Agatha Christie, 1958 (Wikipedia / CC BY 3.0)
This is a landmark year for the Queen of Crime. It marks the 100th anniversary of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd—one of the world’s most famous mystery novels—the 50th anniversary of Agatha Christie’s death, and the centennial of her sensational disappearance, a wild and headline-making chapter in her life.
Nearly five decades after the publication of her final book, Christie remains the best-selling novelist of modern times, with more than two billion copies sold worldwide. Celebrated for her intricate plots, sharp characterizations, and masterful suspense, she created two of crime fiction’s most indelible sleuths: the meticulous and dandified Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and the unassuming yet incisive Miss Jane Marple of St. Mary Mead, who is fond of observing that there is “a great deal of wickedness in village life.”
Along with her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, Dame Agatha also enjoyed a remarkable career as a playwright, including The Mousetrap—the longest-running play in theatrical history.
Christie’s own life could be as intriguing as one of her plots. Christie’s disappearance over 11 days in December 1926 sparked a massive search and international headlines, ending only when she resurfaced at a spa hotel in Yorkshire, claiming to have lost her memory. An intensely private person, she never spoke of the episode publicly. “People should be interested in books,” she once observed, “not their authors.”
Author Daniel Stashower investigates Agatha Christie’s life and career and actors Scott Sedar and Bari Biern give voice to her most beloved characters. It would be a crime to miss them.
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