What is your favorite Agatha Christie novel?
September 22nd 2006 02:09
Agatha Christie
She has written over 80 novels, each one of them different from the last one. They all have inventive plots, some of them are so original they have never been surpassed till now. She has laid the standard of writing a mystery story and no one after her has come even close. She was a radically conservative woman who could dissect evil and bare it to its bones.
Over the years, I have read almost all Agatha Christie's fiction barring a few plays and a few odd novels. The Crooked House, her favourite novel was the first Christie I read. It’s also I think one of her best.
The Hollow is another perennial favourite. Hallowe’en Party is short on mystery but like The Hollow, its basic premise goes much deeper than just to engineer a surprise at the end of the novel. They are Christie at her philosophical best.
The ABC Murders is one of the first novels to feature the idea of a serial killer. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is supposed to be her best mystery. It was the first novel that shot her into prominence. I did not like it that much. Mrs. Mcginty’s Dead and Towards Zero are both lush novels rich with incident. So is A Murder for Christmas.
And there is And Then There Were None. A work defying descriptions.
Of her plays, Verdict was a commercial failure but I think it is her best work. Here she dissects the soul of a well-intentioned bleeding heart altruist. It’s not a mystery but it’s an eye opener. The Unexpected Guest is the play she wrote to come back from the failure of The Verdict and what a success it was. Full of surprises and deeply romantic. Who knew theatre could be so thrilling?
The Mousetrap is one play I haven’t read yet. I’ll catch the longest running play in the history of theatre when I go to London one day.
Her short stories are less effective for me, maybe because I don’t like short stories in general.
So, what is your favourite Christie? Please leave your comments.
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Comment by Ernesto :)
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Cenacle
Scarface, you got the virtues of Ms.Christie exactly right.
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