirky descriptions.
Wonderfully perfect for a winter evening in.
With a Christmas mystery to set the tone, followed by the perfect murder, then a bunkum crime, a blackberry tart case, and finally a clever conclusion…
Agatha’s Poirot keeps you on your toes with light prose and brilliant leaps of logic.
She’ll make you laugh with her perfectly placed humor “He was an extremely English-looking person. Tall, cadaverous and unemotional“, and her quirky descriptions.
Wonderfully perfect for a winter evening in.
February 24, 2023
For me, it's always a pleasure to read Christie and I still am able to give myself to the plot so much and read just for pleasure that I'm pleasantly surprised when the murderer is revealed and I'm almost always wrong. I like the side characters, the setting, the humor, the set up, the reveals, the whole thing! This collection of short stories was extremely entertaining, and I got to meet the character of Miss Marple for the first time!
March 26, 2013
Monsieur Hercule Poirot + Miss Jane Marple = 5 STAR NOVEL
February 3, 2017
A good mix of stories. Some Poirot and Marple appear here. Recommended to Christie fans.
March 25, 2019
Agatha Christie never disappoints
July 6, 2021
This is a selection of short stories including Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot stories. I almost always enjoy reading Agatha Christie books.
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