The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and a Selection of Entrées is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 24 October 1960.Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. Collins Crime Club – A checklist of First Editions. Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (p. 15) It is the only Christie first edition published in the UK that contains stories with both Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, the writer's two most famous detectives. It retailed in the UK for twelve shillings and sixpence (12/6) and comprises six cases. It was not published in the US although the stories it contains were published in other volumes there.
Plot summaries
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, or The Theft of the Royal Ruby Poirot is asked by a Mr Jesmond, who is acting as an intermediary to an eastern prince, to help that unfortunate young man with a problem he is having. The prince is due soon to be married to a cousin.
On his way to be married, he met an attractive but obviously dubious young woman, and rashly decided to have a last fling with her. The prince brought several expensive jewels with him to London for resetting by Cartier and one of them, a fabulous ruby, was stolen by the young woman. If it cannot be retrieved, a scandal will ensue and because of this, the police cannot be involved. The mystery can be solved at an old English country house called Kings Lacey where it will be arranged for Poirot to join a family there for their Christmas celebrations, supposedly to experience a typical English Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, at Kings Lacey, Poirot is told about the other members of their party by Mrs Lacey, his elderly host in the house. Joining them will be her husband, Colonel Lacey; Sarah, a granddaughter by their deceased son; Colin, a teenage grandson by their daughter; Michael, a friend of Colin's at school; Bridget who is of the same age as Colin and Michael and is a great niece of Mrs Lacey's; Diana, a young cousin of Mrs Lacey's; and David Welwyn who is a family friend.
Colonel and Mrs Lacey are perturbed by Sarah's relationship with a young rake called Desmond Lee-Wortley. They both think him unsuitable for their granddaughter and have invited him to join them for Christmas, in the hope that a few days' close contact with Sarah will show her how unsuitable he is, particularly in contrast to David Welwyn who has been friends with Sarah since childhood. Lee-Wortley is there with his sister who is recovering from an operation and is confined to her room, convalescing.
Colin, Michael, and Bridget are disappointed with Poirot as he does not meet their expectations of what a detective should look like. They hatch a plan to arrange a false murder for Poirot to detect with Bridget lying in the snow with blood as the "dead" body and footprints leading through the snow which is now falling and expected to grow heavier. They decide that they will put their plan into operation on Boxing Day, as Colonel Lacey would not like something of that nature to take place on Christmas Day itself.
That night, the Christmas tree is decorated and the party retire to their rooms for the night. On his pillow, Poirot finds a scrawled note which reads, "DON'T EAT NONE OF THE PLUM PUDDING. ONE WHO WISHES YOU WELL." He is most puzzled.
The next day, the party eats a huge Christmas dinner, and then the elderly and partly retired butler brings in the Christmas pudding with great ceremony. The diners find the usual tokens in their portions, but the Colonel is annoyed and amazed when he almost chokes on a large ruby in his. Poirot takes the object and pockets it. Afterwards, Poirot visits the kitchen to compliment the daily cook, Mrs Ross, on the meal and particularly the pudding. She confesses that two were made, one for that day and one for New Year's Day, but the one for Christmas Day was dropped and the one for six days later substituted in its place.
That night, Poirot pretends to sleep in his bed, having avoided drinking a drugged coffee which had been handed to him by Lee-Wortley. A figure enters his room and conducts a fruitless search.
The next morning, the children carry out their "murder" plan and rouse Poirot from his bed to investigate the "dead" body but the planners get a shock when Poirot confirms that Bridget is indeed dead, Sarah and Lee-Wortley having joined them in the snow. Poirot invites the young man to check Bridget's pulse and he confirms there is not one.
Poirot points out that the footprints in the snow look like Lee-Wortley's and that Bridget's hand is clutching the ruby found in the pudding. Lee-Wortley is dumbfounded, but takes the ruby and offers to ring for the police. Claiming to Diana that the phone is dead, he drives off to fetch them.
Poirot takes the others in the house where he explains all. He tells them that Lee-Wortley is a blackmailer and involved in other questionable matters. His supposed sister is the young woman who took the ruby from the eastern prince, and the two of them were tracked to Kings Lacey.
Bridget appears in the room — she is not dead, having worn a tourniquet on her arm when lying in the snow, and was in league with Poirot to trick Lee-Wortley. Poirot heard the children planning their "murder" through an open window and used this opportunity to take Lee-Wortley in. Poirot had given the ruby to Bridget for safekeeping on the night that Lee-Wortley tried to drug him, then switched it for a paste copy he had brought with him while arranging the "murder" scene. He supposes that Lee-Wortley will go abroad and receive an unpleasant surprise when he tries to sell the fake. Lee Wortley's "sister" had hidden the real ruby in the New Year's Day pudding, intending that the pair should take it with them when they left, but they were unaware of the accident that befell the one for Christmas Day.
