"Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night" by Sophie Hannah brings Agatha Christie's iconic detective back to life for a Christmas mystery.
Set in 1930s England, the novel captures Poirot's meticulous investigative style and trademark quirks.
Author Sophie Hannah crafts a plot filled with twists, red herrings, and a touch of festive cheer. While some purists may find it lacks Christie's original flair, others will appreciate the effort to stay true to the beloved character.
The book's intricate narrative and faithful period details make it an engaging read for both long-time fans and newcomers to Poirot’s world.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this.

I started this book, unaware that it was part of a series. However, it is not really necessary to read the previous books, as by the looks of it, they can be read as stand-alone, unless you want to build a better relationship with the character.

This was another book I found myself struggling to read, and honestly did not really get into. While I do like a good mystery, this was unfortunately a book that just didn't suit me. Despite my feelings of the book, I would still recommend people to read, as every reader is different.

Sophie Hannah did a wonderful job writing this, and I do commend on the writing, and I am interested in looking at her other books because of this.

Just the nostalgic escapism I needed! Thoroughly enjoyed :) thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC. Highly recommended!

My first Hercule Poirot book and it was a delight!
The writing felt very classic and I enjoy that! Hercule was a great lead, his character was one that I enjoy very much.
I love the whodunnit trope, it was fun unravelling the mystery.
A great read!

I love a Agatha Christie and Hercule is my favourite character. He has poise and charm and is so very smart. I love how he solved the mystery.

Sophie Hannah, Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night The New Hercule Poirot Mystery, Harper Collins UK, Harper Fiction 26 October 2023.
Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

This is the second of Sophie Hannah’s Hercule Poirot mysteries that I have read, and I came to it hoping that I would not be disappointed. I have read Sophie Hannah’s other novels with enthusiasm, and some dread, at times. Despite their often bizarre and unpleasant themes they are immensely readable, almost addictive, and some of my favourite in their genre. I cannot say the same of the Monogram Murders, the first of Hannah’s Hercule Poirot mysteries I tried. Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night is a distinct improvement.
In this novel Hannah replicates Agatha Christie’s lack of interest in making Hastings a permanent character in her Hercule Poirot novels. Poirot’s companion, Edward Catchpool is a former police inspector, the son of one of the other characters, and, while advancing the narrative with the potential and then actual crime at its focus, also develops as a distinct character. Although he follows Hastings in being unaware of the clues that Poirot so brilliantly perceives, maintaining the familiar relationship between the two, he has his own character which adds to the novel. Unlike Hastings who had to be married off in Christie’s second Poirot novel, Murder on the Links, to avoid including him in every work featuring Poirot, Catchpool’s character has some interesting elements. His relationship with his mother, a clearly negative character, and his police background gives him professional possibilities. He is not reminiscent of any of Christie’s police characters (Japp, Slack, for example) and makes a positive contribution to the solution, although as Poirot suggests, not a brilliant as his own. This is a clever use of some of Christie’s tactics while providing a plausible alternative to the known Christie characters.

Hannah also injects some of the familiar Christie humour into the novel, a welcome gesture towards Christie’s ability to mix murder and comic moments. In Silent Night Hannah has also managed to adopt more of Christie’s touch in moulding Poirot’s physical features, thought processes and behaviour into the Poirot familiar from her novels.

Sophie Hannah has come a long way from her first attempt to emulate Christie’s work and I admire that. However, I am not wedded to this collection of novels. I am certainly ready to reread some of her independent work again. As I said, they are quite addictive.

Sophie Hannah's taking up of the Poirot mantle continues to be an excellent decision by those parties who made it - this latest installment is a twisty and satisfyingly dark tale of murder, familial discord and lies.
Set mainly in the affectionately-nicknamed "Frelly"; a manor house that set atop a cliff that is slowly crumbling into the sea, we find our heroes Catchpool and Poirot landing on the doorstep to investigate an odd murder at a local hospital. Lured there by the former's meddling mother, the duo soon find that they're entangled in some odd circumstances. The family patriarch is dying of an incurable disease, but his wife is terrified he'll be murdered next if he goes to the local hospital for hospice care that is needed as he nears the end of his life. Their two sons, who are married to two sisters, are all at each others' throats. There's two odd boarders who live there as well, plus the daughter-in-laws' parents who are acting virtually as unpaid domestic servants.
By the application of his little grey cells, some insightful questioning and the usual careful observation, Poirot starts to unpick the mystery of the seemingly random killing of a patient at the hospital, aided by the not-useless Catchpool, who is certainly no Hastings and himself very sharp. With Christmas looming, both of them want to escape the sad mood and unsettling atmosphere at Frelly as soon as possible.
I thoroughly enjoyed this festive-season murder mystery, the characters were awful and entertaining, Poirot's usual exclamations at circumstances not being to his standards quite funny and the ending suitably difficult to figure out. Recommended if you like the Famous Belgian Detective.

This is an enjoyable read from Hannah and I feel like each of these recreations of Poirot is closer to the original I know and love.

