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Hi, all:

I bring you a book in a series you might already be familiar with. I’ve read some of the previous books, and most people will know the main character.

The Last Death of the Year: The exciting new Hercule Poirot mystery for 2025 (A New Hercule Poirot Mystery. Book 6) by Sophie Hannah

The new Hercule Poirot mystery by Sophie Hannah, follow-up to the bestselling Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night.

New Year’s Eve, 1932.

Hercule Poirot and his good friend Inspector Edward Catchpool arrive on the Greek island of Lamperos for a little holiday…or is it?

Catchpool suspects Poirot has a different reason for being there — one he won’t reveal. As the clock ticks towards the New Year and a festive guessing game takes a sinister turn, can Poirot stop a murderer who is determined to strike before midnight?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221714629-the-last-death-of-the-year?

About the author:

Hello! Welcome to my Amazon Author Page, and thank you for your interest in me and my books. Below you will find my official biog and all my online links so that you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You’ll also find a link to my Dream Author Coaching Programme for writers, which launched in September 2019.

Oh, and you can see some cute photos of my amazing dog Brewster on this page too! He often leaps onto my laptop while I’m writing and deletes entire paragraphs by accident – so you could say he’s a regular contributor to my literary efforts!

If you would like to receive my monthly newsletter (in which I give away freebies and share scandal, gossip and intrigue) you can sign up at the bottom of the home page of my website, sophiehannah.com. And if you want to contact me directly (to say you’ve loved a book of mine, or even to complain vociferously about one of my books), email sophie@sophiehannah.com. I’m always delighted to hear from my readers!

Sophie xx

My Official Biography is as follows:

Sophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling crime fiction writer whose books have sold millions of copies worldwide. Her crime novels have been translated into 49 languages and published in 51 countries. Her psychological thriller The Carrier won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the 2013 UK National Book Awards. In 2014 and 2016, Sophie published The Monogram Murders and Closed Casket, the first new Hercule Poirot mysteries since Agatha Christie’s death, both of which were national and international bestsellers. She went on to publish a third, The Mystery of Three Quarters in 2018 which was an instant bestseller, and her fourth Poirot novel, The Killings at Kingfisher Hill will be published in August 2020. Sophie helped to create a Master’s Degree in Crime and Thriller Writing at the University of Cambridge, for which she is the main teacher and Course Director. She is also the founder of the Dream Author Coaching Programme for writers which launched in September 2019.

Sophie is also an award-winning, bestselling poet, and her poetry is studied at GCSE level across the UK. She has co-written two murder mystery musicals with composer Annette Armitage: The Mystery of Mr. E and Work Experience. She has written a self-help book called How To Hold a Grudge: From Resentment to Contentment – The Power of Grudges to Transform Your Life, and hosts the How to Hold a Grudge podcast.

Sophie lives with her husband, children and dog in Cambridge, where she is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College.

And I can be found online here: Website: http://www.sophiehannah.com; Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sophiehannahauthor/; Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sophiehannahwriter/; Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sophiehannahCB1

My review:

I thank NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for providing me with an ARC copy of this novel, which I freely chose to review.

I have read several of Sophie Hannah’s novels in the New Hercule Poirot Mystery series and enjoyed them. The plots and the figure of Poirot were true to the spirit of the original novels, and I also liked Catchpool, an inspector from Scotland Yard, happy to follow Poirot in his adventures and to put up with his peculiarities.

This novel, the sixth in the series, had an interesting premise. Poirot and Catchpool travel to a Greek Island, although Catchpool is given the impression that they are going on a short break over New Year’s, and they’ll stay with some friends of Poirot. The truth is somewhat different, because Poirot has been called due to the concerns of the owner of the house, who also happens to be the leader of a small community of people who share a set of intentions and beliefs all around the importance of forgiveness and its power to make the world a better place.

This wouldn’t be a Poirot novel (old or new) without a crime (or several), in this case, a murder that revolves around the New Year’s resolutions of all the characters living there, one of which contains what seems to be a very specific threat.

I won’t reveal too much about the plot, and although the principles that rule the community and the intricacies of the interactions and relationships between all the characters raised some interesting questions, I did not find the plot as compelling as that of other stories in the series, perhaps because I didn’t feel much connection or even sympathy for any of the members of the community (although I had a soft spot for the Greek inspector and the cook, who brought a humorous and bright spot to the proceedings). And although I don’t have to “like” the characters to enjoy a novel, if I don’t care for them at some level, I find that the experience of reading doesn’t grab me as much as I’d like, especially when reading a mystery.

I also missed Poirot playing a bigger part in the story. Although he is there, investigating, it felt more like a novel about Catchpool, where each one of them did their own thing and then compared notes, and Catchpool is always convinced that his ideas are bad and he won’t get anywhere. Needless to say, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I liked the idea behind the setting, both the place and the time of the year, but apart from a few times, I didn’t feel the location played as important a part as it could have, although perhaps that was due to my own expectations.

Regarding the mystery itself, there aren’t many factual clues, and all the characters hide things and contradict each other, making it quite convoluted and even confusing at times, with red herrings and misdirections galore.

I enjoyed the ending, which, as expected, takes the form of the familiar meeting of all the characters where Poirot shares the big reveal (or one reveal after another), and the epilogue, pretty light-hearted, but, all in all, this is my least favourite of this new series of novels about one of Agatha Christie’s most memorable characters.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publishers, the author, and Agatha Christie, of course, and to all of you for being there, for visiting, liking, commenting, and sharing. I hope 2026 is a year full of peace, great books, kindness, and forgiveness as well.