Shakespeare talked about the ages of man, and it’s well known that age seems to revert us to our youth. The last handful of years that’s been true for me with regard to mystery authors. For the first time in many decades I’m reading (or rather re-reading) Dorothy L. Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey), Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe), and others from my past.
This month I’ve been enjoying Agatha Christie and her Hercule Poirot novels. I got into them after finishing a collection of 51 short stories starring her famous Belgian detective (with his “egg-shaped head” and giant mustaches). Reading those put me in the mood to revisit the novels.
And I must say I’ve been thoroughly enjoying them!
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie (Lady Mallowan), DBE (1890–1976) is unquestionably the queen of mystery fiction. My Shakespeare reference was apt because, with over two-billion books published, in over 100 languages, only The Bard and The Bible have outsold her. That makes her arguably the queen of literary fiction — the most popular novelist ever.
She wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections. Her work being available in over 100 languages makes her the most translated author of all time.
She also wrote 30 stage plays. The most famous, The Mousetrap, is the longest running play in history. It debuted in London’s West End in 1952 and ran continuously for 68 years until COVID-19 forced it to close this past March. (It took a worldwide pandemic to stop the queen!)
Christie published her first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in 1920 when she was 30. It introduced her famous detective, Hercule Poirot — her version of Sherlock Holmes. (The rest, as they say, is history.)
As the official Agatha Christie website puts it:
Writer. Traveller. Playwright. Wife. Mother. Surfer —
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This month I’ve been chain-reading Poirot novels (in no particular order — publish date and chronological order are different; other than the occasional reference, there is no connection between stories). So far I’ve read 19 of 34. (They’re short reads compared to today’s books; one can easily read them in an afternoon.)
As I wrote last month, reading that collection of short stories led to grabbing two of the novels I found freely available to Amazon Prime members (alas, they want you to buy all the others).
They were the first two Poirot novels Christie published, The Mysterious Affair At Styles (1920) and The Murder on the Links (1923). (As just mentioned, the former is her debut novel.)
I enjoyed them a lot, so I checked my library, and, wow, bonanza! Nearly all the Poirot canon is freely available in ebook form.
(I’m so loving library ebooks. That, too, is something of a return to youth in that most of my early reading came from the local library. I was a weekly visitor.)
§
The Queen of Fiction!
As an adult (with much more reading under my mental belt), Christie’s writing impresses me far more than it did as a callow youth. At the time I had no appreciation of her skill — turns out she is really good. Her popularity is well-deserved.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories are historically special — even unique — but the authors who’ve carried on the tradition have generally been superior writers. Christie absolutely was.
The truth is, Holmes is fun, but he’s ultimately preposterous. Mystery stories are like hard SF in that readers often forgive lack of character development and arcs as they aren’t the focal point of the story. That said, superior mysteries and hard SF nails both.
Agatha Christie fills her stories with rich very human characters — part of the fun of a Christie novel is the cast of characters. They are always interesting with plenty of background drama for red herrings. (Christie is excellent at misdirecting your attention.)
I also enjoy how well she uses the Rashomon effect. Different characters paint different views of events and people. It brings to life how our opinions color our views. Christie was a cogent observer of the human condition (her stories have genuine depth to them).
If there is fault, it’s that the dialog can feel a bit dated, which is minor, and there are moments of casual racism (not so minor). That’s not uncommon in writing of that age, but it’s jarring. Like finding mold on your bread or a worm in your apple. We’re not free of our problematic past.
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I’ve noticed that Christie was delightfully inventive in creating murder situations. Each book I’ve read offers something different.
For instance, two of her more famous novels, Murder on the Orient Express (1934) and Death on the Nile (1937), take place, respectively, on a train and in Egypt, mostly, as the title says, along or on the Nile river. (A lesser known story, Death in the Clouds (1935), takes place on an airplane.)
In some books, Poirot doesn’t show up until later in the novel. I think of it as Columbo mode, because that was standard on that show. (Aspects of Det. Columbo’s approach do seem to channel Poirot, and I can’t help but wonder about influence.)