Here Poirot and Catchpool (who I always feel kinda underperforms for a Scotland Yard Detective) are coerced by Catchpool's mother into joining her for Christmas to solve a murder. Or more aptly, solve a murder and prevent another.

This is the quintessential Christie-styled crime fiction. Warring family members and interlopers staying in the family house for no clear reason. We've got a small select suspect pool but seemingly no actual motivation for the murder - which takes place in a nursing home. Although the fear that the ailing patriarch of that family is next is enough to intrigue Poirot.

We're probably not quite given all of the information we need to solve this or determine the underlying motive but Hannah throws in lots of false leads and red herrings that meant it kept me entertained.

3.5 stars

The title of the book and the blurb caught my attention, who can ignore a story set at Christmas?

It is nearing Christmas and Inspector Edward Catchpool is planning on spending Christmas away from his domineering mother. He and his friend Hercule Poirot are determined to have a quiet but festive Christmas away from all the fuss. Unfortunately for the two men Cynthia Catchpool needs their help to solve a murder and prevent another one and insists they travel to Norfolk to solve the mystery. Poirot is certain he can solve it in a day or two and they can make their excuses and return to London for their planned Christmas.

They travel to a crumbling seaside manor and meet a family who constantly argue and threaten each other, servants who are bad tempered and argumentative. Not a jolly Christmas at all. It doesn’t take Poirot long to realise he might be the next victim and the local police (as expected) were useless. Can Poirot solve the mystery before anyone else dies?

The mystery and characters were intriguing with lots of twists, turns and red herrings. I think I suspected most of the characters at one stage or another and in the end I didn’t suspect the actual murderer until the reveal.

While I am not a big fan of Poirot, or his little grey cells, his mysteries are actually very clever, and author, Sophie Hannah, has reproduced his character perfectly. Sophie received the blessing of Agatha Christie’s family and estate to reproduce Poirot mysteries and she has done a great job. This is the fifth book in the series, and I already have placed the first book on my TBR pile - The Monogram Murders. If you are a fan of Agatha Christie you will most certainly be a fan of this series.

Silent Night is the fifth outing for Sophie Hannah’s authorised new Hercule Poirot mystery series, but the first that I’ve read. In fact, this was my first Agatha Christie since childhood - I read her almost exclusively until secondary school then stopped completely. I didn’t feel I’d missed anything by not reading the first four as I get the impression each is a separate story. I was curious to see how a tale set in 1931 would hold up in modern times, and whether Hannah could match the cleverness of the originals. While I think she does a pretty good job of honouring the source style, I’m not sure that I would bother reading the rest, as I found both Poirot and Catchpool intensely irritating.

Narrated by Scotland Yard detective Inspector Edward Catchpool, this has he and his good friend Poirot preparing to spend a peaceful Christmas in London, when they are peremptorily summoned to Norfolk by Catchpool’s domineering mother Cynthia, who insists that they must solve the murder of a patient in a small private hospital, and stay at her friends’ stately home nearby. Their hostess didn’t know the victim, but has become convinced that it means her own husband will also be killed. The weather is terrible, the food worse, the company suspicious and unpleasant, and the friends face the prospect of a Christmas spent playing a dreadful sounding parlour game!

This had all the classic Christie elements - an cast of unlikeable upper class English twits, a bumbling policeman, and a baffling crime, the solution to which is proudly revealed by Poirot, in the Drawing Room, of course. I didn’t guess whodunnit at all, and while the explanation seemed unlikely, I didn’t feel cheated by the reveal. There’s an awful lot of pontificating and I found the pace very slow - at some point I will go back and read one of the originals but suspect I’ll find I have the same issues. 3.5 rounded up for the Nostalgia Factor.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Australia for the ARC. I am posting this honest review voluntarily. Silent Knight is published on October 26th.

The latest Sophie Hannah novel is Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night (2023), a Christmas murder mystery. It begins and ends on New Year's Eve 1931, with the interesting query “Are secrets the motive for murder?” The narrator, Inspector Edward Catchpool, recounts an earlier death of a man in the St Walston’s Hospital in Norfolk. Hercule Poirot accepts the invitation to stay at Frelling House prior to Christmas, in order to solve the whodunnit mystery. The fifth of Hannah’s Poirot captures the essence of the world’s greatest detective with another riveting murder mystery. Typical of Agatha Christie’s tales, it has plenty of red herrings, an ingenious killer to identify and the grand finale reveal to all involved. A new classic take, that captures the feel and Poirot canon, with a new sidekick that is a five stars must-read rating. With thanks to HarperCollins Publishers Australia, and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own, freely given and without inducement.

There's nothing better than curling up with a Poirot Christmas mystery set in an English manor house. Hannah has perfectly capture the vibes, characters, and intricacies of a Christie whodunnit. This had me guessing who the murderer was throughout the entire book. I kept changing my suspects. This is wonderfully crafted and has put me in the Christmas spirit in September!

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins AU for the opportunity to read this book.

