The Last Death of the Year (New Hercule Poirot Mysteries, #6) by Sophie Hannah, Agatha Christie
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, large print, ebook, audiobook
Genres: historical mystery, mystery
Series: New Hercule Poirot #6
Pages: 288
Published by William Morrow on October 23, 2025
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

The brilliant Belgian detective rings in the New Year with a chilling murder investigation on a Greek island in this all-new holiday mystery from Sophie Hannah, author of Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night.
New Year’s Eve, 1932. Hercule Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool arrive on the tiny Greek island of Lamperos to celebrate the holiday with what turns out to be a rather odd community of locals living in a dilapidated house. A dark sense of foreboding overshadows the beautiful island getaway when the guests play a New Year’s Resolutions game after dinner and one written resolution gleefully threatens to perform “the last and first death of the year.”
Hours later, one of the home’s residents is found dead on the terrace.
In light of the shocking murder, Poirot reveals to Catchpool the real reason he’s brought him to the island—the life of another community member has been threatened. Now both men resolve to ensure that the first murder will be the last.

My Review:

From a certain point of view, The Last Death of the Year is a fairly typical Poirot story – at least in his later years and certainly in this series continuation of the late and much lamented Agatha Christie’s most popular detective’s investigations.

Poirot has dragged his current best friend and protegee away from England for the Christmas holidays in what is obviously a bit of a scam on Poirot’s part. As is usual, and because he really does like things this way, Poirot is keeping all the important cards close to his impeccably tailored vest.

Scotland Yard Inspector Edward Catchpool doesn’t catch on until they arrive at the House of Perpetual Welcome on the tiny Greek island of Lamperos. Poirot has lured Catchpool by dangling the house’s proximity to the Mediterranean Sea,  as he knows that his friend has discovered a penchant for swimming in the ocean or closest equivalent as often as possible.

That Catchpool is more than happy to have an excuse to be ANYWHERE other than England – and in proximity to his overbearing mother – during the holidays is also well-known to Poirot after their investigation in the previous book, Silent Night.

Catchpool would have gone along with Poirot to Greece if he had been presented with the truth from the outset, but that is not Poirot’s way. So Catchpool is only a bit put out by his friend’s misdirection.

Howsomever, he is a LOT put out by the characters inhabiting the House of Perpetual Welcome, a place which may have lived up to its name by welcoming one or more people that it really shouldn’t have.

A fact that is made entirely too clear on New Year’s Day, with the discovery that one of their number was murdered in the night – and all too obviously by another one of their number. Precisely as was predicted the evening before, when their little game of anonymous New Year’s resolutions revealed that one member of the household had plans to cause “the last and first death of the year” sometime that very night.

And clearly did.

Escape Rating C: I think my hand is stuck in the bag of potato chips and I can’t get it out. At least, that’s my explanation for why I keep picking up this series and manage to finish each book, no matter how annoying I find the story and especially the characters.

I do, in fact, like the character that the author has created for her continuation of Hercule Poirot’s adventures in detection. Scotland Yard Inspector Edward Catchpool combines the best – or at least the most useful – parts of Captain Arthur Hastings and Chief Inspector Japp. Catchpool has the official cachet of being a Scotland Yard Inspector like Japp, without Japp’s longer experience with both crime and Poirot, a combination which allows Japp to treat Poirot as an equal – and even a bit of vice versa – in a way that the young Catchpool cannot and rightfully does not.

At the same time, Catchpool exhibits a bit of the same naivete and even outright innocence that Hastings possesses, allowing Poirot to use him as a sounding board and a foil that Poirot can demonstrate his own genius to. However, Hastings, at least in the David Suchet TV series, often seemed naive to the point of outright fecklessness, where Catchpool is merely young and a bit awed by the famous detective. Hastings just gets older – as Poirot does – while Catchpool seems to be catching up with Poirot a bit. Not that he ever thinks he’s Poirot’s equal or is ever going to be, but he does seem to be coming into himself and his own capabilities in a way that bodes well for his survival at Scotland Yard.

(One often wondered whether Hastings was auditioning for the part of Bertie Wooster, and it’s not something that wears well over time.)

But speaking of characters, the cast of potential murder suspects and victims at the House of Perpetual Welcome is every bit as much of a complete shambles as the house itself. It’s not just that every single one of them is a hot mess, it’s that they are all hot messes in histrionic ways, they’re all lying as they breathe, they’re all over-the-top high strung drama queens, and the raison d’etre for the quasi-religious community at the house is an absolute farce of pure bunkum.

That the method of ‘warning’ about the murder and the game it was part of reminded me a bit of Ink, Ribbon, Red was not a help. It set me up, not for figuring things out but for thinking that the process was going to be a case of tedious, overwrought misdirection. And it was.

I’m starting to rant, so I’ll stop. By this point, you’ve probably gotten the idea. OTOH, I can’t really recommend this, and on the other hand, if you’re already hooked – which apparently I am – it’s just engaging enough that I can’t get my hand out of that bag – even if the only thing stopping me from throwing this one against the wall in a fit of incoherent pique was that I’d damage my iPad in the process and it’s just not worth it.

Nevertheless, I might still be back for the next one, whenever that turns out to be. Or I might manage to get my hand out of the bag by then. We’ll see, two or three years from now. Unlike more positive reviews, where I really am already looking forward to the next book, this time I can definitely wait for whatever, whenever, if-ever, comes next in the series.