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Murder For Christmas & Three Other Great Mysteries
The Hollow
Murder in Retrospect
Thirteen At Dinner
Murder in Retrospect
Thirteen At Dinner
713 pages, Hardcover
13 people are currently reading
284 people want to read
About the author
Agatha Christie
5,822 books75.5k 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)
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
May 23, 2021
Murder for Christmas - 5 Stars
The Hollow - 4 Stars
Murder in Retrospect - 5 Stars
Thirteen at Dinner - 5 Stars
The Hollow - 4 Stars
Murder in Retrospect - 5 Stars
Thirteen at Dinner - 5 Stars
January 2, 2025
Murder for Christmas was an enjoyable holiday read. I haven't read a mystery in ages, so it was fun to get back into the world of Hercules Poirot. The ending was such a clever turn of events, as always with Agatha Christie!
September 6, 2022
4/5 stars
***SPOILERS AHEAD ABOUT MURDERERS/MURDERESSES IN STORIES. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.***
*Dates Read Information: Started Reading August 21st, 2022 - DNF'ed August 26th, 2022. Finished Reading September 5th, 2022*
I DID IT. I COMPLETED THIS BOOK. And that too on a random whim. I literally finished the last story in 3-4 hours. YASSSSSS. I am proud.
I loved Murder for Christmas, The Hollow, and Murder in Retrospect. I didn't really like Thirteen at Dinner, but that's most likely because I skim-read it and didn't understand the plot properly. But I got the gist of it and I understood the basics. Dame Christie is an absolute mastermind with her stories. I love her.
Murder for Christmas is definitely my favorite story in this book. The characters and plot are so precise and complex, and very engaging as well. AND THE MURDERER WAS WILD. Never in a million years would I have guessed who the murderer was in this story. The old man really was a womanizer. Damn.
The Hollow comes in 2nd place. No specific reason, I just liked it a little less than Murder for Christmas. I think it was because the ending didn't really make sense and I didn't like how the 2 ladies died, I think they died??? At least Gerda did I think??, was weird. But I'm pretty sure that Gerda died trying to kill Henrietta, and Poirot "spared" Henrietta or something. I don't know, it was really confusing.
Murder in Retrospect had a really good plot. I loved the cold case and how a wrongly accused mother came to justice 16 years after the events. The amount of precision Poirot is written to have in his work is stunning, especially his questions. The questions he asks is the main reason he's such a great detective and one of the main reasons he got so much information from so many people at the scene of the crime in this story. He is truly dedicated. The only thing I didn't like about this story was the ending. I prefer the murderer getting caught and Elsa Greer just strutting out and walking away, "shrugging her rug onto her shoulders", was so annoying. It really pissed me off how easily she could just use her wealth to escape her evil deeds. She literally ruined so many people's lives and she just got away with it? I know I know, I'm being too harsh, especially considering the fact that the wrongly accused person died years ago and there was no point in digging out past history, but still. My sense of right and wrong took over, sorry. Another thing I didn't really like was the mouthful of words in the manuscripts that Poirot had all of the characters write about the events that they could remember. I would have preferred Poirot explaining each person's point of view, but it's fine. The manuscripts were helpful in putting everyone's perspectives in one place.
Thirteen at Dinner, I'm just not going to say anything, mostly because everything I'm going to say will be highly inaccurate. The impersonation thing just didn't suit me. But Jane was one hell of a murderess. She killed 2 more people on top of her husband to make sure she didn't get caught. Talk about being amoral, am I right? The only reason she got caught was because of her leaving the glasses in Carlotta's gold purse and her overconfidence. She would have gotten away with it though, if it hadn't been for Poirot. I swear, the character that represents the police is always so quick to take the easy way out, randomly accusing and arresting the people that manage to fit just ONE piece of the puzzle. Like, bro, chill.
Okay, that covers it. Happy Labor Day as well. That's about it, really. No recommendations, but I don't have a reason for why. Maybe next time. Most likely next time because I am reading "The 7 1/2 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle". It has amazing reviews, the blurb sounds amazing, and the anticipation is killing me. But that might just be from the upcoming tests. Yes, it is only the 2nd week of school. No, I am definitely not stressing out and dying right now. .......