I find the classic sleuth refreshing compared to the modern sleuth. Calmer, anyway. Both involve an arc of discovery, but the denouement differs. Classic sleuths expose the murder in the genial context of the drawing room or study. The murderer, knowing they’re beaten, often just confesses and surrenders. Modern murders — when they realize the sleuth is on to them — attempt to kill the sleuth in a thrilling death-defying final scene.
The Nero Wolfe stories follow this classic arc. Everyone involved gathers in Wolfe’s study for the big reveal. Columbo likewise just talks to people; it was all very congenial (another reason I suspect a Christie influence).
On the other hand, more modern detectives, such as Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, and Tony Hillerman’s Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, and usually Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski, generally, and rather predictably, must escape certain death in the final scene.
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A version of Hercule Poirot
Poirot’s and Christie’s debut, The Mysterious Affair At Styles, is a classic British murder mystery involving a poisoning, (but with something of an interesting twist in how it’s administered).
In the second book, The Murder on the Links, Poirot and his companion, Captain Hastings, are on vacation in France when they encounter a murder.
More to the point, as with Sherlock Holmes, Hastings is the narrator (and info dump excuse). But at the end of the second book Hastings marries and moves to Argentina. (He returns in later stories, but many of the stories don’t include him.)
The marriage of Hastings is an aspect of something I’ve noticed in many of the Poirot novels. Christie is a romantic. Many of the stories feature two people who either finally find each other (maybe with a little nudge from Poirot) or have obstacles removed (by Poirot — usually one of them has been falsely accused of the murder).
Poirot states several times that, despite being a confirmed bachelor, he has a romantic heart, and indeed he does. (He also clearly has OCD when it comes to symmetry and neatness.)
§
The third novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), is a written account by one Dr. James Sheppard, who is a friend of Roger Ackroyd (who, as the title says, is murdered). Dr. Sheppard helps Poirot investigate the murder of his friend.
The story has been redone in TV, film, radio, and stage. It has won awards and acclaim, and it’s considered hugely influential in the genre. It’s one of Christie’s best known novels.
Spoiler: Dr. Sheppard is the murder! (I think reading the story knowing it’s the narrator makes it richer, so I’m comfortable spilling these beans. Besides, the book was written almost 100 years ago.)
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In fact, Christie mixes it up quite a bit when it comes to Poirot’s “Watson” (and in some cases Poirot is solo).
One of the more interesting companions is Ariadne Oliver, who clearly is Christie’s avatar. Oliver is a well-known, popular, and quixotic, mystery author known for her love of apples. Many of her most popular books feature her vegetarian Finnish detective Sven Hjerson, about whom she has conflicting feelings.
Which parallels Christie’s feelings about Poirot. (For that matter, Doyle didn’t like Holmes, either.) I think the books with Ariadne Oliver are especially fun. Christie, through Oliver, offers her opinions on being a popular mystery writer with lots of fans.
§
I’d always assumed my interest in Christie centered exclusively on Poirot. I never connected with Miss Marple or others. Yet two of the more striking Poirot books don’t have much Poirot.
For one, I really liked The Hollow (1946). Lady Lucy Angkatell may be one of my favorite supporting characters. (Poirot was struck by her, too.) Ironically, Christie regretted bringing Poirot into this story, and, indeed, he seems almost peripheral somehow. Christie later turned the novel into a play and dropped Poirot from the plot, which says something. I found the drama in this one especially compelling.
The other is Three Act Tragedy (1935). Part of what’s interesting in this one is the structure, which, on multiple levels, resembles a play. It’s a clever bit of writing. Poirot is on hand early, but doesn’t get involved until about halfway through. Much of the detecting is done by other characters. The sheer cleverness made me laugh out loud several times.
§ §
In these fraught times, Agatha Christie is a pretty nice way to escape for an afternoon.
My recent attraction authors from the last two centuries may have more to do with the age than my age. (Or both.) We live in crazy times.
Science fiction isn’t for everyone, but I think anyone can find something in Christie to enjoy. I certainly have.
Stay mysterious, my friends! Go forth and spread light and beauty.
