NONFICTIDN

The Mystery

Agatha Chri&tieIn the kingdom of crime fiction, one writer reigns above all.

By Teresa Akersten

Crime might not pay. Now crime fiction, that's a tery writer named Agatha Christie, a.k.a. thewhole different story. The best-selling author of all Queen of Crime.time is not a novelist such as Charles Dickens nor Her Royal Highness of Detection penneda children's author à la Dr. Seuss, but rather a mys- nearly 80 books, as well as 150 short stories and

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numerous plays. Her works have been translatedinto dozens of languages, and an estimated 2 bil-lion to 4 billion (not a typo) copies have been sold.That statistic makes Christie as popular as WilliamShakespeare and the Bible.

Why is Christie such a huge hit? Well, forstarters, she created not one, but two immenselypopular characters: the shrewd spinster MissJane Marple and the Belgian supersleuth HerculePoirot. When Poirot died in the last novel featuringthe detective, he was given a full-page obituary inThe New York Times. How many characters canclaim that? (Or writers for that matter?)

Ninety years after Poirot first appeared and 80years after Miss Marple was introduced to readers,to know them is still to love them. Writers, film-makers, and other creative types continue toimmortalize the two sleuths through stage andscreen adaptations. You can even find them inhigh-tech spin-offs such as digital games andiPhone apps.

Golden GirlChristie did not invent the mystery genre—EdgarAllan Poe gets credit for that. But she is arguablythe best-known author from the Golden Age ofDetective Fiction. During that period, Christieand fellow mystery writer buddies, includingDorothy L, Sayers and G, K. Chesterton, werewriting what seemed like a book a minute. Andthe public gobbled them up like bowls of butterypopcorn.

Several Golden Age writers joined forces andformed the Detection Club. The members of theelite group strongly felt that readers should havea fair chance at guessing the culprit, So they cre-ated a code of ethics that became the Ten Com-mandments of Golden Age mystery writing.

Marcia Talley, president of the mystery writ-ing organization Sisters in Crime, explains thecommandments. She says, "You play fair with thereader. You provide the clues. You might have redherrings in there. ... In the end, you should beslapping your head and saying, 'Oh, I should haveseen that.'"

Talley says that when it comes to writing who-dunits, there's no greater teacher than Christie."If you want to know how to write a mystery,"Talley says, "you can't really do better than read-

ing some early Agatha Christie. She invented alot of the things that later became classic plot de-vices." (Examples include clues hidden in plainsight and the reliable narrator who turns out tobe the murderer.)

The Golden Age style of mystery writing en-dures. Today books written in that style arecalled cozy mysteries. That's because the sus-pects are usually part of a closed group, isolatedin a manor or living in the same small village. Inother words, too cozy for comfort.

The Power of ObservationLike many aspiring writers are taught to do,Christie wrote primarily about what she knew. Herbooks are filled with settings—both exotic andeveryday—that she had visited. She set two of hernovels—And Then There Were None and Evil Underthe Sun—on islands inspired by Burgh Island,which is located off the coast of Devon, England,where she spent her summers. Murder on the OrientExpress was based on her experience of beingstranded on a train after a storm washed awaypart of the track. For years, she accompanied hersecond husband, an archaeologist, on his trips tothe Middle East While he dug for artifacts, shereaped plenty of material for tales such as Murderin Mesopotamia and TTiey Came io Baghdad.

Good old-fashioned observation was her mostpowerful tool. Many of her ideas came fi-om ob-serving people, places, and things; overhearingconversations; or studying scenery fi-om a traincar window. "Plots come to me at such odd mo-ments," she once said, "when I am walking alongthe street, or examining a hat shop ... suddenly asplendid idea comes into my head."

Christie didn't consider herself to have much ofa method. But method, shmethod. The writerknew how to masterfully think through her plots,develop rich characters, and create tidy endings.

"In the real world, things don't go the way theydo in fiction," says Taliey. "In the Christie novel, all

Q vocab ~j SHREWD: having sharp Intelligence and practical

perception

IMMORTALIZE: to make someone or something lastforever

CULPRIT: person who committed the crime

loose ends are tied up in the end, order is restored,and justice is served."

Who is The Real Christie?Agatha Christie might be a household name andher books might rest on more nightstands thanany others, but what made her tick is a mysterytoo complex for even Miss Marple. Here's whatwe do know.

Agatha Christie was bom Agatha Mary ClarissaMiller on Sept. 15, 1890, in Torquay, England. Herfather, Frederick, was an American of independentmeans; her mother, Clara, was the daughter of aBritish army captain. Christie's older siblings,Madge and Monty, went to school, but their momdecided early on that Christie would study athome. The exceptionally bright giri taught herselfto read by the age of 5 and grew up to be a tal-ented singer and pianist.

At a country house ball in 1912, she met thefirst man she would marry, the handsomeArchibald "Archie" Christie, an aviator preparingto join the Royal Flying Corps. With Archie, shewould have her only child, a daughter, Rosalind.

During World War I, Christie worked as a nursein a hospital, a job she found rewarding. But it washer next career, as a pharmacist, that gave her anexpertise in poisons.

During her spare time, Christie began work onher first novel. The Mysterious Affair at Styles, whichintroduced Hercule Poirot. The manuscript was re-jected by several publishers, yet it received ravereviews when it was finally published. "The onlyfault this story has is that it is almost too inge-nious," said The Times Literary Supplement in 1921.

Shying Away From the SpotlightPositive reviews and strong sales encour-

aged Christie to keep writing. The moreher fame grew, however, the more reclu-

sive she became. Very few photo-graphs and little footage of Christie

exist. She rarely gave an interviewor made a public appearance.

When Christie read her workon the BBC, she later admit-

ted to having suffered fromstage fright. And she was

devastated when her

identity as writer Mary Westmacott, a pseudonymChristie used to write six romantic fiction novels,was revealed. Christie was so shy that when sheaccepted the presidency of the Detection Club,she had one thing to say: I'll do it under the condi-tion that I never have to give a speech.

If only there were more clues. Last year,HarperCollins published Agatha Christie's SecretNotebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making.The contents of the 73 recently discovered note-books include illustrations, deleted extracts, andunused endings, plus two previously unpublishedPoirot stories. The notebooks say a lot about howthe author outlined and drafted many of herbooks, stories, and plays, but they add almostnothing to what little is known of this mysteriouswoman of mystery.

When Christie died on Jan. 12, 1976, of natioralcauses, two theaters in London dimmed theirlights as a symbol of respect. But her life and writ-ings continue to be celebrated. Each Septemberaround her birthday, Agatha Christie Week bringslegions of fans to the English Riviera for plays,movie screenings, tea dances, lectures, and—whatelse?—murder-mystery dinners.

Unsolved MysteryAgatha Christie not only wrote mysteries, but shewas also involved in a real-life one. Christie's aban-doned car—with her personal contents inside—was the first clue in the famed author'sdisappearance in December 1926. A massive 11-day manhunt ensued, and she was ultimately dis-covered by a banjo player at a hotel where she hadchecked in under a pseudonym, Theresa Neele.(Neele was the surname of Christie's first hus-band's mistress.)

Upon being found, Christie claimed to have suf-fered a bout of amnesia due to a nervous break-down, most likely brought on by the death of hermother and her failing marriage. The public, how-ever, doubted the explanation and developedother theories: Publicity stunt! Revenge! Christienever gave an account of her disappearance, andno mention of it is made in her autobiography.One last mystery from Agatha Christie ... •

3 yocabLEGIONS: large numbers

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