Agatha Christie
Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie (15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was a British writer who wrote mysteries, psychological fiction, plays, and poetry. That is an almost laughably cryptic basic description of one of the bestselling writers in publishing. Currently, it is estimated that her books have sold approximately two billion copies. Her estate estimates that she is the most widely published author or text after the Bible and Shakespeare. She has been translated into 103 languages. Not shabby for a upper middle-class girl who liked lab work in chemistry and pharmaceuticals — and who liked to write.
She bestrides the world of mysteries like a colossus. She is often considered formulaic in her approach, “cookie-cutter,” but any respectful reading quickly dispels that envious evaluation. She wrote sixty-seven detective novels and fourteen short-story collections, intimidating enough, and influential beyond all measure for a century now. She also wrote a series of novels under the name of Mary Westmacott which astonish anyone who reads them not as gothic romance, as they were marketed, but as psychological surgeries, merciless analytical examinations of women at the sharp end of reality. She often wrote with humor, with a sharp and sassy satirical eye, and she was capable of a sensitive pathos with the people who were collateral damage in her so-called “whodunits.” Remarkably, she had a cool and ambivalent attitude toward her heroes and heroines, including Miss Marple and the great Hercule Poirot.
Agatha Christie is a complex and complicated writer. I invite you to read her as comfort fare, which she is, and I invite you to read her as a twentieth-century novelist, which she is in a circumspect and mysterious way. Enjoy!
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd [Macmillan Collector's Library edition]
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd [Macmillan Collector's Library edition]
The only person who can unravel the terrible events in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is Hercule Poirot. He sets about, in his usual meticulous and eccentric way, to uncover the truth.
Complete and unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an introduction by Barry Forshaw.
In an English village, a young widow, Mrs Ferrars is found dead; she has taken her own life. Roger Ackroyd confides to his friend, Dr James Shepherd, who is the narrator of the book, that he was planning to marry Mrs Ferrars. But before her death he discovered that she had a dark secret; she killed her own husband and now someone is blackmailing her. Then, just as Ackroyd is about to find out the identity of the blackmailer, he’s murdered.