∇
Logos con carne 
September 28th, 2020 at 8:25 am
Now you know why, in the last post, I said there has been no science fiction this month. It’s been wall-to-wall Poirot!
September 28th, 2020 at 8:35 am
This has probably been done (I can almost recall seeing it), but I’d love to write a Sherlock Holmes story in which he is constantly guessing wrong about people. All his smug little observations of clues turn out to be completely incorrect.
The recent BBC series Sherlock played with the trope a little, but Sherlock always turned out to be 100% right. Or very close. He got the sex of Watson’s sister wrong based on an engraving that used only a first initial. But, for example, in that same scene, he guesses the sister has a drinking problem due to scratches on the phone’s power connector. I’d love for that scene to have gone that the sister didn’t drink at all and happened to usually plug the phone in in the dark.
Because some of Holmes’s deductions really are utterly ridiculous.
September 28th, 2020 at 8:04 pm
I’ve actually seen Holmes held up as the inspiration for some people of the power of deductive logic. But I agree. His powers in the story are really superpowers, a fantasy with just enough detail to make it seem plausible, as long as you don’t think about it too closely.
I saw something once, where Holmes from the 19th century somehow ends up in modern times. When he attempts to deduce things, he gets everything completely wrong, because he misreads the context of all the modern stuff. Of course, being Holmes, after a brief crisis in confidence, he adapts and recalibrates in time to save the day, but I remember thinking it was a nice touch to acknowledge how context sensitive that ability might be.
Sounds like you’re on a mystery binge. I’ve occasionally dipped into mysteries, such as the original Holmes stories, and some of Dashiell Hammett’s stuff, but never got into Christie’s stuff. I do own one of her books (And Then There Were None), which I got to examine her technique, but never got around to reading it.
September 28th, 2020 at 10:07 pm
No reason something can’t be both preposterous and an inspiration! (It would be interesting to see just how many of our inspirations are wildly idealized. Superman, for one. I wonder if it would turn out that, being an inspiration necessarily involves exaggeration?)
True about the context-dependent nature of Holmes’s observations. So many of his conclusions are based on knowledge of life at the time. Confounding that would make a fun story. What I’ve always wanted to see was situations with (at least) two valid reasons and Holmes always guessing the wrong one. He’d be right in the logic working, but wrong because there was another path to the outcome.
Because that was always my main objection about Holmes. Multiple paths leading to the clues he observed. They kind of played with that in the first episode of Sherlock (the scene I mentioned in the post). Cumberbatch made a series of deductions about Watson’s sister based on observations of her cellphone, including an engraving with only a first initial. Since the engraving was clearly from a woman, Cumberbatch assumed Watson’s sibling was male. That’s the sort of thing I wanted to see more of.
It pops into my head almost every time I plug my cellphone in for a charge. One of the deductions involved a problem with drinking due to all the scratches around the jack. But I frequently fumble with plugging in, especially in the dark, and it has nothing to do with drink.
Definitely on a mystery binge. It’s my other favorite genre. And Then There Were None, as you probably know, is one of her classics. Ten people stuck in a location slowly being bumped off one by one. Which of the remaining is the killer? 😀
I think a serious study of her technique would require multiple books, probably selected by someone who really knows the canon. She experimented a lot with how she wrote. I just finished Elephants Can Remember which includes Christie’s avatar, the fictional mystery writer Mrs. Ariadne Oliver. At least twice, maybe three times, it comes up about how Mrs. Oliver is always experimenting with her hair, and it just now occurs to me Christie may have been saying something about her own writing approaches. She definitely experimented with how she told stories.
September 29th, 2020 at 10:37 am
Good point on inspiration. And I suspect the example of Holmes has inspired many a scientist to figure things out in the same manner. (Of course, Doyle likely got his inspiration from scientists, so it’s a loop.)
Yeah, those alternate explanations can really be deflating. Something everyone needs to remember as this phosphine on Venus thing plays out.
Not sure what made me pick up that particular Christie novel. It might have been because Amazon simply listed it prominently. But when I do that, I’m usually interested in getting something of the author’s at the top of their form. But from what you’re saying, that form evolved throughout her career. Hmmm.
