A Christmas Tragedy by Agatha Christie: a review

Somehow, I’ve only read an Agatha Christie tale this year. I’d always meant to but just never did it. I should have done because my Grandma has most, if not all, of her works. I finally got to reading a story for a piece that I’m writing about Miss Marple and this was the first tale that I happened upon. It was inexpensive so I bought and read it right away. It took me about an hour to read through and I loved every second of it.

            The Christmas Tragedy sees Miss Marple sat with her friends around Christmas time and we join just as the men in the group have just finished telling some of their interesting life stories. Though reluctant at first, Miss Marple is convinced to tell one of her stories. She tells the story of her trip away which resulted in the murder mystery surrounding the death of Mrs Gladys Sanders. I won’t spoil anything here as that would be unfair.

            Of course, I know of the prowess of Christie to take the reader on twists and turns but I realised that I could never truly understand it until I experienced it for myself. While I’m probably bringing the tone down, I felt like Donna in Doctor Who’s ‘Unicorn and The Wasp’. The scene where she’s sat going “oh so it was him?” when they’re going through all of the possible suspects. It’s only in that final moment, the final reveal, when everything comes together. The hints throughout were subtle and then when the suspect is shown to us, they all fall into place.

It isn’t so easy to talk of a Christie tale without spoilers so, I’m not able to talk much more. All I can say is, read this. My plans are to read many more Christie pieces, probably some of the more famous pieces such as Murder on the Orient Express. Go read this short tale. It’s on Kindle for 99p along with a bunch of other Miss Marple and Poirot Tales. I’m so excited to get my hands on more.