The Book Trotters, a recently-formed Lakewood book club, met Monday evening in the Vickery Place home of Mary Kay Henley. The December book selection was an Agatha Christi holiday mystery, Hercule Poiret’s Christmas. 

Wealthy and tyrannical patriarch, Simeon Lee, has demanded that his family return home for the Christmas holiday. When Lee is found dead on Christmas Eve, detective Hercule Poirot is called in to investigate the murder. Poirot quickly finds that nearly everyone in the house had a reason to kill the old man.  

Mary Kay paired Christi’s classic British “whodunnit” with a four-course sit-down dinner including soup, sausage pies, English peas and trifle. Since Christi is celebrated for great character depictions, each member of the club was asked to choose a character from the novel to “bring” as a dinner guest. The deceased Simeon Lee attended the party in a cloisonné urn. A spirited discussion, fine port (in honor of Poirot), coffee and nuts followed dinner. 

The Book Trotters spent much of the winter in England.  Where will the new year take them?