# Thoughts on Agatha Christie



## VMars (Feb 8, 2009)

I have never read an Agatha Christie book, but I got curious about "Murder on the Orient Express" and sent myself a sample. It seems a bit dry so far and I'm wondering how it will progress since I haven't bought it yet. I'm just curious to hear from my fellow kindlers. Do you like her books? Which do you like most?


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

I haven't read an Agatha Christie in probably 35 years. I enjoyed them way back when I was a teen. I'm curious if I'd like them now. I have a harder time getting into older books nowadays. I guess I am used to a more modern style of writing.

L


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## Diana (Nov 9, 2008)

I read "Murder on the Orient Express" and I found it to be a bit dry myself.  I did read the whole story--because of the "whodunnit" aspect but I was a bit disappointed.  I had also downloaded "Death on the Nile" but only read a small amount before I drifted to another story.  I thought it was just my perception of the book or possibly just the period difference from the when the story was written.  Obviously Agatha Christie is well liked by some or they wouldn't be so popular


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## Anju  (Nov 8, 2008)

It has been a long time since I have read her, I do have a couple of DTB.  Her style is different and she does have some twists, however, I am having problems picking up the other books I have of hers to read, and this was pre-kindle.  I have not gotten rid of them because I am sure some day I'll read them, maybe on the kindle    A lot also depends on who the hero(ine) is.  Just MHO


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## Kathy (Nov 5, 2008)

I read her books years and years ago. I like them then, but I don't know if I would now. They are good mysteries, but without the sex romance you get in the books of today.


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## VMars (Feb 8, 2009)

Hmm. Interesting...I guess my initial thoughts were accurate. It all seems a bit dry.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

I still enjoy them a lot. I re-read _The Secret Adversaries_ several months ago. I don't have any trouble getting into books written in an older style.

Mike


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## Wheezie (Oct 28, 2008)

I was totally hooked on Agatha Christie in Jr. High through High school and have read them all I believe. I haven't read any since then 25-30+ years ago. I should download  a few and try again. It will probably be another instance of when "you can't go back again", but I will give it a try. I was also hooked on Nancy Drew in elementary school, but I cant go back THAT far, it would be a bad experience I'm sure.


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## pomlover2586 (Feb 14, 2009)

Haven't read the book but the sample seemed ok.


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

Odd woman out here--have about 2/3 of the Christies in DTB, and nearly the other third on the K2.  And I reread all of them regularly.  I started out with the Miss Marple short stories back when I was about 10, and didn't get into her other major sleuths until much later.  In fact, I think I only finally bought Orient Express about two years ago, and it's not one of my favorites.

In general, I'm not interested in major suspense, violence, pure romances, or most graphic bodice rippers--historic or contemporary.  Most of the mysteries I read are NOT thrillers.  Therefore, most of the mysteries I read I categorize personally as "fluff"--short, easy reads, preferably with some comedy, but not always. Most of the contemporary ones I read are just as much comedic fiction as they are mystery--Donna Andrews, Anne George, Carole Nelson Douglas are several I keep up with. But I still love reading Sherlock Holmes, Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series (not on Kindle  ), Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books, Chesterton's Raffles--all written during the early to mid 20th century or earlier, and set back in time.  And yes, they tend to have a very different feel to them than current books.

The Christie mysteries are very much period pieces, and therefore they're not for everyone.  But they're one of the old faithfuls I'll retreat to when I just don't want to think about what I'm reading much.  Good books to read late at bedtime, ones that I won't desperately try to stay up half the night to finish!  LOL


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## JetJammer (Jan 18, 2009)

Agatha Christie has always been one of my favorite authors.  I've read everything she's written (including pseudonyms) , most of it multiple times.  I suppose by today's standards the books might be considered *dry*.  You'll find no bloody violence or sex scenes, just pure mystery.  Her most well known books are probably Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and And Then There Were None, none of which even make my top 10 list of favorites.  She also wrote some very well known plays, most notably Mousetrap (still one of the the longest running plays on Broadway I believe).

A few of my favorites - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the ABC Murders, the Body in the Library, and Murder at the Vicarage.  Perhaps you might prefer one of those.

Another author few people are familiar with is Ngaio Marsh.  She was a contemporary of Agatha Christie's and wrote in a similar vein.  Unfortunately there are no Kindle versions of her books, although I haven't searched for other EBook sources.


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## CS (Nov 3, 2008)

Which ones are definitely public domain? I don't want to spend money if I don't have to.


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## VMars (Feb 8, 2009)

Well, by *dry* I didn't mean "lacking in sex and violence", I don't read very many books that have a lot of that. I don't know the best word is for what I mean. Dry is the only thing that comes to mind in describing the narration and the characters that I've read so far. Very...I don't know. To the point? Lacking in flair?

