As much as I love audiobooks, I’ve never been a fan of dramatizations. HOWEVER, I have to make an exception for this BBC Radio 4 dramatization of The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. I don’t know that it was much of a mystery – I could spot whodunnit as soon as the characters were introduced, but it was still fun, fun, fun. This is only the second Poirot that I’ve read, but I can see why he has such a following.

Audiobook from my public library, via Overdrive. Full cast production was great.

I read this for The 16 Tasks of the Festive Season, for Square 10, December 21st: Book themes for Pancha Ganapati: Read anything involving a need for forgiveness in the story line; a story about redemption –OR– Read a book whose cover has one of the 5 colors of the holiday: red, blue, green, orange, or yellow –OR– Read a book involving elephants. This book has both red and green on the cover.
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6 short stories (5 with Poirot, 1 with Marple) and most of which are well known. Didnt know Greenshaw's Folly or The Under Dog so they were new to me. First published in 1963, Poirot is getting old and tired, but it's still a while before the end of "Curtain".

The stories are short, and I think that some were perhaps a little too short - the denouement came too quickly and I wasnt necessarily convinced ( )

3,5 ( )

This is actually a collection of short stories, which are:
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
The Mystery of the Spanish Chest
The Under Dog
Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds
The Dream
Greenshaw’s Folly

Poirot takes center stage in all but the last story, which features Miss Marple.

I have seen the BBC dramatizations, starring David Suchet as Poirot, of most of these stories, so the plots were vaguely familiar. Still, I didn’t always remember the culprit and was happy to read how Poirot and his little grey cells put together the clues to solve the case. I also enjoyed the subtle differences in plotting from the televised episodes to the original stories as written by Christie.

I’m less a fan of Miss Marple, and in this case she’s really in the background until she comes in and tells everyone how the murder REALLY happened and who the culprit is. Of course she (and Poirot in his cases) is right.

Agatha Christie is one of my go-to authors when I want a break from everyday life and heavier, more literary reads. I just plain enjoy them. I’m also a fan of short stories, and this fit the bill nicely for winter evenings … one story per night. ( )

I thought I had read every Agatha Christie book, story or play that she ever wrote, but I somehow missed this little gem. It's a Christmas story with the great Hercule Poirot, and it is an English country manor mystery like so many of Agatha Christie's stories are. Poirot is asked to attend a Christmas celebration at an English county manor in order to apprehend a jewel thief. Poirot is tempted to attend this family Christmas partly because he can never ignore a possible mystery, and partly because of the promise of central heating. At the manor he finds a large array of different people, and indeed all is not as it seems. Poirot waits and listens and uses his "little grey cells" to figure out who the thief is, and sets a trap to catch that person, Even in short story format, Ms. Christie cannot be beat in the mystery genre. There are many who have tried to match her skill, but few have ever achieved it. This was an enjoyable little story for this time of the year. ( )