Hatchards brings Agatha Christie’s festive mystery to its library

When Agatha Christie penned Hercule Poirot’s Christmas in 1938, she crafted something altogether more sinister than tinsel and carols: a locked room mystery of such devious construction that it has endured as one of her most celebrated works. Now Hatchards, the venerable Piccadilly bookseller, brings this wintry masterpiece into its curated Library collection as the twenty second volume in the series.

The novel’s premise is deceptively simple yet laden with menace. The tyrannical Simeon Lee summons his family to a country house for Christmas, where resentments fester beneath the facade of festive cheer. Old grievances surface. Jealousies simmer. Then a terrifying cry pierces the holiday silence from behind a locked door, and Lee is found dead. Hercule Poirot arrives to unravel a mystery where every guest harbours secrets and every clue seems to point elsewhere.

This edition arrives dressed in deep forest green with gold foil detailing, a cover adorned with the silhouette of a Victorian country mansion dusted with snow and moonlight. Each copy is exclusive and numbered, a deliberate nod to the volume’s exclusivity and collectibility. The design speaks to the atmosphere Christie conjured: that particular darkness that settles over a grand house when merriment turns to murder.

The Hatchards Library collection reflects the bookshop’s commitment to presenting the finest narratives in beautiful form, each volume selected for its enduring literary merit. This Christmas mystery, with its ingenious plotting and wintry atmosphere, belongs entirely to that lineage of stories meant to be held and treasured.

Available to pre order exclusively through Hatchards online.

Imagery courtesy of Hatchards (@hatchardspiccadilly).