I do love a Hercule Poirot story, and one set at Christmas really had me excited, Sophie Hannah has really captured the essence of the famous detective and I love having new stories this way.

I don’t think I have once picked the ending of an Agatha Christie tale and this one was no different. It is always a twisted and convoluted reveal, and looking back, the clues were all there.

Thanks to Harper Collins Australia for this advanced copy to read. And thank you Sophie Hannah for keeping Poirot alive.

Poirot is back and what a treat it was to read this book. Set at Christmas time and of course Poirot is ready to solve the the murder. As always I love his almost boring way of doing things yet he always gets the job done.

But don't think that this is a boring read as it is far from that with many mysteries to solve, many twists and turns and of course all the wonderful characters you would expect. This is an enjoyable and entertaining read, a cosy murder mystery to curl up with and read in no time.

Looking forward to seeing what else Sophie Hannah has written and will write in the future.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers Australia for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book has the essence and feel of Poirot, solving a mystery in a methodical but serious manner.
The main characters were depicted as they were meant to be, Poirot is at times bland, Catchpool seems to want to please Poirot and Catchpool’s mother is slightly overbearing!
The storyline of course, follows Poirot in his quest to solve a murder, at Christmas time, in a hospital.
Catchpool’s mother has planned that Poirot should stay for Christmas, she’s very convincing!
Poirot wants to go home, there’s more to this story than it first appears! The story reveals one mystery after another, frustrations and annoyance, Catchpool often finds himself feeling inadequate.
This book is readable but slowly works through the case at hand.

Thank you to Harper Collins Australia, NetGalley and Sophie Hannah for the opportunity to read and review this book.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I didn’t expect to enjoy this novel as much as I did, given that I have only ever read a couple of Agatha Christie books, both of which were indeed Hercule Poirot mysteries, but still didn’t ever quite measure up to the famed TV series for me. However, this was sent to me for review and something about my reading mood matched the novel and I found myself starting it at work one lunch and being hard pressed to put it down.

It’s quaint, cosy, familiar, yet also more contemporary without compromising the historical fiction quality. Dare I say, I might actually like Sophie Hannah’s version of doing Agatha Christie more than I have ever enjoyed Agatha Christie herself? I know, I know, I’m ducking for cover! The shock, the horror, but there you have it. I just don’t rate Agatha Christie all that highly, but I do like the character of Poirot, and Catchpool, very much. I expect I’ll be reading a few more of these from time to time. Whilst set at Christmas, it’s not really a Christmas story as such, and could be read and enjoyed at any time of the year.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

3.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and Sophie Hannah for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

While I did enjoy the twists and turns of this novel, I did feel the start was a bit jumpy and lacked cohesion. Overall; the story was enjoyable and I was always guessing a different person as the murderer.

'Ruling out the obvious means you end up with a superior result'.

It's nearing Christmas and Catchpool is determined to spend a Christmas away from his domineering mother so happily makes plans with Poirot only to have his intention completely scuppered by that same, vainglorious woman. She needs their help to not only solve a recent murder but to prevent another. Poirot can't, of course, pass by an opportunity to use his 'little gray cells' - even with the spectre of possibly spending Christmas stuck in a crumbling, seaside mansion looms. Meeting the cast of characters, learning their individual nuances, and understanding their personal grudges, is all a part of the delight of an Agatha Christie mystery. You will never see the end coming, as 'the biggest liars of all: your thoughts and presumptions', but again I think readers of Agatha Christie want to be tantalised, not sleuths themselves.

Agatha Christie's Belgian sleuth, Hercule Poirot has many avid fans. Sophie Hannah has taken on a Herculean task in taking the legend of Poirot into the future. This is the fifth book she's produced in the series, and although I have not had the opportunity to read the others, I was very impressed with her representation of Poirot and all of his idiosyncrasies, and Edward Catchpool as the consummate sidekick. Any fan of Agatha's is sure to be a fan of Sophie Hannah's version.

A somewhat jolly jaunt to ridiculously named "Frelly House" to solve a murder with familiar old Hercule Poirot and his modern companion Edward Catchpool at the Christmas of 1931.

Slow in parts, my biggest dislike was the number of times Poirot mentioned his "little grey cells" and the amount of time spent ridiculing or denigrating every other character who deigned to have a theory on the murder

Perfectly serviceable.

Hercule Poirot's Silent Night is another fine entry into Sophie Hannah's collection of Poirot stories which can sometimes be hit and miss. Thankfully, this one is more hit than miss.

Sophie Hannah has finally nailed Poirot's enjoyable mix of humour and hubris, and it was great to be on another ride with the character. Of course, no one can match the heights of Agatha Christie herself, so readers should manage their expectations accordingly.

I enjoyed the central mystery quite a bit, although it took a while to get going. While the denouement was fun, it did break some of the rules of the Golden Age in that not all the clues were made available to the reader. Poirot's sidekick Catchpool even comments that he (we) did not have all the information required to solve the mystery. This felt like a bit of a cheat.

Overall, if you are fan of Christie's or Hannah's this is a light, enjoyably forgettable read.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.