Review by Booklist Review
Hercule Poirot is spending the week before Christmas with his friend Inspector Edward Catchpool when Catchpool's mother sweeps into their lodgings with an invitation to spend the holiday with her friends at her beautiful old mansion, unfortunately located on a cliffside about to crumble into the sea. She tells them about the recent unsolved murder of a patient at a local hospital, and while this person is a stranger, it is a great inconvenience to her circle, as the patriarch of the family is soon to be admitted to that same ward, and the matriarch fears that he will be the next victim. Poirot comes along for the puzzle, and as Catchpool follows, readers are introduced to a winning cast of English characters and suspects and gain insight into Catchpool from his funny but flippantly callous mother. This is another entertaining whodunit in Hannah's fifth book interpreting Agatha Christie's brilliant and fastidious sleuth (after The Killings at Kingfisher Hill, 2020), with family drama, an intriguing mystery, and a hilarious round of interviews conducted while decorating Christmas trees.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Hannah's stellar fifth whodunit featuring Agatha Christie's iconic sleuth (after 2020's The Killings at Kingfisher Hall) extends her reign as a master of mystery pastiche. In early December 1931, Poirot is preparing for a quiet Christmas alone when Cynthia Catchpool, the mother of Scotland Yard inspector Edward Catchpool, summons both men to solve one murder and prevent another in the small Norfolk town of Munby-on-Sea. Someone has bashed in the head of universally beloved postmaster Stanley Niven during his recent hospital stay. Vivienne Laurier, a friend of Cynthia's, is convinced that her husband, Arnold, has put a target on his own back by dedicating himself to tracking down Stanley's killer, and her anxiety spikes when Arthur prepares to go to the same hospital where Stanley was killed. Cynthia insists that Poirot stay with her and Edward through the holiday, and the pair launches a winding investigation that eventually puts their own lives at risk. Hannah does a superior job of presenting Poirot's quirky brilliance without overdoing it, and in making Catchpool a fully fleshed sidekick with psychological depth. Golden age mystery fans will be hungry for more.(Oct.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Belgium's enduring gift to the annals of detection travels to Norfolk to solve a murder case that grows more and more vexing. Arnold Laurier, the math teacher who's inherited Frellingsloe House, is dying. But before he goes, his wife, Vivienne, has two wishes she conveys to her best friend, Cynthia Catchpool: She'd like Poirot to visit Arnold, who's long idolized him, for Christmas week 1931, and she'd like him to figure out who killed inoffensive Stanley Niven, a patient in St. Walstan's Cottage Hospital, before Arnold takes up residence in the hospital room next door. Poirot agrees to make the trip, and his amanuensis, Scotland Yard Inspector Edward Catchpool, is so devoted to him that he tags along even though it means spending a week with his long-estranged mother, by far the most amusing character here. The timing of Niven's fatal bashing identifies the principal suspects as Arnold's closest relatives: his wife; his sons, Douglas and Jonathan; and their wives, Madeline and Janet. The main reason that Arnold doesn't want Poirot to solve the mystery, however, is not that he's unwilling to implicate his loved ones but that he wants the glory of solving it himself, even if the cost is his own life. Hannah paints such a suffocating picture of Christmas at Frellingsloe House that Poirot's inquiries among the staff at St. Walstan's come as a relief. When the inevitable second murder takes place on Poirot's watch, he applies the principle of "now that it's there" that Catchpool has proposed in a quite different context to unpack the well-nigh undetectable motive for both murders. A fiendishly inventive serving of humble pie, or Christmas pudding, for puzzle-solvers who think they're clever. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