September 29th, 2020 at 1:21 pm
That loop you speak of came full circle in the TV show House, M.D.. A.C. Doyle based Sherlock Holmes on a real person, one Dr. Joseph Bell, who was famous for his observational skills. Dr. Greg House, of course, was a deliberate Holmes analogue, and at one point in the show a colleague gives him a gift — a book written by Dr. Joseph Bell. 🙂
I’m assuming the phosphine on Venus thing turns out to be some kind of high-heat chemistry we just haven’t figured out, yet. Life on Venus sounds pretty unlikely, although it is something of an organic soup, and certainly there is plenty of available energy, so who knows.
Maybe it’s the protomolecule! 😀
As I mentioned below, at the beginning of a Christie novel one never knows what it will be. Christie was very good at not repeating herself. And Then There Were None has something of a problematic origin (as you’ll see from the Wiki page). She published it in 1939, when she was 49, and had published over two-dozen novels by then. I’d opine she was likely in top form at the time.
Last night I finished Elephants Can Remember, which is the second-to-last Poirot story, which she published in 1972 at the age of 82. It maybe didn’t sparkle quite like her earlier work, but there wasn’t that much difference. I still enjoyed it a lot.
Honestly, I don’t think any single book could give you “Essential Christie” so to speak. I’ve got seven more Poirot novels queued. When I finish them I’ll have read most of the Poirot canon (minus just a handful the libraries don’t have). It’s maybe roughly half her oeuvre and I couldn’t say I have a handle on “Essential Christie” — just a dim sense of what a talent she really was.
The book you have would certainly give you a taste, though!
September 29th, 2020 at 2:58 pm
On Venus, I came across a tweet to a paper hypothesizing that it might come from currently active volcanism on Venus ejecting phosphine into the atmosphere. James Pailly relayed that the volcanism would have to be more than 200 times what currently happens on Earth, but apparently some planetary scientists think it might be possible.
But the protomolecule would be a cooler explanation. Actually, I guess one possibility is that it’s engineered biotechnology left there by somebody. But if it is life, it’s probably the remnants of Venus’ biosphere from before it turned into a hellscape.
On ‘And Then There Were None’, well, that original title is quite an eye catcher. Apparently it was controversial in the US even in 1940 since they changed it. Even that Pocket revised title would probably land them in trouble today.
Maybe I’ll like it enough to read a bunch of other Christie books. We’ll see.
September 29th, 2020 at 5:19 pm
At the least, you should find it a pretty easy and quick read. Christie does sometimes use the terminology of the time, but apparently she was quite egalitarian as a person. She did quite a bit of travel, which she liked, and that tends to broaden one’s views.
September 29th, 2020 at 8:58 am
Speaking of the predictability of the final thrilling scene of modern novels, it occurs to me that, when one starts reading an Agatha Christie novel, one has no idea what it will be like — how it will be structured, what kinds of characters one will meet, and what underlying theme Christie may use (and she often did).
Certain elements are consistent. Poirot is very consistent in who he is (all Christie’s characters are well-drawn). There will be at least one murder, and Poirot will solve it, but that’s about as much as one can predict.
That might make an interesting analysis: The degree to which various authors with long-running series stick to a format or don’t.
December 28th, 2020 at 12:13 pm
[…] At long last getting back to the subject, it was in high school that my dad turned me on to Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin) and Dorothy L. Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey) and Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot). […]
December 28th, 2020 at 12:28 pm
[…] older classics especially, for instance Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe (two favorites of mine), when you come down to it, are utterly […]
February 21st, 2021 at 5:47 pm
I’m reading Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life (2020) by Laura Thompson.
I’m not usually one for biographies, but given my renewed interest in Christie I thought I’d give it a shot. I won’t say it’s compelling or gripping, but it has engaged my interest.
She wrote a book about dogs, about greyhound racing, and is apparently a dog-lover which is a-okay in my book! 🙂
February 23rd, 2021 at 11:12 am
I finished the book and I have to say, Christie had a very interesting life.
