Description

The world’s greatest detective, Hercule Poirot – legendary star of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile – puts his little grey cells to work solving a baffling Christmas mystery.

‘The main danger, as I see it, is that you and I will be trapped here for the whole of the Christmas holiday!’

It’s 19 December 1931 and Hercule Poirot and Inspector Catchpool are called to investigate a brutal murder in a Norfolk hospital. Catchpool’s mother, the irrepressible Cynthia, insists that they stay with her nearby so that they can all be together for the festive period while Poirot finds the killer. Cynthia’s friend is being admitted to the same hospital and she is convinced he will be the next victim.

Poirot has less than a week to solve the crime and prevent more murders, if he is to escape from this nightmare scenario and get home in time for Christmas. Meanwhile, someone else – someone utterly ruthless – has other ideas about what ought to happen to Hercule Poirot…

Publisher Review

‘Sophie Hannah’s latest case for Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective is a dark psychological thriller with an ingenious resolution and it certainly takes the kitsch out of Christmas.

-Daily Record

‘If you want a Christie for Christmas, you couldn’t do better than this.’

-Alex Michaelides

‘Close enough to Christie’s own style that the reader could segue from Murder on the Orient Express into this without a stumble.’

-New York Journal of Books

‘Infused with such love and energy … Poirot is exactly as Christie created him, with a vitality that recalls her very best novels.’

-Daily Telegraph

“Perfect…a pure treat for Agatha Christie fans.”

-Tana French

‘A magnificently intricate puzzle for Poirot’s famous little grey cells.’

-Daily Mail

“What Sophie and Agatha have in common is a rare talent for fiendish unpredictability: they make you see how the impossible might be possible after all.”

– Sunday Telegraph

“The latest in Sophie Hannah’s series of mysteries featuring Agatha Christie’s beloved detective is a magnificently intricate puzzle for Poirot’s famous little grey cells.”

– Daily Mail

“I was thrilled to see Poirot in such very, very good hands.”

– Gillian Flynn, bestselling author of Gone Girl

“Does Sophie Hannah’s Poirot live up to our expectations? Yes, he does, and markedly so … Poirot is still Poirot. Poirot is back.”

– Alexander McCall Smith

“Sophie Hannah is genuinely Christie’s heir.”

– The Scotsman