I read this book to compare it to Envious Casca because both are mysteries of the English-country-house-at-Christmas-murdered-body-found-in-locked-room genre. I thought that I had read this particular Poirot before. But apparently Christie wrote a few Christmas mysteries with Poirot. So maybe what I actually read was a short story. Anyway, it wasn't this particular mystery novel. And it turns out that even though both the Heyer mystery and the Christie mystery are of the same narrow genre, sharing many of the basic elements, they are quite different stories!
A further element the two books shared was that the murdered person was the rich patriarch whose children are anxious about what he's leaving them in his will. And this patriarch is not a pleasant person in either book. However, Heyer's Nathaniel Harriad is irritable and argumentative, but underneath not an evil sort. Contrast that with Simeon Lee who really is a nasty, nasty sort of person. Also the murderer turns out to be completely different people with completely different motives. And the mystery of how the murder was committed in a locked room is also completely different.
While I enjoyed the Christie book and I acknowledge she is universally celebrated as the queen of murder mysteries, I have to say I rather like Heyer's writing style better! Christie can be a bit clunky in her dialogue or how she builds the background for the characters and situation. I think Heyer handles that more gracefully And Heyer manages to be laugh out loud funny at times too.
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