
Reader Score
73%
73% of readers
recommend this book
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.
Sophie Hannah is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous psychological thrillers, which have been published in 51 countries and adapted for television, as well as The Monogram Murders, the first Hercule Poirot novel authorized by the estate of Agatha Christie, and its sequels Closed Casket, The Mystery of Three Quarters, The Killings at Kingfisher Hill, and Hercule Poirot's Silent Night. Sophie is also the author of a self-help book, How to Hold a Grudge, and hosts the podcast of the same name. She lives in Cambridge, UK.
Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She died in 1976, after a prolific career spanning six decades.
"A delicious, twisty, delightful read, The Last Death of the Year has an opening hook worthy of Christie at her finest. Think A Murder is Announced meets Evil Under The Sun, with an extra dash of Sophie Hannah magic. An isolated Greek island, a closed circle of suspects, and an elegant, baffling mystery. Christie fans are in for a treat." -- Alex Michaelides, bestselling author of The Silent Patient and The Maidens
"Sophie Hannah does it again in this entertaining, page-turning resurrection of the great detective himself, Hercule Poirot. Set on a Greek Island on New Year's eve, The Last Death of the Year examines what happens when a list of resolutions foretells a mysterious murder." -- Nita Prose, New York Times bestselling author of The Maid
"Once again, Hannah proves both a quick study and an inventive thinker, delivering a whodunit that honors Poirot's history without feeling like a mere retread. Golden age mystery fans are in for a treat." -- Publishers Weekly
"Hannah's pastiche isn't a high-concept mystery whose secret can be explained in a sentence, but rather an archaeological dig for motives, deceptions, echoes, connections, and guilty secrets that make the obligatory postmortem interrogations just as fraught and fascinating as the circumstances of what will turn out to be the first murder. Fans hoping to beat Poirot to the mind-bogglingly ingenious solution are well-advised to concede the competition in advance." -- Kirkus Reviews on The Last Death of the Year
"Classic Christie . . . Captures the essence of the originals without being a slavish imitation . . . Clues emerge, but the case remains perplexing. Christie aficionados will delight in the familiar repartee and the intricate deduction of the solution." -- Washington Post
"Another ingeniously deceptive puzzle.... The gratifying reveal is a neat variation on one of Christie's own solutions and demonstrates Hannah's facility at combining her own plotting gifts with another author's creation." -- Publishers Weekly
"Christie herself, some might say, could do no better.... Enough twists, turns, revelations and suspects to cook up a most satisfying red-herring stew. Literary magic." -- Washington Post
"[Hannah] supplies boundless ingenuity... adding a divinely inspired denouement." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Perfect." -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Sophie Hannah does an egoless, silky job of reviving Agatha Christie's beloved Belgion detective Hercule Poirot...enough so to hope that Hannah turns to Miss Marple next." -- USA Today