It may be just the beginning of this particular book, I really wanted to give her a shot though, I like mysteries and I sort of stopped reading them the past few years. I'd lost interest in the genre.


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

CS said:


> Which ones are definitely public domain? I don't want to spend money if I don't have to.


Feedbooks only lists The Secret Adversary and The Mysterious Affair at Styles as being available; I believe she continued writing into the '60's, so most of her books won't be in the public domain for some time to come.

Most of the Kindle versions I've seen are fairly reasonably priced. Perhaps a library DTB would be a better place to start though.


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Wheezie said:


> I was totally hooked on Agatha Christie in Jr. High through High school and have read them all I believe. I haven't read any since then 25-30+ years ago. I should download a few and try again. It will probably be another instance of when "you can't go back again", but I will give it a try. I was also hooked on Nancy Drew in elementary school, but I cant go back THAT far, it would be a bad experience I'm sure.


Actually, the old Nancy Drews are fun to read. I collect them. But you need to get the oldies, written in the 30s, 40s, and early 50s. They started re-writing them beginning in about 1957 and the rewritten books aren't nearly as good as the originals.

They do have some language and stereotypes that would not be acceptable today. Just so you know. But every time Nancy hops into her maroon roadster, her titian hair blowing behind her, I am transported back to fourth grade. 

L


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I like Tommy and Tuppence best. . .then Miss Marple. . . .Hercule Poirot (of the Orient Express) is dryer. . .it's his character.  Secret Adversary features Tommy and Tuppence and is a good fun quick read.  I read it in a few hours while driving from VA to Tallahassee last week.  

Ann


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## KellyL250 (Jan 13, 2009)

I can only speak to her Hercule Poirot books of which I have read every one.  Reading her is very much like watching old movies.  You have to be prepared to become, for awhile at least, a 1930s reader.  She is the acknowledged queen of the "whodunit" genre.  Her books are all about the plot.  With the exception of the sleuth, there is very little character development.  So, in that respect, there is some truth in saying she is "dry".  However, it seems to me that the genre is more about "mental exercise" than straight entertainment.  She weaves intricate plots and is even sometimes criticized for being unfair to the armchair sleuth reading the book.  "Murder on the Orient Express" might be significant in having the largest number of active suspects and the most surprising answer to the question "Whodunit?".

Larry Kelly


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## Joe Paul Jr. (Feb 12, 2009)

About once a year or so, I pick up an Agatha Christie title and get lost in it.  I don't find them so much dry, but no-nonsense; there ARE digressions and banter, but mostly the story relentlesly moves forward.  Here's a review I filed a while ago on Amazon about "Murder on the Orient Express".  It was always a favorite movie so I wanted to finally read the book...

Murder on the Orient Express" is a clean, fast, invigorating reading experience, just as enjoyable as its most famous adaptation: the 1974 film by Sidney Lumet starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot. Interestingly, the elegance of the "Orient Express" experience was a thematic addition to the film. In the book, the now famous traveling experience is described as little more than a long train ride laced with the usual inconveniences of an extended trip. Either the Orient Express wasn't in reality all that sumptuous or such richness was taken for granted when Christie wrote her book. 

The details and resolution more or less play out as they do in the movie, though the book has a few extra layers of detail and a few small differences in the murder's solution, though there's nothing hugely different in either case. The book, in fact, makes one appreciate the movie even more, in that was it able to faithfully tell the book's story with only a minimum of simplification and consolidation. 

As the years go by, however, the book has gained one added literary benefit beyond the pleasures of its mystery story: with its dozen or so characters who represent many nationalities and political positions, "Murder on the Orient Express" presents to the modern reader a sharp snapshot of the world stage just prior to the outbreak of World War II. Sometimes the best time capsules are those that never aspired to be such, and that's certainly the case here. So, while modern readers will certainly enjoy the mystery story on hand, I think many will also be fascinated with the journey back to a period when the clouds of war were still somewhat in the distance, but- as personified by the uneasy comments and offhand worries of one character about another- were nevertheless slowly creeping closer.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Larry and Joe both said what I was trying to so much better. . .  

Ann


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

So after reading that review, I am curious about Murder on the Orient Express. Is that a freebie anywhere you do you have to buy AC's books?

L


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## Joe Paul Jr. (Feb 12, 2009)

I HAVE gotten free review material from Amazon and other venues, but no, "Orient Express" was just a paperback I picked up at a used book store and happily read, in the final days of the p.k. (pre-Kindle) era. Interestingly, the book pulled me in despite the fact that the copy I purchased (for a buck or so) was yellow and dog-eared and kind of smelly (nice cover art, though).  So, I'm guessing I'll REALLY enjoy a nice, crisp, non-smelly Kindle edition the next time I dive into one of the author's works!


