Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie ( previously titled A Holiday for Murder and Murder from Christmas)
On the night before Christmas, cruel, tyrannical, filthy rich Simeon Lee is found in his locked bedroom with his throat cut. Now Hercule Poirot must put his deductive powers to the test to solve on of his most chilling cases – and to prevent a clever killer from spilling more blood.
This is a classic Christie mystery with lots of suspects, most of whom are family and have motives galore, from money to pure hatred. Christie does leave the clues, but amid many red herrings. I didn’t know who the killer was until Poirot had one of his famous get-togethers with all the suspects. After stating why each of them could be guilty, he announces the truth. And the murderer is.. .you’ll have to read the story.
I’m sure I read this when I was a teenager, but honestly didn’t remember much of it. I like the holiday twist, especially with one of the characters at the end commenting, “I feel this year it was not nice Christmas at all.”