Thompson makes an interesting point: Christie is frequently slammed for being too simple or too cute in her puzzles or just for not being sufficiently “good enough” in some way. And yet, writers revered for being “better” (e.g. Dorothy L. Sayers) aren’t anywhere close to being the common currency that Christie is.
Christie’s work has endured and become world-famous for good reason: there’s something there that really appeals to readers of all ages and stripes. In fact, she was an extraordinary writer.
February 27th, 2021 at 8:13 am
My respect for Agatha Christie has grown so much, I’m branching out. I’ve got some Miss Marple books requested from the library (six weeks wait!), and yesterday I read, and very much enjoyed, The Man in the Brown Suit (1924), which is her fourth novel.
March 14th, 2021 at 1:57 pm
I continue to be hugely impressed by Agatha Christie. Yesterday I finished The Secret of Chimneys, which is the first Superintendent Battle novel.
She really did have a knack for extremely enjoyabe and accessible stories.
This past month, I finally read some of Father Brown stories by G.K. Chesterton (1874–1936), a series I’ve been wanting to explore for quite some time. Chesterton wrote about religion and society a lot, and his Father Brown stories reflect the man’s great intelligence and deep education. They’re interesting enough that I’d like to read more, but not interesting enough to pay for them. (The collection I read was free to Amazon Prime users.) As with Dorothy L. Parker and others, these just aren’t as accessible as Christie — they’re more for the educated intellectual niche. (Which is fine, we deserve books targeted for our demographic, but Christie is just so much fun and so little effort to read.)
I also read my first Ruth Rendell (1930–2015) murder mystery. She has the Chief Inspector Wexford series and some other unrelated stories. Obviously she’s more contemporary. She focuses on the psychological aspects of the criminals and victims. It was… okay. Again, I’d read more, but not if I have to pay for them.
Apple iBooks has a MEGABOOK series that packs a lot of novels or short stories into a single, relatively inexpensive, very large, ebook. It occurs to me I should look at their mystery selection. I’ve bought a bunch of science fiction ones.
March 20th, 2021 at 7:59 pm
I just can’t get enough Agatha Christie.
Now I’ve read The Secret of Chimneys (1925; her fifth novel), which is a standalone novel, as well as The Secret Adversary (1922; her second novel), which is the first “Tommy and Tuppence” novel (a husband and wife detective series).
And they were very very enjoyable.
Then I read And Then There Were None (1939), which I’ve put off because I’m so familiar with the story (both by reading it and seeing movie versions). But I enjoyed that one too. It’s a little unique in its plot, and contains first person narrative from the murder’s POV (but without giving away the secret). Christie wrote explicitly because it was such a hard story to pull off. It’s a little reminiscent of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), one of her most famous stories, which uses that murder’s POV device in a big way.
I’ve long loved her Hercule Poirot stories, but now that I’ve come to realize her excellence, I’ve been branching out to good effect. I’m even going to start reading the Miss Marple stories, which, as a younger reader, I thought were kinda meh.
March 25th, 2021 at 9:09 am
Watched an old (1959) BBC production of And Then There Were None the other night. They had to fit the whole story into a single hour, so a story that takes place over several days here takes place in one evening.
The ending is significantly changed, too. The last two end up going off together romantically!
Still, it was kinda fun to watch.
March 25th, 2021 at 9:00 am
I’ve been getting into the Miss Marple stories now. I’ve read the first three: , , and , all of which I quite enjoyed.
The library has quite a few of these, so it should keep in in Christie for a while!
I also found a Hercule Poirot I hadn’t read, Appointment with Death. Not the strongest Poirot, but enjoyable.
April 13th, 2021 at 1:14 pm
[…] of a good novel that I can remember. As a story, it was utter trash, but as an adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel, The ABC Murders, I need stronger words than “appalling abomination” or […]
April 26th, 2021 at 9:47 am
Finished the Miss Marple novels. (Library doesn’t seem to have any of the short story collections.) Now I’m going to start working my way through the Tommy and Tuppence novels (see above). But first I’m taking a short break from Christie and working my way though the Lawrence Block Bernie the Burglar novels.
May 2nd, 2021 at 8:45 pm
Did that! Now I’m back to Christie and about to finish up the Tommy and Tuppence novels (just started the last one).
