Audiobook Review: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
by Agatha Christie

Publication date: September 30, 2002 
Publisher: Harper

I actually listened to the audiobook, but cannot find these details online! The above are details for the paperback version.

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Summary:

An English country house at Christmas time should be the perfect place to get away from it all – but nothing is ever simple for Hercule Poirot, as he finds not one but five baffling cases to solve.

First comes a sinister warning on his pillow to avoid 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’s eating habits…and the puzzle of a victim who dreams of his own suicide.

Add an extra bonus – Miss Marple investigates Greenshaw’s Folly.

Source: Goodreads

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Thoughts:

Did I pick this up because it’s nearly Christmas and this appeared to be a book about a Christmas pudding? Yes, absolutely! Was I kind of disappointed to learn that this is actually a collection of short stories and only one of them had anything to do with Christmas? Yes, kind of…

This collection tells six stories:

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding The Mystery of the Spanish Chest The Under Dog Four and Twenty Blackbirds The Dream Greenshaw’s Folly

Set at Christmas time, the first in this collection and the titular story, “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding” sees Hercules Poirot invited to a house where a ruby has gone missing. As you’d expect from any Poirot story, this was a cosy mystery and I won’t ruin any of the details for you. A fun tale, I enjoyed this quite a lot, nicely wrapped up by the detective, of course.

The other stories sadly have nothing to do with Christmas and I can’t say that they were all that memorable. As you might expect from a collection, this is a mixed bag and some of the other short stories were a little less engaging for me. I actually found I liked the last, “Greenshaw’s Folly”, a Miss Marple tale, the most. It was a really clever story which I’d say was a really nice way to wrap up this book.

I liked that these stories were short and gave me something new to listen to each time I started my commute to work. I haven’t read a lot of Agatha Christie and to be honest, I probably won’t be reading a lot more, but I enjoyed these stories enough to keep me company for a few hours.

Overall rating: A collection of Agatha Christie stories, “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding” gives you a little snippet of Christmas and a few other stories to keep you entertained for a short time. Nothing amazing, but enjoyable nonetheless – 3 stars.

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Thanks for reading! What did you think of this book? Or if you haven’t read it, would you like to? Drop me a comment and say hello!

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