Okay, you know what? I'll do a recommendation. A small one.
Music Recommendation: High Hopes by Panic! At The Disco. Just pure nostalgia. Every time. It randomly popped into my head a few days and now I'm listening to it everyday. I love it.
Okay bye. Hopefully I will see you guys VERY SOON. Fingers crossed.
***SPOILERS AHEAD ABOUT MURDERERS/MURDERESSES IN STORIES. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.***
*Dates Read Information: Started Reading August 21st, 2022 - DNF'ed August 26th, 2022. Finished Reading September 5th, 2022*
I DID IT. I COMPLETED THIS BOOK. And that too on a random whim. I literally finished the last story in 3-4 hours. YASSSSSS. I am proud.
I loved Murder for Christmas, The Hollow, and Murder in Retrospect. I didn't really like Thirteen at Dinner, but that's most likely because I skim-read it and didn't understand the plot properly. But I got the gist of it and I understood the basics. Dame Christie is an absolute mastermind with her stories. I love her.
Murder for Christmas is definitely my favorite story in this book. The characters and plot are so precise and complex, and very engaging as well. AND THE MURDERER WAS WILD. Never in a million years would I have guessed who the murderer was in this story. The old man really was a womanizer. Damn.
The Hollow comes in 2nd place. No specific reason, I just liked it a little less than Murder for Christmas. I think it was because the ending didn't really make sense and I didn't like how the 2 ladies died, I think they died??? At least Gerda did I think??, was weird. But I'm pretty sure that Gerda died trying to kill Henrietta, and Poirot "spared" Henrietta or something. I don't know, it was really confusing.
Murder in Retrospect had a really good plot. I loved the cold case and how a wrongly accused mother came to justice 16 years after the events. The amount of precision Poirot is written to have in his work is stunning, especially his questions. The questions he asks is the main reason he's such a great detective and one of the main reasons he got so much information from so many people at the scene of the crime in this story. He is truly dedicated. The only thing I didn't like about this story was the ending. I prefer the murderer getting caught and Elsa Greer just strutting out and walking away, "shrugging her rug onto her shoulders", was so annoying. It really pissed me off how easily she could just use her wealth to escape her evil deeds. She literally ruined so many people's lives and she just got away with it? I know I know, I'm being too harsh, especially considering the fact that the wrongly accused person died years ago and there was no point in digging out past history, but still. My sense of right and wrong took over, sorry. Another thing I didn't really like was the mouthful of words in the manuscripts that Poirot had all of the characters write about the events that they could remember. I would have preferred Poirot explaining each person's point of view, but it's fine. The manuscripts were helpful in putting everyone's perspectives in one place.
Thirteen at Dinner, I'm just not going to say anything, mostly because everything I'm going to say will be highly inaccurate. The impersonation thing just didn't suit me. But Jane was one hell of a murderess. She killed 2 more people on top of her husband to make sure she didn't get caught. Talk about being amoral, am I right? The only reason she got caught was because of her leaving the glasses in Carlotta's gold purse and her overconfidence. She would have gotten away with it though, if it hadn't been for Poirot. I swear, the character that represents the police is always so quick to take the easy way out, randomly accusing and arresting the people that manage to fit just ONE piece of the puzzle. Like, bro, chill.
Okay, that covers it. Happy Labor Day as well. That's about it, really. No recommendations, but I don't have a reason for why. Maybe next time. Most likely next time because I am reading "The 7 1/2 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle". It has amazing reviews, the blurb sounds amazing, and the anticipation is killing me. But that might just be from the upcoming tests. Yes, it is only the 2nd week of school. No, I am definitely not stressing out and dying right now. .......
Okay, you know what? I'll do a recommendation. A small one.
Music Recommendation: High Hopes by Panic! At The Disco. Just pure nostalgia. Every time. It randomly popped into my head a few days and now I'm listening to it everyday. I love it.
Okay bye. Hopefully I will see you guys VERY SOON. Fingers crossed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 14, 2026
I've watched a few famous Agatha Christie movies through the years but haven't read an Agatha Christie book for probably 30 years. So I picked up her "Murder for Christmas" over the holidays. It was the first story in a Christie collection so I haven't gotten into the other three stories yet, all Hercule Poirot mysteries.