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

As far as I know, the only Christies that are free are The Secret Adversary and The Mysterious Affair at Styles.  They're at feedbooks.  Don't remember seeing any through manybooks, but haven't checked in a while. . . . .

Ann


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

Hey, here's an old thread! I wasn't around when it was originally discussed, though.

I love Christie! I understand what someone might mean by "dry," but I like the description above that with Christie the point is not style or character development, but it's rather all about the plot and the reader trying to figure out whodunit before the detective reveals it. I've read many of Christie's books and if I ever managed to guess who the culprit was it just that - a guess. At some point I always start saying to myself: "Who's the least likely person to do it? Because that's who it is." 95% of the time Christie _still_ manages to undermine my assumption. But even when my guess is right I could never give reasons for my guess.

The first Christie novel I read was "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" (I read it in a Russian translation when I was 12) and it blew me away. It's actually one of Christie's most controversial novels because of who did it. From what I've read a lot of people were actually angry by Christie's revelation, but in 1926 her denouement was probably unprecedented in literature. I still think it's one of Christie's masterpieces.

She played a similar (but different!) trick with "Murder on the Orient Express." (Great movie, too, by the way.)

And still, the only titles available for free are her first two novels, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" (Poirot's first appearance) and "The Secret Adversary" (Tommy and Tupence's first appearance.) "Styles" is good, but I just finished "Adversary" for the first time this week and I didn't like it. Although Christie does some interesting things stylistically (like separating her heroes and telling their parts of the story separately, to be connected later.)

Christie died in 1976 and published a novel the year she died, so it will be some time before her books go into public domain.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

I like Christie's work. I'd rather read her stuff than 90% of the "modern" stuff.

OK, call me old-fashioned. 

My favorite Christie may be _The Mysterious Mr. Quinn_, a collection of short stories with a semi-supernatural bent to them, although that term may be too strong.

Mike


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

CS - If you want some really good older mysteries that are in the public domain, try those by Josephine Tey.  There aren't anything like so many as Christie (I believe Tey died young), but they're very good IMO.  I don't know what Amazon has by her or what price.  I got mine free from Mobile Read.  Brat Farrar is one of my all time favorite books.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

R. Austin Freeman is another of that ilk. . . .wrote the Dr. Thorndyke collection. . . . . . . more like the Poirot mysteries than the Marple mysteries.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> R. Austin Freeman is another of that ilk. . . .wrote the Dr. Thorndyke collection. . . . . . . more like the Poirot mysteries than the Marple mysteries.


I agree. I'm currently reading the entire Thorndyke canon that I got from Mobileread (7 volumes). I'm on Volume 2. 

Mike


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## sheltiemom (Dec 28, 2008)

Reading an Agatha Christie book started my addiction to reading mysteries.  I read them all years go and have reread some in the past few years.   Since I have the DTBs, I haven't gotten any for the Kindle.  I also think "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" the most interesting.  I still enjoy the mysteries set in England.  I have read most of the Dick Francis, Martha Grimes and Elizabeth George books.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

DYB said:


> And still, the only titles available for free are her first two novels, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" (Poirot's first appearance) and "The Secret Adversary" (Tommy and Tupence's first appearance.) "Styles" is good, but I just finished "Adversary" for the first time this week and I didn't like it. Although Christie does some interesting things stylistically (like separating her heroes and telling their parts of the story separately, to be connected later.)


I never liked Tommy and Tuppence. I love Poirot and Miss Marple.



> Christie died in 1976 and published a novel the year she died, so it will be some time before her books go into public domain.


I believe that was _Curtain_, Poirot's last case. She had written it sometime before her death to be published when she died.



ellenoc said:


> CS - If you want some really good older mysteries that are in the public domain, try those by Josephine Tey. There aren't anything like so many as Christie (I believe Tey died young), but they're very good IMO. I don't know what Amazon has by her or what price. I got mine free from Mobile Read. Brat Farrar is one of my all time favorite books.


The only one of Josephine Tey's I like is _Daughter of Time_. I read that one first and was disappointed in the others.



Ann in Arlington said:


> R. Austin Freeman is another of that ilk. . . .wrote the Dr. Thorndyke collection. . . . . . . more like the Poirot mysteries than the Marple mysteries.





jmiked said:


> I agree. I'm currently reading the entire Thorndyke canon that I got from Mobileread (7 volumes). I'm on Volume 2.
> 
> Mike


I'll have to try those.



sheltiemom said:


> Reading an Agatha Christie book started my addiction to reading mysteries. I read them all years go and have reread some in the past few years. Since I have the DTBs, I haven't gotten any for the Kindle. I also think "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" the most interesting. I still enjoy the mysteries set in England. I have read most of the Dick Francis, Martha Grimes and Elizabeth George books.


