The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding & the Hound of Death

by Agatha Christie

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.

Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)

Reviews

[Barbara Nutting · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read 2020

[Adele · Rating 3 out of 5]

A curious compendium of stories. The first, selected for it’s Christmas theme is a typical case to stimulate the little grey cells of everyone’s favourite Belgian detective. By comparison, the companion book in my Heron edition, would be a more appropriate choice for Hallowe’en. The titular “Hound of Death”, starts a collection of cleverly sinister stories in which Agatha Christie demonstrates her talent to misdirect and chill the reader in less than 20(ish) pages per vignette. The collection includes the original story “A Witness for the Prosecution”, which I’ve had the thrill of seeing on the London stage. The adaptation doesn’t wholly follow the written version. The gripping live performance of the courtroom drama - dare I say(?) is better.

[Suzanne Fournier · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is only for the stories in Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. I'm quite sure I've read Hound of Death before and have no interest in rereading it.

The titular story is one of my favourite Poirot's, no one dies and it's very cheerfully interwoven with Christmas. The mystery of the Spanish Chest and The Dream are also excellent.

[David]

An odd pair of works, all short fiction. The first collection is primarily Poirot, but does bring Miss Marple into play. The second collection is almost all in the supernatural mode rather than detective fiction. Not all of it works, but it is rather interesting.

[Arizonagirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short story of just The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. I prefer the full length novels.