Next up, I’m thinking, Jonathan Gash and his Lovejoy series. I haven’t read those in a long time (and I’m not sure I’ve read them all). Also got some more G.K. Chesterton Father Brown in the wings.
May 20th, 2021 at 7:44 pm
Put the Gash on hold while I read Baxter and Pratchett’s The Long Earth series (I give it a definite Meh! rating), and I may read some other things before I tuck into Lovejoy and company. (But I love knowing they’re there at the library!)
May 13th, 2021 at 9:26 am
I have to say, the last Tommy and Tuppence novel, Postern of Fate (1973), was actually pretty bad. It the last novel Christie wrote. She was 83 at the time and likely suffering from Alzheimer’s. The story isn’t very interesting, let alone exciting, and the text is rambling and repetitious. It’s also filled with callbacks to previous Christie novels, especially the Tommy and Tuppence ones.
I had a hard time finishing it.
May 24th, 2021 at 6:10 pm
[…] back to Agatha Christie, I find I said pretty much what I wanted to say in the lede (or in my previous post): She’s the Queen of Mystery for good […]
September 23rd, 2021 at 10:02 pm
I just finished Endless Night (1967), which is one of her own favorites. It’s also one of her later novels, and she tried a rather different style with this one.
Interestingly, it contains what might be an actual ghost. Or just a guilty hallucination.
October 7th, 2021 at 11:38 am
In another departure from her usual drawing room British murder mystery style, The Pale Horse is about a murder-for-hire organization run by a mysterious unknown. (Who it is is the big mystery “who dunnit” reveal.)
This one also features three witches, very intentionally ala “the Scottish play” (Macbeth). What’s great about it is that some of the characters, after seeing Macbeth, actually talk about how the vaudeville-like usual presentation of those three witches is extreme to the point of comedy. Real witches, they decide, should come off as very ordinary people. And the three in the book are exactly that.
Damn she was a good writer!
September 25th, 2021 at 7:47 am
[…] long ago I posted All the Christie as a follow-up to an earlier post about Agatha Christie. I’d read her when I was younger but only realized what an […]
October 3rd, 2021 at 2:13 pm
Christie continues to impress. Besides her straight murder mysteries, she also wrote some thrillers. The Tommy and Tuppence books tend to be along those lines.
Yesterday I read They Came to Baghdad (1951), which is an exciting spy-thriller involving important world affairs. In fact, it involves a shadow organization trying to change the world. Big scope, but a well-contained story involving the heroine, Victoria Jones.
And, as is so common in Christie novels, it’s also a bit of a romance story. Two people who are meant to be together find each other despite obstacles. Very much enjoyed it. Read it in a day because I couldn’t put it down!
October 7th, 2021 at 11:32 am
The Queen of Mystery continues to impress with her spy thrillers. Destination Unknown (1954) is a standalone spy thriller in which Hilary Craven, after a bad divorce and the loss of her child due to illness, is in Morocco contemplating suicide.
She’s noticed by a British spy master both because she’s buying sleeping pills (in small lots at multiple chemists) and because she resembles someone the spy master is trailing. He offers her a better way to commit what is almost certain suicide — take that other woman’s identity.
There is what almost seems a plot out of Bond or The Man from UNCLE — a shadowy international organization of astonishing power. Hilary, as this other woman, is taken to the main lair.
Another major page-turner!
October 13th, 2021 at 9:58 am
I found a collection of all the Miss Marple short stories at the library, and that’s what I’m working through now.
May 23rd, 2022 at 5:55 pm
[…] Back in 2020, I posted about my surprise rediscovery of Agatha Christie. The initial discovery is lost in memory, a hand-me-down from my dad. I favored heroic action figures back then, Superman, Sherlock Holmes, Clint Eastwood. I enjoyed Christie’s Hercule Poirot but filed the rest of her work under ‘dowdy British library murder mystery’ and ignored it. […]
May 15th, 2023 at 2:02 pm
[…] creator. Her estate has even trademarked her as the “Queen of Crime”. [See my posts Agatha Christie and All the Christie for […]