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Welcome to the new Christie website!  We hope that you like the new site - please let us know your thoughts!

We need your story reviews!

Moderator2 11 May 11 at 5:18 p.m. GMT

Are you keen to share your in-depth thoughts on your favourite Christie stories? If so we want to hear from you!

The best analysis of any Christie story will be immortalised on agathachristie.com next to the story it's talking about, the author of the review fully credited (the review may be edited to fit the space - so try to make it less than 1000 words - and if necessary post it in segments as max characters for a forum reply are 2000).

The author of any chosen review will also receive their choice of Christie novel (x1 book) and a special 120th anniversary pin badge. This is an open contest, we will withdraw the competition when we have enough reviews - so get writing and post your reviews here in this forum!

The stories we would like to see reviewed are:

And Then There Were None

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

A Murder is Announced

Murder on the Orient Express

The Thirteen Problems

Towards Zero

Endless Night

Crooked House

Ordeal by Innocence

The Moving Finger

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GKCfan 13 Aug 11 at 6:26 a.m. GMT

(PART 5 OF 5)

And Then There Were None is Christie’s bestselling novel by far, and with good reason.  It is the first Christie novel that many people read, and it is an excellent place to start one’s introduction to Christie’s work.  There is something irresistibly compelling about watching a set of ten murderers being assaulted by their own consciences, and it is exhilarating for an armchair detective to attempt to identify the killer before the process of elimination makes the job too easy.  This is one of Christie’s darkest and greatest novels, an adventure and an intellectual challenge to the reader that is not to be missed.

GKCfan 13 Aug 11 at 6:26 a.m. GMT

(PART 4 OF 5)

Soon after dinner, one character chokes to death after dinner from a poisoned drink.  By the next morning, another character has died during sleep from a sedative overdose.  Not long after each death, one of a set of ten prominently displayed china figures is smashed.  It soon becomes obvious that U.N. Owen is inflicting retribution for past crimes, killing off the guests one at a time in a manner matching the nursery rhyme.  It is also clear that one of the guests is U.N. Owen, but despite their best efforts, they cannot identify the guilty party, and the list of suspects dwindles as the body count rises and the suspense heightens.

What sets this novel apart is the way Christie peers into her characters’ unsettled minds.  Over the course of the book, all of the formerly complacent killers slowly but inexorably grapple with the fact that they are responsible for the deaths of other human beings, and we see that guilt is a very real and powerful force.  Throughout the book, Christie provides glimpses of each of their fraying mental states, and the main clues are intangible, many of which are mostly in the thoughts of each suspect. Only one character’s thoughts are those of a predator rather than prey, but Christie has so skillfully crafted her prose that only extraordinarily careful reading will reveal the truth. 

GKCfan 13 Aug 11 at 6:25 a.m. GMT

(PART 3 OF 5)

A dark nursery rhyme, “Ten Little Soldiers,” is prominently displayed on the island:

Ten little Soldier boys went out to dine;

One choked his little self and then there were nine.

Nine little Soldier boys sat up very late;

One overslept himself and then there were eight.

Eight little Soldier boys traveling in Devon;

One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.

Seven little Soldier boys chopping up sticks;

One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.

Six little Soldier boys playing with a hive;

A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.

Five little Soldier boys going in for law;

One got in Chancery and then there were four.

Four little Soldier boys going out to sea;

A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.

Three little Soldier boys walking in the zoo;

A big bear hugged one and then there were two.

Two Little Soldier boys sitting in the sun;

One got frizzled up and then there was one.

One little Soldier boy left all alone;

He went and hanged himself and then there were none.

GKCfan 13 Aug 11 at 6:24 a.m. GMT

(PART 2 OF 5)

The cast of characters is among Christie’s best, each one carefully developed and possessing a guilty conscience.  Their indelible characterizations have caused them to become archetypes in mystery fiction.  Vera Claythorne, a former governess accused of allowing the child in her care to drown.  Philip Lombard, a roguish adventurer whose attempts to save his own skin led to the destruction of many African natives.  Lawrence Wargrave, a magistrate with the reputation for being a “hanging judge,” who might have sent an innocent man to the gallows.  Emily Brent, a self-righteous spinster whose harshness drove a servant to suicide. William Blore, a former police officer and current private investigator who accused the wrong man of a crime, leading to the man’s death in prison.  General John MacArthur, a military man whose wife’s infidelity led him to send her lover to a violent death on the battlefield.  Doctor Edward Armstrong, a respected surgeon whose alcoholism led to the death of a patient on the operating table.  Anthony Marston, a carefree playboy whose reckless driving led his running over a pair of children.  Finally, Thomas and Ethel Rogers are the servants on the island, but their neglect of a former employer proved fatal.