I've been replacing my Christie dtbs little by little. If you look at the prices on most of them, they are 75 cents and under. My collection is very old.  I have enjoyed reading them again on my k.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

The fact of much of the Christie canon being available is what made the Kindle very interesting to a friend of mine when I showed it to her last year. . .though I'm not sure if she's pulled the trigger yet. . . . .


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

I tried posting last night, but I'm on slow dial-up so I don't think it went through...

Like a lot of the others said, I liked them when I was younger.  I picked one up a few years ago when I started writing cozies (she is *the* matron of the cozy art!) but...yeah, it was slower in pace than I remembered.  Her stories have a lot of little life moments--sort of the neighborly gossip thing going on.  You have to be into the characters and picking up on the country/neighbor lifestyle.  It was a lot harder for me to enjoy when I was older.  I'll probably be thrown out of the cozy club for admitting it too.  

I also re-read a couple of Nancy Drews.  Those mysteries that I found so absorbing and LOVED...were shorter and wow, easy to spot the culprit!  How could that BE?  

One book that did hold up when I was older--that I read with completely new insight was Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  Like for a lot of young people it was required reading.  Reading it when I was older--wow.  It was like an entirely different book.  I really enjoyed it.

Maria


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

"The Secret Adversary" is the only Tommy and Tupence novel I've read, oddly enough.  I'm not sure why I never stumbled on to them before, but of all the Christie works I've read I never read one of theirs!  Their first one is charming (for their blooming romance), though the novel itself isn't very good.  I'll have to read  a few more to see how I feel about them, though.

The last novel Christie actually wrote was "Postern of Fate," (1973) which was the final Tommy and Tupence adventure.  And then the last two published were "Curtain" (last Poirot) in 1975 and "Sleeping Murder" (last Marple) in 1976, both actually written forty years earlier.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

That reminds me of a funny story. My wife always liked to watch "Murder She Wrote" on reruns (she's in her 30s and I tease her about her old lady tastes, she loves Agatha Christie, too.) Anyway, we're on the couch and she is watching Angela Lansbury and I'm working on the laptop, not really paying attention and suddenly I see Jessica Fletcher/Angela Lansbury get shot right in the head at point blank range! I turn to my wife and said "This is the BEST Murder She Wrote EVER!! with a big smile. 

Turns out it was Angela Lansbury in a movie which I think was Murder on the Orient Express, but I'm not sure. I was a little dissapointed.....


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Looking at this thread makes me want to re-read all of the Christie novels... though I'm a bit wary also because of the comments on how different they seem when read years later.

As I recall, _Death on the Nile_ was my favorite.


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

Chad Winters (#102) said:


> That reminds me of a funny story. My wife always liked to watch "Murder She Wrote" on reruns (she's in her 30s and I tease her about her old lady tastes, she loves Agatha Christie, too.) Anyway, we're on the couch and she is watching Angela Lansbury and I'm working on the laptop, not really paying attention and suddenly I see Jessica Fletcher/Angela Lansbury get shot right in the head at point blank range! I turn to my wife and said "This is the BEST Murder She Wrote EVER!! with a big smile.
> 
> Turns out it was Angela Lansbury in a movie which I think was Murder on the Orient Express, but I'm not sure. I was a little dissapointed.....


Lansbury wasn't in "Murder on the Orient Express." And the victim in that was a man and he was stabbed - repeatedly.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

Susan in VA said:


> As I recall, _Death on the Nile_ was my favorite.


Ohh...I IMDBd it and Death on the Nile was the movie my DW was watching!

Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_on_the_Nile_(1978_film) (boat...train...remember I wasn't really paying attention which was why I thought it was Murder She Wrote!)

"Eccentric novelist Salome Otterbourne (Angela Lansbury) faced a libel suit brought by Linnet (the dead cannot be libeled). ..... Salome Otterbourne claims to have seen Louise's murderer and is about to tell Poirot when she is shot in the head through an open cabin door with Pennington's revolver, too large to have been used on Linnet."


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Susan in VA said:


> Looking at this thread makes me want to re-read all of the Christie novels... though I'm a bit wary also because of the comments on how different they seem when read years later.
> 
> As I recall, _Death on the Nile_ was my favorite.


After 40 years of reading Christie, I still love those mysteries. Miss Marple has edged out Poirot, probably because I'm nearly her age now  , but I still love them both.

Yes, _Death on the Nile_ is one of my favorites, too. Maybe you should just try reading that one again since you really liked it.


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