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| Agatha Christie plaque -Torre Abbey.jpg: Violetriga derivative work: F l a n k e r, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
If you read my introduction about the "Queens of Crime", you will not be surprised that I'm starting this with Agatha Christie after being so sure you would know my first author.
Actually the title "Queen of Crime" has been trademarked by her estate in 2013.
Christie wrote 66 detective novels, 14 short-story collections, plays, poetry, and two autobiographies. Under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott she even wrote a few romantic novels. Only Shakespeare's works and the Bible have been sold more than her books.
First of all let me say that I haven't read all of Christie's books myself, simply because her writing style isn't always my cup of tea. To be more precise, some of her books were downright boring to me and I gave up eventually. There, I said it.
Don't hold my own style against me, I'm not a professional.
Now you could argue that it's not unusual for authors who have written a lot to have a few duds, and your dud may not feel like one to another reader.
However, it made me wonder if something was wrong with me for not getting how great a writer she was, no matter how I tried.
My first Christie book as a kid was probably "The Murder on the Links" because I remember we had that one at home. No idea if it was the only one, but I borrowed a few more from the library, never as my first choice, though.
Of course we had already watched the movies with Margaret Rutherford then, and although I'm ususally no fan of adaptations straying too far from the books and Rutherford was not at all like the books' Miss Marple, I love them all.
When I started my library training, the first book I checked out from my library was one of Christie's autobiographies. I read a lot of biographies back then, but couldn't get into hers, absolutely not because her life was boring, but because of the writing style. That's the first time I really noticed it.
Next came the TV shows "Partners in Crime" about the Beresfords and "Miss Marple" with Joan Hickson which aired in 1986 in Germany. We only had three TV channels at the time and were of course excited for a new episode every week. Back then I still added the date of purchase in my books and 1986 was actually the year when I bought the Christie books that I still own now, so there was definitely a connection.
That's also the reason for my mentioning the shows. Christie's books have not just been adapted for TV or movies, but also radio, video games, graphic novels, and more.
Unfortunately, I found those two adaptations not as exciting anymore years later. Mind you, to me Joan Hickson really is Miss Marple, in looks and acting, but the episodes could have been tighter if you know what I mean. Although British crime shows are my favorites and I don't mind a slow pace, there are some that are just too slow for me.
Isn't the opening perfect, though? I also love the music.
Then there was Hercule Poirot - Albert Finney (superb) and Peter Ustinov (always wonderful, but not my idea of Poirot) - and eventually David Suchet.
When we discovered Suchet, the ex also started buying Christie books, mostly the Poirot novels of course, both as audiobooks and in print. He devoured them, I tried and gave up once more.
Suchet makes Poirot lovable despite his quirks and high opinion of himself while I didn't like the book Poirot much - which is fine, Christie herself didn't.
My hope was the short stories would do the trick, but even they took me countless bubble baths.
I had to face not being a real fan. The Miss Marple TV adaptations with Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie didn't help, either. Heck, although I love Suchet's Poirot, Hastings, and the others, even some of those episodes are too slow for me, but I still watch them for him and of course the amazing production design.
Now you may wonder why I didn't just stay away from Christie completely.
The point is that I like the idea of it all, the puzzle, the settings, the plots. A part of me seems to hold on to the hope that I too will finally see the light, you could say 🤪
Not sure what that says about me. Maybe it just needs the right book ...
Over the years, I more than once felt I needed to defend myself for that unpopular opinion, so for this post I looked for the first time if there are others who feel the same way as me. Of course there are, and there are long discussions and a lot of opinions, new and old - which book they should read to change their mind, that they are simply stupid (welcome to the Internet), detailed explanations why Christie is so brilliant, or that crime fiction per se is stupid ("With so many fine books to be read, so much to be studied and know, there is no need to bore ourselves with this rubbish." (Edmund Wilson))
Then I read this in a blogger's book review:
"I'm very particular about the mysteries I read, I don't want them to try to be a literary novel with a side of murder mystery, but simply a puzzle."
I like to say I'm not a fan of terribly long descriptions, but thinking about it, it rather seems to depend on the descriptions, so it's hard to pinpoint what "terribly long" really is for me. Maybe my expectations were too high? Hm.
So I grabbed "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?" from my book cabinet - simply for the puzzle, but although I made it through, it didn't blow me away. Maybe I just remembered the plot too well? I'll probably have to try a book I don't know at all yet.
Of course, all of this is only my personal opinion. If you love Agatha Christie, that's perfectly fine with me, after all I'm not Edmund Wilson 😉
Anyhow, what I definitely find interesting is Agatha Christie's life beyond that of a writer, but that will be the topic for another post.
Sources:
- Edmund Wilson on Crime Fiction, two essays from 1944 and 1945 (on The Crazy Oik)
- Review: The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie, posted on "If You Can Read This", July 23, 2010
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