A Holiday for Murder

I have been reading all of Agatha Christie's mysteries chronologically and therefore read this in April...I was afraid it would be too sentimental because it took place at Christmas but I found it would have been just as well that it didn't. The only thing about it that was “Christmasy” was the fact that a family who would ordinarily never see each other comes together for the holiday.

I found this book refreshing. Another reviewer likened it to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and I could see that–but it was different in a lot of ways. I have started to find trends in Agatha Christie's writing–how she reveals clues, who she chooses for the murderer, the ways she leads you astray–and I have been able to guess several of them because of that. This time I didn't even try to guess because I knew I wouldn't get it.

Some other reviewers have noted that she broke some “rules” in this one. But, like in any art form, an artist who truly knows and has mastered the rules can choose to break them. She's done it plenty of times before with great success.

Someone also commented that it wasn't very realistic–something like it would never happen. To that I would like to say–of course not. Like all of her other books, no, this would probably never happen in real life. And I prefer that.