I didn't like her writing style in this story, for some reason she would preface almost every piece of dialogue with a line like:
Poirot said angrily:
"Then she'd write what the character said underneath in quotes."
It seemed unnecessary and takes you out of the narrative briefly.
As always Christie often has many characters in her storylines, but the ones in this story all had the same last name and so it was a bit of a struggle to keep them all organized in my brain. Christie gave them each interesting personalities but with all the same name, it was a challenge to place them. The only personality that was strangely lacking in depth was the murdered victim even though Poirot went on and on about the victim's personality being key to the solving of the murder. It almost seemed like a red herring, the over-observation of this victim.
It was a locked room murder which was definitely confounding - the murdered person with his throat cut and furniture strewn about and no apparent escape route. Added to the murder was a little side crime, a robbery of jewels which served to confuse and distract the reader nicely. As usual I was not able to figure anything out, though, to be fair, Christie will often leave out some critical bit of information that might help the reader in the end.
This mystery definitely is not on the same level as Christie's more famous stories but I still do prefer Poirot as the detective in her work. I enjoy his little quirks and observational skills and he always seems like a real person to me. As soon as he arrives in the story, it feels like I know him.
I didn't like her writing style in this story, for some reason she would preface almost every piece of dialogue with a line like:
Poirot said angrily:
"Then she'd write what the character said underneath in quotes."
It seemed unnecessary and takes you out of the narrative briefly.
As always Christie often has many characters in her storylines, but the ones in this story all had the same last name and so it was a bit of a struggle to keep them all organized in my brain. Christie gave them each interesting personalities but with all the same name, it was a challenge to place them. The only personality that was strangely lacking in depth was the murdered victim even though Poirot went on and on about the victim's personality being key to the solving of the murder. It almost seemed like a red herring, the over-observation of this victim.
It was a locked room murder which was definitely confounding - the murdered person with his throat cut and furniture strewn about and no apparent escape route. Added to the murder was a little side crime, a robbery of jewels which served to confuse and distract the reader nicely. As usual I was not able to figure anything out, though, to be fair, Christie will often leave out some critical bit of information that might help the reader in the end.
This mystery definitely is not on the same level as Christie's more famous stories but I still do prefer Poirot as the detective in her work. I enjoy his little quirks and observational skills and he always seems like a real person to me. As soon as he arrives in the story, it feels like I know him.
January 11, 2023
This edition contains 4 mysteries, but I will just be reviewing the first one here: MURDER FOR CHRISTMAS. Right away, let me state that I am an Agatha Christie fan, but not all her books are equal in appeal or in the way they hold up after 85 years! This is definitely one that while, lots of fun, loses a considerable amount of credence in the murder method, as it would not stand up to the most basic forensic investigation now, and probably not even at the time it was written!
The technicalities aside, I have a greater problem with the premise that the killer is built on. It is not only a hackneyed device, (probably introduced originally by Dame Agatha, but much overused,) it is simply too much of a long shot to be believed on any level.
So, with the murder and culprit removed, all that is left are the characters and setting. I felt that several of the characters, most notably, Lydia Lee, were more developed and showed more growth than is typical with Christie's people. As for the setting, the large, but solid old mansion was well represented, although the book could definitely have used a floor plan for added interest. Since those two elements were fairly well done, I have upgraded fro 2.5 stars to a 3-star rating.
All-in-all, an atmospheric read with a bit of fantasy thrown in!
The technicalities aside, I have a greater problem with the premise that the killer is built on. It is not only a hackneyed device, (probably introduced originally by Dame Agatha, but much overused,) it is simply too much of a long shot to be believed on any level.
So, with the murder and culprit removed, all that is left are the characters and setting. I felt that several of the characters, most notably, Lydia Lee, were more developed and showed more growth than is typical with Christie's people. As for the setting, the large, but solid old mansion was well represented, although the book could definitely have used a floor plan for added interest. Since those two elements were fairly well done, I have upgraded fro 2.5 stars to a 3-star rating.
All-in-all, an atmospheric read with a bit of fantasy thrown in!