GKCfan 13 Aug 11 at 6:23 a.m. GMT

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE REVIEW

By GKCfan

 

(PART 1 OF 5)

Have you ever gazed into the mind of a murderer?  In And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie takes the reader into the minds– and souls– of ten people who almost got away with murder. Ten individuals, with nothing in common save for the fact that the law cannot touch them for the deaths on their consciences, are invited to a luxurious mansion on an isolated island. Soon after they arrive, a gramophone record plays a disturbing message accusing each of them of murder… and an unknown figure known only as “U.N. Owen,” (a play on “unknown”), begins dispensing justice to the couplets of a macabre nursery rhyme.

In the current edition of the novel, the nursery rhyme in question is “Ten Little Soldiers,” and the name of the island where the book takes place is called “Soldier Island.”  Earlier versions of the novel used different terms, but the most recent form has been bowdlerized of all ethnic terminology. Despite these cosmetic changes, the plot of the novel remains exactly the same. The premise of strangers voyaging to an out-of-the-way spot, only to be picked off one at a time by a mysterious killer has been utilized and parodied so many times that it has become a cliché, but it was Agatha Christie who made this plot famous, and no one has ever done it better than she has in And Then There Were None, and no number of derivative rip-offs or affectionate homages can dilute the power of the original.

GKCfan 12 Aug 11 at 12:08 a.m. GMT

(PART 4 OF 4)

Given the huge number of suspects and clues, it is understandable that a reader might wonder how Christie is going to tie it all together, but as it turns out, every clue plays a logical role in the mystery, and Poirot is able to produce not one, but two brilliant solutions, the first plausible but false, the second fantastic yet true.  At the book's end, Poirot is faced with a moral dilemma unlike almost anything else he has faced so far in his career, and the reverberations of the case on the Belgian detective are subtly hinted at in later novels, such as Appointment with Death and Curtain.

A couple of real-life events inspired Murder on the Orient Express.  The Lindbergh kidnapping case, where the famous aviator’s young son was abducted from the family home and discovered murdered soon afterwards, sparking a major news frenzy and a criminal case that would be dubbed “the trial of the century,” is a major influence on a crucial subplot.  Additionally, the Orient Express really was stalled in a snowdrift for nearly a week in the 1920’s, and the crew and passengers only managed to save themselves through a serious effort.

A word of warning for readers new to Christie: be careful not to read Cards on the Table before reading Murder on the Orient Express first.  A single line of dialogue, hidden in Chapter 23 (“The Evidence of a Pair of Silk Stockings”), will spoil the ending of Murder on the Orient Express for the observant reader.  Unfortunately, the solution has been leaked frequently in popular culture and by critics with no sense of decency, so it is highly recommended that readers enjoy Murder on the Orient Express as soon as possible– the book is far too good for the ending to be spoiled.

GKCfan 12 Aug 11 at 12:06 a.m. GMT

(PART 3 OF 4)

There are a near-record number of suspects on the Orient Express, including the French train conductor Pierre Michel, the deceased’s American personal secretary Hector McQueen, British valet Edward Henry Masterman, garrulous American traveler Mrs. Caroline Hubbard, Swedish missionary Greta Ohlsson, exiled Russian Princess Natalia Dragomiroff, Hungarian diplomats Count and Countess Andrenyi, British military man Colonel Arbuthnot, American private investigator Cyrus Hardman, Italian immigrant car salesman Antonio Foscarelli, English lady Miss Mary Debenham, and the Princess’s German lady’s maid Fräulein Hildegarde Schmidt. Despite the huge cast, every person on the train is an intriguing character, and Christie wastes no space– every interview and scene provides evidence that is crucial to solving the crime.

While Poirot has declared on many instances that psychology is the best way to solve cases, and that the search for tangible clues is best left to bloodhound-like police officers with more energy than brains, Poirot uncovers a great many pieces of material evidence on the Orient Express, including a scarlet kimono, a shiny button, a pipe cleaner, a mysterious monogrammed handkerchief, a spare train conductor’s uniform, a stopped pocket watch, a charred letter, and a bloodstained dagger.  While each piece of evidence seems to implicate one suspect, another clue exonerates that person.

GKCfan 12 Aug 11 at 12:05 a.m. GMT

 (PART 2 OF 4)

Poirot is on his way back to England after solving a mystery in Palestine (this is one of several pieces of evidence in the Christie canon proving that not all of Poirot’s cases since his emigration from Belgium have been recorded), and on an unusually crowded train ride on the sumptuous Orient Express, a mysterious and unpleasant man, Samuel Ratchett, offers Poirot a generous fee if the great detective can protect him from the threats being made on his life.  In one of Poirot’s greatest lines, he declines Ratchett’s offer, explaining that, “I do not like your face.”

