Agatha Christie - Queen of Crime

To have written about 80 books and the longest running play in history – The Mousetrap, and to be the most translated author in history, as well as being the third most-published author behind only Shakespeare and the Bible, is to have cemented oneself as an immortal figure in the literary as well as cultural spheres. And to think it all started in response to her sister’s challenging her that she wouldn't be able to write a crime novel. I have always found this both humbling and rather reassuring.

My visit to the longest running play in London in 2010

Agatha Christie created perhaps the most famous fictional detective other than Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, the only fictional character to be given an obituary in the New York Times after the publication of the final novel to feature the Belgian detective in 1975. The flamboyant detective, aided with his faithful sidekick Captain Hastings, is such a fan favourite that she kept writing Poirot stories despite admitting in her dairy that she found him “insufferable” and an “ego-centric creep”. Perhaps the most famous Poirot story, Murder on the Orient Express, is a fantastic book with an ingenious plot and a delicious solution exploring the nature of justice. Another personal favourite is The ABC Murders. Poirot and Hastings take on a mysterious challenger who sends the pair information about proposed murders, carried out alphabetically. The red herring technique used is very clever. Christie is also the author of other sleuths, most notably the outwardly meek and mild but actually keenly perceptive Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, Parker Pyne and Mr Quinn.

The obituary for Poirot, August 6th, 1975

For me, the appeal of the mystery genre has always been the prestidigitation element. Like a magic show, one enters it knowing it’s a trick and yet willing to be tricked. The enjoyment comes from the astonishment of being flummoxed despite all the time looking for how the trick is done. Similarly, one starts an Agatha Christie novel as if tackling a puzzle, knowing the author will try to trick you. The pleasurable anticipation cumulates till the final reveal which makes one gasp and flick back and see that despite the clues being there, despite the solution, once divulged, being seemingly the only reasonable and logical resolution, one is still led astray by the clever red herrings. "She plots like a fucking angel!" was the praise from legendary director Billy Wilder, who directed the film version of Christie's play Witness for the Prosecution. 

Albert Finney (left) and David Suchet (right) as Poirot

Whilst guilty to occasionally using stereotypes when describing foreigners, particularly Jews (sentiments that were much more redolent during and even after WWII) and having some cardboard characters, her genius is precisely her ability to create some of the most engrossing, deceptive and clever plots. The book that made her name – The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, is testament to this. Upon finishing it I immediately read it again. The second time, armed with the knowledge of whodunit, was equally enjoyable as I was able to see where she cheekily hid the truth in plain sight. Arguably her magnum opus, And Then There Were None, has sold over 100 million copies, making it easily the best selling mystery novel and indeed one of the best selling books of all time. It is truly spine tingling. The atmosphere of tension escalates unbearably only to seemingly end in a most perplexing manner. The reveal occurs in the last handful of pages and is both ingenious and satisfying.

In a life filled with interesting episodes, Christie lived through two World Wars, was a nurse in the first war and worked in a pharmacy during the second, where she garnered extensive knowledge of poisons. Her accurate description of the symptoms of thallium poisoning actually aided a doctor puzzled by an actual case of thallium poisoning. She was also investigated by MI5 during the middle of WWII due to a character named Major Bletchley appearing in her novel N or M?, a story about a hunt for two Nazi agents working in Britain. The powers that be suspected that she had ‘friends’ in the know who leaked the fact that the top-secret code breaking centre was at Bletchley Park, where scientists and mathematicians, including Alan Turing, the father of modern computing, were working day and night to crack the German Enigma coding machine amongst tackling Italian, Japanese and Russian communiqués. Churchill famously visited the centre amidst grumblings from some parliamentarians who didn’t understand or appreciate the gravity of these works and thought it was a waste of money. When Churchill left, after been shown what they did, he said simply to his aides, “Give them what they want.”

Agatha Christie also caused national furore when, in 1926, at the brink of marriage breakdown with her first husband, Archie Christie, she disappeared for 10 days. The Home Secretary pressured police as result of public outcry and hundreds of police and thousands of volunteers searched the rural landscape. The creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, a keen believer in the occult, gave one of Christie’s gloves to a spiritual medium in attempt to find her. She was found, at last, in a hotel in Yorkshire registered under a pseudonym. While she never explained what happened, a nervous breakdown was the usual explanation. Many more cynical people at the time thought it was a publicity stunt, leading to largely negative and unsympathetic public opinion.

Her second marriage, to an esteemed archaeologist, was a much happier affair. Her travels with her husband to foreign and exotic places in Mesopotamia and North Africa kindled many novels set in those places. The pair was later both honoured – Christie made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and her husband knighted.

Her legacy lives on – many movie adaptations have been and still are made. Albert Finney starred as Poirot (in my opinion the best take on the character) in the lavish and faithfully adapted Murder on the Orient Express directed by Sidney Lumet, for which Finney received a best actor Oscar nomination (among 4 other nominations and a best supporting actress win for Ingrid Bergman). An excellent set of television series and T.V movies entitled Agatha Christie’s Poirot were made with David Suchet in the titular role spanning over 20 years. It will finally conclude with an adaptation of Curtains, Poirot’s last case later this year. Recently, a series of Tommy and Tuppence TV shows, starring David Walliams, is to be made by the BBC. Testament to her international popularity, a Japanese animated series has been made starring her two most popular detectives: Poirot and Miss Marple. The adaptation is surprisingly loyal to the original books and I imagine it opened up these great stories to a whole new demographic of audiences.

Whether in terms of literary achievements, lasting legacy or popularity and longevity, she stands alone as the unquestioned and undisputed queen of crime. A collection of her finest should adorn any self respecting bookshelf. If you haven’t tested your little grey cells on a Christie puzzle, you owe it to yourself to do so, ASAP.

Some of my personal collection