Stop the Christie Murder: Christmas & Murder

A popular myth insists that murders occur more around holidays. 

I doubt it. However, the myth is so common that mystery writers regularly use it: put a bunch of non-complementary personalities together in a single house...MURDER! 

*Spoilers*

"The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding" does not entail an actual murder. It is one of those occasions when the detective forces the villain to react by faking a robbery or death or suicide. If the police did it, it would be called entrapment. When private detectives creates these scenarios, they still come off as rather extreme. 

Poirot likes to fool the villains and I often accept the plot device as "hey, that's fun!"

"The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding," however, is a little creepy since the person who supposedly dies is a girl in her early teens. Granted, her "death" is arranged by her and her cousins (to supposedly fool Poirot). But Poirot plays along. It is rather unimaginable that everyone would just laugh and say, "How cute" after the fact rather than punching Poirot in the face. 

The Poirot episode is rather enchanting, however, since it delivers a full plate of English Christmas customs from going to church to singing carols to charades and Christmas crackers.

To avoid Poirot being punched in the face, my prevention detectives reveal that Bridget isn't dead. Moreover, they let the villain get away with the jewel well beforehand. Once they do, they nab the villain for theft. Collected evidence will trace the original theft to him as well. 

Not as exciting! But there are the festivities to get to.