Hercule Poirot's Silent Night is written by Sophie Hannah. But you would almost think it really was written by Dame Agatha Christie, herself. The voices of Poirot and his trusty side kick Inspector Edward Catchpool are almost perfect. Hannah has captured all of Poirot's eccentricities and his flamboyant manners. Inspector Catchpool is a perfect foil with his reflective personality and doggedness. Together they work well trying to get to the bottom of the mystery at hand.
This time they are summoned to thee crumbling mansion, Frellingsloe House at Mundy-on-Sea. This is the Laurier family house that has ben in the family for generations, but is now crumbling into the sea from erosion. The timing is fortuitous because the last patriarch of the family Arnold Laurier is dying of a terminal disease and wants to spend the last Christmas of his life in Frellingsloe House. Then he will be moving into St Walstan’s Cottage Hospital to live out his last days.
A murder has occurred in the room he will be occupying and Vivienne his wife is distraught that he wil be murdered also if he goes to the hospital. Poirot and Catchpool are urged by Catchpool's mother to spend Christmas at Mundy-on-Sea and find the answer to the hospital murder and save Laurier's life.
With any red herrings and misdirections working to confuse the reader Hannah does a powerful job of creating a entertaining mystery that creates tension and suspense as Catchpool tries to move the investigation along so that he can get home to London for Christmas and not celebrate with his mother at the country house.
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