Sasha's Reviews > Hercule Poirot's Silent Night

The fifth book written by Sophie Hannah featuring Agatha Christie's most famous detective. It’s 19 December 1931. Hercule Poirot and his investigation partner / best friend / infatuated sycophant Inspector Edward Catchpool are planning a Christmas party in Poirot's London flat until disturbed by none other than Catchpool's mum. She has an extraordinary mystery for them to solve and potentially a life for them to save. All they have to do is come to an ill-fated manner house to spend Christmas with a family at war with each other. How could they resist?

And so Poirot and Catchpool find themselves preparing for a very different Christmas. Can Poirot exercise if "little grey cells" fast enough to catch a killer? And above all, can they get this mystery squared away in time to prevent Catchpool having to spend Christmas with his well-intentioned but extremely overbearing mum?

Sophie Hannah captures Christie's style beautifully. I feel she has hit her stride now with the tone of these books (the first few were a little uneven as to the characteristics of Poirot). Hercule Poirot is as smug and frustrating as ever. Catchpool, in spite of being a police Inspector is pretty stupid, but that is okay because every police officer in a Christie novel has to be somewhat stupid in order to allow the main character to shine. He is Poirot's Watson, a figure to bounce ideas of and add exposition not a creature of original thought (I guess we will never know how he got to the rank of Inspector but it does not bode well for the intellect of the rest of Scotland Yard).