Soon afterwards, the Orient Express crashes into a snowdrift and is unable to travel further.  The next morning, Ratchett is found murdered in his locked room, dead from multiple stab wounds.  Poirot’s old friend M. Bouc, a train company executive, convinces Poirot to take the case in order to preserve the Orient Express’s reputation.  With the help of Dr. Constantine, a Greek physician, Poirot delves into the case and soon discovers that the murder has its roots in a past crime: the kidnapping and death of a young American girl, Daisy Armstrong, and the subsequent destruction of her family. 

GKCfan 12 Aug 11 at 12:04 a.m. GMT

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS REVIEW

By GKCfan

 

(PART 1 OF 4)

When finishing Murder on the Orient Express, one of Agatha Christie’s most inventive and audacious mysteries, many readers, when confronted with the surprise ending, will respond with shock and horror: “Wait a minute!  How could we possibly be expected to have guessed that?  That isn’t fair– Christie can’t do that!”  To these protestations, we can only imagine Christie simply but firmly saying, “I can do that, and as you can see, I have.  It is only your own fault if you did not leave your mind open to all of the possibilities.  I played perfectly fair with you– I gave you all of the clues and you had every chance to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together.  Better luck next time.”

Murder on the Orient Express is justifiably one of Christie’s most famous novels, and for more reasons than just the mind-blowing shocker ending.  The exotic location of the world’s most luxurious train, a large cast of characters from assorted international locales, and Hercule Poirot at the top of his game all come together to form a shining star of a whodunit.

GKCfan 11 Aug 11 at 7:52 a.m. GMT

(PART 4 OF 4)

If there is any flaw in the book, it is the presence of one possibly extraneous and illogical murder that takes a great deal of ingenuity to explain– the reasons behind the death that are stated in the book simply do not hold water after casual scrutiny.  Some fans may worry that the book is paced too slowly, but readers who are waiting for a murder will miss the scores of lovely and disturbing touches Christie utilizes as the suspense snowballs. 

Christie explored the problem of evil frequently in her works, and Endless Night is one of her most affecting and absorbing explorations of the great problem facing the world: the fact that a person can be provided with every opportunity to live a good life, and still choose evil for painfully inadequate reasons.  The murders are even more shocking when one realizes just how wasteful and unnecessary they really are.  In Endless Night, Christie has managed to blend mystery, romance, and horror together in a unique tale of tragedy, twisted desires, and innocence squandered.  Christie stretched her horizons with this book, and breaking the mold paid great dividends.

GKCfan 11 Aug 11 at 7:51 a.m. GMT

(PART 3 OF 4)

Other than the squabbling between Michael and Greta, there are other problems that stand to derail Michael and Ellie’s happiness.  The pair hires Rudolph Santonix, a brilliant architect to build a luxury home for them, but soon after construction is completed, Mrs. Lee returns with more curses– and rocks to throw through windows.  A little venom goes a long way, and the placid happiness that Mr. and Mrs. Rogers expect to enjoy is rapidly frayed by nervous tension, as threats of doom cloud their days and replace peace with apprehension. In the tradition of Christie’s best “country village” novels, a handful of intriguing townspeople are introduced.  As they make the acquaintance of their new neighbors, some are charming, others disconcerting.  By the end of the book, all of the villagers have had their own small roles to play in the drama, some as victims, others as detectives who cannot prove their conclusions until tragedy strikes again.

Endless Night is widely credited as being inspired in part by Christie’s Miss Marple short story “The Case of the Caretaker,” so the well-read Christie fan is certain to find several striking plot parallels.  No recurring detective appears in this story, but the particularly subtle and compellingly-developed characters make this one of Christie’s most psychologically complex works.  Christie writes every page with a sure hand, crafting a plot that is unlike any of her other mysteries, yet still managing to craft a solvable puzzle, though clues are extremely discreet and implied rather than directly stated.  The clues are gently sprinkled throughout the dialogue and inferred through characters’ interactions and reactions.

GKCfan 11 Aug 11 at 7:50 a.m. GMT

(PART 2 OF 4)

The central character in Endless Night is its narrator, Michael Rogers, a young man who stumbles from one menial job to another, dreaming of romance, wealth, and a beautiful house.  Michael has a slightly uneasy relationship with his mother, who clearly loves him but is simultaneously worried about her aimless progeny’s future.  Michael’s pallid everyday existence is suddenly and unexpectedly brightened the day he meets Ellie, a beautiful, sweet, innocent young American woman.  They quickly fall for each other, and during the course of their courtship they discover Gipsy’s Acre, a lovely plot of land that would be the perfect place for their dream home, if only they could afford it.  While there, the young pair is met by a mysterious woman named Mrs. Lee, who threatens them with a curse if they ever build upon Gipsy’s Acre.  Of course, neither Michael nor Ellie puts much stock in curses, but there is something about Mrs. Lee that leaves them disconcerted.

Michael and Ellie marry, but Ellie has been keeping a secret.  She is an heiress to a massive fortune, and she has used a little of her vast wealth to buy Gipsy’s Acre.  Though Michael’s feelings towards Ellie do not change after learning that he is married to a millionaire many times over, he soon becomes apprehensive of the other people in Ellie’s life, including a stepmother who is obsessed with her own financial security, the family lawyer who seems to know far more than he is willing to tell, and Greta, Ellie’s best friend.  Michael and Greta clash almost as soon as they are introduced, and Ellie is forced to act as an intermediary to relieve the friction between the two people she cares for most in the world.

GKCfan 11 Aug 11 at 7:49 a.m. GMT

ENDLESS NIGHT REVIEW

By GKCfan

 

(PART 1 OF 4)

Every night and every morn,

Some to misery are born,

Every morn and every night,

Some are born to sweet delight.

Some are born to sweet delight,

Some are born to endless night.

                        –William Blake, “Auguries of Innocence”

 

Widely regarded as the best of the novels that Christie wrote during the last decade of her life, Endless Night is unique among Christie’s books to the point that the reader might be forgiven for believing that this one of her Mary Westmacott romance novels.  Save for a brief reference to a sudden death years earlier, the murders in this book are not revealed until very late in the novel.  By that point, Christie makes up for lost time, and six deaths lie on the killer’s conscience before the final page.

It is not a spoiler to reveal that Christie reuses a clever solution that she had used years earlier to great effect, since this review will not specify which surprise ending makes a second appearance.  Agatha Christie used so many clever tricks of literary misdirection that she can be forgiven for using them more than once, perhaps even praised for the repetition, since few readers will expect her to repeat a masterstroke.  But repeat it she does, and she reuses it brilliantly.

ErkutSoyer 06 Aug 11 at 6:08 p.m. GMT

I don't read A murder is Announced,The Thirteen Problems,Towards Zero.Also There arenn't Endless Night,Crooked House,Ordeal by Innocence and The Moving Finger in Turkey.

ErkutSoyer 06 Aug 11 at 6:06 p.m. GMT

(3)Murder on the Orient Express:My 8th book but my best I've read.It has a different place in my hearth because crime started Turkey.And I'm Turkish.And solving the murder is very hard.I think nobody didn't solve the crime.You must read this book.It is the best!

ErkutSoyer 06 Aug 11 at 6:04 p.m. GMT

(2)The Murder of Roger Ackroyd:Dr. Sheppard tells the story.I didn't like this book because a chracter tells it in first pages.But I love it after farther pages.I didn't estimate the murderer.Also atmosphere is magnificent.

ErkutSoyer 06 Aug 11 at 6:03 p.m. GMT

(2)The Murder of Roger Ackroyd:Dr. Sheppard tells the story.I didn't like this book because a chracter tells it in first pages.But I love it after farther pages.I didn't estimate the murderer.Also atmosphere is magnificent.

ErkutSoyer 06 Aug 11 at 5:58 p.m. GMT

(1)And Then There Were None:It hasn't a detective but it is my second best book.It is some sadictic but it is magnificent book.It was my first book.Its mark is 10/10

GKCfan 02 Aug 11 at 11:05 p.m. GMT

(PART 5 OF 5)

Ordeal by Innocence is one of Christie’s darkest books, but “dark” does not equate to depressing in this case.  Early in the book, a character declares that it is not the guilty who matter, but the innocent.  That is why it is so important to solve murders.  If the truth is not revealed, then every innocent person suspected of the crime becomes a victim.

GKCfan 02 Aug 11 at 11:04 p.m. GMT

(PART 4 OF 5)

This fact adds an added twist and complexity to the characters’ emotions.  It is one thing, as is the case in many of Christie’s books, when an unpleasant person dies– no one feels particularly sorry for the victim.  In this book, even the characters who are innocent of murder are plagued by a strong feeling of guilt, for they cannot shake the feeling that they could have felt more grateful or more warmly towards Rachel.  Rachel Argyle becomes one of Christie’s better-developed victims.  Often, they die off and are referenced only as a plot point.  Here, the characters are held back from moving on in life not merely by their own personal feelings of suspicion towards each other, but by their feelings of guilt for not having loved a dead woman more.

Christie called Ordeal by Innocence and Crooked House her personal favorite novels.  The two books have several points of similarity.  Both are devoid of recurring characters, both center on a family torn apart by murder and suspicion, and in both novels, Christie tells the reader the solution to the crime, even though only the most astute readers pick up on the clue.  While Crooked House gave the reader a thorough psychological profile of the perpetrator, Ordeal by Innocence has a passage where the way the murder is committed is explained early in the book, but it is so cleverly concealed in a conversation that readers can be excused for dismissing it as expository dialogue.