Book Reviews – None of this is True – Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night

None Of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

Alix is a popular London podcaster, living a seemingly golden life with her successful husband and two children. Josie lives in a shabby part of town, works part-time sewing at a repair shop, her husband is elderly and one of their daughters has cut all contact, while the other never leaves her room. The lives of these very different women collide when they are both out for dinner at the same gastro pub and they chat in the bathroom. Josie realises they are ‘birthday twins’ and sees a chance to tell the story of her life as part of Alix’s podcast. Before Alix knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life. But is Josie’s story real? Is Alix prepared to endanger her family for the story of a lifetime? As the cover says … ‘gloriously dark’.

Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night by Sophie Hannah

This is Sophie Hannah’s fifth Poirot novel and Agatha Christie fans won’t be disappointed. The tone and style of the novel is spot on, with Poirot and his faithful sidekick Inspector Catchpool invited to spend Christmas at a crumbling mansion on the Norfolk coast while solving the murder of a man in the local hospital. It’s December 1931 and as the family all gather at the house, Poirot and Catchpool are surprised by the undercurrents of animosity. The twist here is that the owner of the house is about to be admitted to the same hospital and he’s adamant he wants to solve the murder on his own. However, his wife is convinced he will be the next murder victim and she’s desperate to keep him safe. Sophie Hannah is well known for her thriller novels and in this homage to Christie, she deftly keeps the reader guessing until the end.