In honour of the greatest mystery writer of all time Agatha Christie who died 47 years ago I have written this piece about her and her wonderous accomplishments. I personally am a huge fan of her Poirot books and also, I like some of hre other fascinating work. There are lots of reasons why she is one of the best writers and also one of my personal favourites.
One of the greatest things about Agatha Christie is that she was always right. A lot of writers especially in that era were not always factually correct and went off of stereotypes or second-hand information. Agatha Christie’s mysteries never missed a fact and when her detectives took trips the place were described appropriately. In books like ‘Murder in Mesopotamia’ and ‘Death on the Nile’ (Now a major feature film) her descriptions of Mesopotamia and Egypt though limited, are accurate. She had obviously visited Egypt with her husband for Archaeology.
During the war she was a VAD or ‘Voluntary Aid Detachment’ which gave her a thorough grasp of medicine and treatment which she later used in every dramatic mystery involving poisons and medicines and gunshot wounds.
I also think her mysteries are quite straightforward and sensible, not easy, not even remotely easy to solve, but sensible and realistic. She doesn’t add random clues to make things fit in but is simple and methodical in all her work. While the way her detectives make deductions is mind-boggling, they all seem grounded in reality and connect to the truth seamlessly. Just because a writer wants their book to be set in an exotic location, the sometimes tend to bend reality to make it work. Another writer who keeps his facts true at all times is Arthur Conan Doyle but his works hardly ever exits the setting of England.
I would have liked Christie to experiment with less intelligent detectives like she did in Tommy and Tuppence who are easier to relate to but most great mystery writers are a bit lacking in that department.
Despite the small grievance I love Agatha Christie’s work and one of my favourite books is Poirot’s Early Cases which features Hastings, my favourite character. Sadly, he isn’t featured in many of the books. I also prefer the books over the various TV shows which were made over the years. The TV Show that really that really stands out to me is the ITV show starring the one and only Sir David Suchet. One of the best things they did over and above Agatha Christie’s books was their amazing characterization of Ms. Lemon, Poirot secretary.
Keep an eye on this page for more Christie content and meanwhile enjoy the books and TV creations.
