Agatha Christie ​

Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie (née Miller), was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, featured in many movies and television shows over the years. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime".

Quick Facts ​

• Wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End since 1952.
• Remains the most-translated individual author.
• Wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott.
• Was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature.
• Guinness World Records lists her as the best-selling fiction writer of all time.
• Her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

Background ​

Christie was born in 1890 into a wealthy upper middle class family in Torquay, Devon, and was largely home-schooled. She was initially an unsuccessful writer with six consecutive rejections, but this changed in 1920 when The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published. Her first husband was Archibald Christie; they married in 1914 and had one child before divorcing in 1928. Following the breakdown of her marriage in 1926 she made international headlines by going missing for eleven days. During both World Wars, she served in hospital dispensaries, acquiring a thorough knowledge of the poisons that featured in many of her novels, short stories, and plays. Following her marriage to archaeologist Max Mallowan in 1930, she spent several months each year on digs in the Middle East and used her first-hand knowledge of this profession in her fiction.

Writing Style and Impact ​

Considered one of the greatest mystery writers of all time, her writing style is very concise and often uses short sentences which gives the reader a sense of suspense. Her work is also characterized by clever plotting and enigmatic characters, with use of red herrings and other devices to keep readers guessing until the end. Her work helped to popularize the genre of detective fiction.

Notable Works ​

• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
• Partners in Crime (1929)
• The Murder at the Vicarage (1930)
• Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
• The A.B.C. Murders (1936)
• Death on the Nile (1937)
• And Then There Were None (1939)
• The Mousetrap (1952)