Lee-Wortley's "sister" overhears these revelations and flees the house, furious that he has left her to face the consequences alone. The mystery of who left the note on Poirot's pillow is solved when one of the housemaids confesses that she heard the pair discussing getting Poirot out of the way and that something had been put in the pudding, causing her to think they planned to poison him. He rewards her by promising her a vanity box, and gets a kiss from Bridget under the mistletoe.
The Mystery of the Spanish Chest Poirot's attention is caught by newspaper headlines which tell of the latest developments in the "Spanish Chest Mystery". At his request Miss Lemon prepares a précis of the case. A Major Charles Rich held a small party at his flat. The guests were a Mr and Mrs Clayton, a Mr and Mrs Spence and a Commander McLaren. At the last minute, Edward Clayton received an urgent telegram summoning him to Scotland that night on business and did not attend the party. Shortly before the party, he had a drink with McLaren at their club where he explained his coming absence and then before going to the station, took a taxi to Rich's to offer his apologies. Rich was out but Burgess – Rich's manservant – let him in and left Clayton to scribble a note in the sitting room while he carried on his preparations in the kitchen.
Some ten minutes later, Rich returned and sent Burgess out on a short errand. Rich denies seeing Clayton at the flat nor did Burgess after leaving the man to write his note. The party went well. The next morning, Burgess noticed what seemed to be bloodstains on a rug that were seeping from a Spanish chest in the corner of the room. Opening it, the startled man found the dead body of Mr Clayton, who had been stabbed to death.The manner of stabbing has varied from the original version to the television production. One version indicated the victim was stabbed through the eye through a hole in the chest in which the man was concealing himself; another version has the victim stabbed through the heart.
Rich has now been arrested as the obvious suspect but Poirot sees a flaw in that he cannot see how or why Rich would calmly have gone to bed with a bleeding corpse in the chest. He is able to start investigating the case when a mutual friend recommends him to Mrs Clayton. Upon meeting Clayton's widow, Marguerite, he is struck by her beautiful innocence and realises quickly that she is attracted to Major Rich although she denies having an affair with him. She does admit that she was not in love with her closed and emotionless husband. He then sees each of the people involved in the party in turn who each agree about the charms of Mrs Clayton and the lack of emotion in her husband. Poirot has some suspicions of Burgess and goes to Rich's flat where the manservant shows him the scene of the crime. Inspecting the chest, Poirot finds some holes in the back and side and asks Burgess if anything in the room is noticeably different from the night of the party. He is told that a screen in the room was almost in front of the chest on the night of the murder, concealing it from public view.
Remembering a reference to Othello used by Mrs Spence, Poirot realises the truth. Mr Clayton is Othello and his wife is Desdemona and the missing character of Iago is, in fact, Commander McLaren. He is in love with Mrs Clayton and, jealous of her attraction to Major Rich, planned the perfect crime whereby Clayton would die and Rich be accused of the murder. He had made numerous subtle suggestions to Clayton about his wife's infidelity to the point where the man himself hatched a plan to fake a summons to Scotland and then found a reason to get into Rich's flat where he hid in the chest to observe what happened in his absence during the party.
McLaren, playing records for the people to dance to, nipped behind the screen, knowing that Clayton was staring out of one of the holes in the chest, and murdered Clayton. Poirot feels certain that if the theory is put to McLaren he will confess.The 1991 TV adaptation follows the original story -- except for having Poirot at the party; changing McLaren to "Colonel Curtiss"; and having Curtiss nearly stab Poirot with a sword cane until Major Rich saves Poirot by fighting a sword duel with Curtiss.
The Underdog Sir Reuben Astwell was murdered ten days previously at his country house, Mon Repos, when he was violently hit on the back of the head with a club, and his nephew Charles Leverson has been arrested. Sir Reuben's wife, Lady Astwell, is convinced that the true criminal is the late man's secretary, Owen Trefusis, although she does not have a shred of evidence to back up this claim, relying instead on "intuition". She sends her young companion, Lily Margrave, to Poirot to employ him on the case and Poirot accepts, partly because he senses that Lily does not want Poirot to investigate the matter and that she has something to hide.