December 8, 2021
Nothing better than a good murder mystery for Christmas; well except maybe a collection of four. And who better to tell the tales than Agatha Christie. With the classy manner and intellect sleuthing skills of Hercule Poirot, all the facts are carefully considered and all the personalities metuculously analyzed giving the reader lots of chances to solve each case. But Ms. Christie doesn't make it easy, and the reader is always taken on an up and down trail of twists and turns. Of course, M. Poirot always solves the case, often leaving everyone stunned by his wit and keen eye for detail.
January 3, 2020
I was taken aback by the blatant racism and anti-Semitism in these stories; I haven’t read a lot of Agatha Christie and was under the impression that editors had removed those problematic passages of her original work. I find Hastings to be an infuriatingly dumb character (fortunately he is in only one story), and Poirot’s arrogance can be exhausting, though I appreciate the emphasis on the psychology behind the crime.
August 14, 2017
I've read all these before--perhaps in this very same volume--and/or remember them from the BBC/PBS series. Other stories collected here are:
The Hollow
Murder in Retrospect
Thirteen For Dinner (aka Lord Edgware Dies)
All worth re-reading (but maybe not a third time).
The Hollow
Murder in Retrospect
Thirteen For Dinner (aka Lord Edgware Dies)
All worth re-reading (but maybe not a third time).
August 19, 2017
Four excellent Poirot stories!
December 22, 2017
Not my favorite Agatha Christie, but certainly enjoyable for the holiday season.
December 27, 2017
Love all of Agatha Christie mysteries......British mysteries in general
November 28, 2018
All four stories were excellent. I enjoy the Hercule Poirot character.
April 28, 2020
Doesn’t matter the story, I’m always kept guessing until the end. Agatha Christie, hands down, rules for murder mysteries.
July 10, 2020
Could I be enjoying any more??
January 7, 2022
I squealed out LOUD two pages before the end of this book! Agatha…..you get me EVERY SINGLE TIME!
March 29, 2024
You are an Agatha Christie fan or you are not. I am!
May 23, 2024
Agatha Christie always delivers with her plethora of super intelligent sleuths (of which Hercule Poirot reigns supreme for me)!
December 30, 2024
Was good, not great, enjoyed it, was my first Christie book? Want to try more of her well known book, wanted a short Christmas themed murder mystery and this definitely fit the bill!
December 31, 2024
For the 4 books, overall a 3. But I would rate Murder for Christmas as a 5. I really liked that one. The rest were 3.
January 1, 2025
The only thing better than an Agatha Christie novel is four of her stories in one book! And even though I had read them all before, each one was just as enjoyable as the first time.
January 13, 2025
Zero for 4 on solving these.
December 18, 2022
Loved!!
November 18, 2020
Absolutely loved all 4 stories! They were each individual and narrated from different perspectives so every story was like opening up a whole new book
May 22, 2008
Thirteen at Dinner is absolutely my favorite Agatha Christie story. My next favorite is The Man in the Brown Suit. I was really surprised who the murderer was. Usually I pick the person then change my mind because some piece of evidence has been found that clears them. But this story, I was dead wrong. It made sense. The killer was crazy and yet sane at the same time. It was good. Of course I like Poirot and his friend Captain Hastings. I read The Hollow. It was good. I don't know if I have read Murder in Retrospect. Sometimes they changed the name of the story depending on the editions.
May 24, 2013
Novel absolutely fantastic.I enjoyed this novel very distinctive.Habit of Agatha Christie's The writing novels Ultimate and wonderful, the plot in the story distinctive and wonderful and I can almost believe that the police sergeant "Sjdn" is a killer, of course, that this matter may seem strange but interesting.You can read the novel in one night without feeling bored or boredom.Best characteristic of Agatha Christie novels you not know the offender till the end, it makes you very eager to find out who the killer!!Read the novel by Agatha Christie's and I can say that both of the two versions is very adorable.I would advise everyone that they will read Agatha Christie masterpieces
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October 24, 2015it was good always enjoy when Hercule Poirot is involved
December 31, 2016
I like all Agatha Christie but I prefer Miss Marple over Hercule Poirot which this book features.
December 6, 2022
Deligthful Christmas entertainment
May 2, 2016
Suspenseful, thrilling, intriguing.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews