“Ideally every text should be read twice, first to know what is said, second to appreciate how it is said, and from there to obtain the full aesthetic enjoyment. The crime story is a limited but exacting model of a text that, once you have discovered who the killer is, invites you implicitly or explicitly to look back, either to understand how the author has led you to build up false ideas, or to decide that after all he hadn’t hidden anything, only that you had failed to observe with the keen eye of the detective.” Umberto Eco, Chronicles of a Liquid Society, p. 112
I took Umberto Eco’s advice and read The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) again, even when I knew “whodunnit.” I watched as Agatha Christie, in her first Poirot mystery, cleverly sends the reader–especially the First Time reader–down Rabbit Holes and encounters with Red Herrings.
Back in 1964, I binged on a couple dozen Agatha Christie mysteries. When I read The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Christie faked me out of my jockstrap! She had me so confused, that I had THREE suspects for the murder…and all were wrong! But after reading a dozen Christie mysteries, I started to see certain patterns and my Picking the Murderer Rate went up to about 60%. By the time I’d read my 24th Christie, I was batting 900!
Are you an Agatha Christie fan? Do you have a favorite Christie mystery? GRADE: A
Love, love, love Christie. She was the absolute mistress of sleight-of-hand and misdirection. The best example of this is DEATH IN THE CLOUDS—where an obvious clue to the killer’s identity is presented, but it’s done so smoothly, the eye and the mind go right over it. My favorite Christie book, however, is the very atypical ENDLESS NIGHT, which has a denouement that still packs a punch today and is the closest thing to noir that Christie ever wrote.
Deb, I agree with you an DEATH IN THE CLOUDS and ENDLESS NIGHT. Master classes in faking the reader out! I’m down to less than a dozen Christies to read…it will be a Sad Day when I read the last one.
My favorite Christie mystery is probably THE ABC MURDERS, but I have to confess to liking her more her fantasy/horror stories in THE HOUND OF DEATH. (When i say I like her fantasy stories, I am ignoring her twee tales about Harley Quinn.)
On a completely unrelated subject, are you considering posting photos of you being faked out of your jockstrap? If so, please don’t.
Jerry, I was on the Tennis Team back in those High School days so a jockstrap was Standard Equipment. I don’t own a jockstrap at this time in my Life.
I read every one. First in a box of them I bought in Ocean City, NJ in 1968 and then the new ones as they arrived. She was likely to make working class women the villains too often but I just sat back and enjoyed them, not worrying about figuring out. Very restful indeed.
Patti, I welcomed the battle of wits Agatha Christie mysteries presented. Christie bested me in the first dozen of her books I read. But, I came back strong in the second dozen books!
It’s hard t pick out one or two from her long list, but the first I read (and have reread it) was AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, which has been often imitated since. I’ve seen several horrible movie adaptations (Fabian!), and we saw a revival on stage in London in 2005, with Richard Johnson as The Judge.
We see Christie copied in so many other mysteries. For instance, we watched the second episode of the laughably ridiculous GOOD SHIP MURDER on Britbox. First, the premise is as believable as Trump knowing nothing about Project 2025: the lead character quits his job as a police detective to be a lounge singer on a cruise ship! He and the first officer solve murders in various picturesque European ports of call. This makes MIDSOMER MURDERS seem like Masterpiece Theater in comparison, and some of the acting is about on a high school drama club level. But my point is, the second episode was such a blatant ripoff of Christie that both of us named the murderer immediately. Think PERIL AT END HOUSE, among others. Still, if you want to turn your brain off and see beautiful scenery (La Rochelle! Lisbon!) as well as a cool-looking cruise shi[p, episodes are only 50 minutes each.
PS – It was already renewed for TWO more series, plus a Christmas episode.
Jeff, you’re right. Agatha Christie provided the mystery templates for generations of mystery writers that followed her. Diane and I have watched plenty of mystery episodes that “borrowed” from Christie.
When I first read STYLES, I thought I might have a chance at solving the mystery as it was her first novel. No, I was totally baffled. Hell, when I first read THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD and I already knew whodunnit because of all the talk about it, it was so obvious that he couldn’t be the murderer that, again, I was totally baffled. But, like you, after I read enough of them I could guess the murderer just by the pattern of the story. In poker terms, I could read her tells.
When I first started reading mysteries, I could read Ellery Queen but not Agatha Christie. Then I read ENDLESS NIGHT and, like Deb, was so taken by how different it was that I could go back and read her other books. I’m rereading all the early books now, and enjoying almost all of them. Even — to my surprise, Jerry — the Harley Quin book.
Jackie has always liked the Harley Quin book, for whatever reason. But then, she is also a fan of the “young adventurers” books, including Tommy & Tuppence.
Jeff, Diane and I watched the Tommy & Tuppence episodes on PBS years ago and found them mildly entertaining. I’m on the fence with Harley Quinn.
Jeff, when I first read Ellery Queen mysteries in the early 1960s, I loved when the authors stopped the narration and issued a Reader’s Challenge. Of course, my guess who the murderer was…missed. Christie didn’t offer any formal Reader’s Challenges, but when Poirot calls all the suspects together, you know all the evidence and clues are available to figure out whodunnit.
I enjoyed AND THEN THERE WERE NONE the novel (and some of the ripoffs of and variations on it from other hands, a/v and literary), and I would read, among others, the Poirot short stories that would pop up in EQMM back issues and various anthologies…but never mainlined Christie. The snobbishness that Patti has noted occasionally didn’t help, but I did enjoy Christie using Poirot to mock the English generally.
The first new issue of MAD I bought was one featuring their film parodies of ORIENT EXPRESS and GODFATHER II. There really isn’t any completely escaping Christie, even if one might want to.
Is it Specially Lucky to make the 13th comment on a Christie post?
Todd, you should buy a Mega Millions ticket fast!
Todd, sometime during the 1960s or 1970s Agatha Christie was the Bestselling writer…in the world. Now James Patterson owns that title.
And Then There Were None and Roger Ackroyd are classics, of course. But I am also very fond of: Evil Under the Sun, Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, and The Sittaford Mystery.
Neeru, I’m a fan of AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, EVIL UNDER THE SUN, HERCULE POIROT’S CHRISTMAS, and WHO KILLED ROGER ACKROYD. You have excellent taste in mysteries! THE SITTAFORD MYSTERY is one of the few Agatha Christie mysteries I haven’t read yet.
You might have read it as MURDER AT HAZELMOOR.
Jeff, I’ll have to check my Christie list to see if I read MURDER AT HAZELMOOR. It doesn’t ring a bell so I’m guessing I have haven’t read it or its alternate title THE SITTAFORD MYSTERY (but I have both books).