Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries

Agatha Christie had a fascinating mind. Her eleven day disappearance in 1926 caught the public's attention. She was the author of 78 crime novels. She was extremely successful during her long lifetime and became Dame Agatha. She claimed she was shy and slow. Christie was traumatized by press accounts of the events of 1926. Six novels were published under the pen name of Mary Westmacott. Agatha was a strange and memorable first name. Her father was affable and affectionate. She had a strong sense of communion with her mother. One of the events leading up to her disappearance in 1926 was the death of her mother, causing her profound grief. The other event was the announcement by her husband Archie that he no longer loved her. After her father's death in 1901, elaborate dinner parties were no longer given in her household. Agatha spent most of her time in the traditional pursuits of sewing, reading, and playing the piano. During World War I she loved nursing, but gave that up at her husband, Archie's insistence. Agatha's sister, Madge, had had some early success as a writer, and Agatha sought to follow in her foot steps. She began THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES. Writing developed out of speech. The English detective fiction genre is a genre of oedipal struggle, with each successive writer learning from an earlier one. MURDER ON THE LINKS explores French police procedure. Agatha Christie uses the amateur detective convention. Most literary detectives are projections of their creators. Hercule Poirot was a reverse image. Agatha and Archie had one child, Rosalind. After the child was born, and leaving her at home, Agatha and Archie went on a ten month's world tour. They both possessed energy and curiousity. Agatha Christie did not place her characters in a the political arena. In some respects this is fortunate since the stories have not aged much. The noted author had an instinctive appreciation of modern art and modern music. Her first masterpiece was issued in 1926 by Collins, THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD. Max Mallowan became Christie's second husband in 1930. From 1930 to 1939 she had much private happiness and success as a writer. During the war years the couple endured a good deal of separation as Mallowan worked as an adminstrator abroad. In her mystery writing Agatha Christie did not resort to the least likely suspect technique. Once Agatha wrote a book in three days and slept for twenty four hours after the great ordeal. In the fifties, THE MOUSETRAP and WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION, plays, became a new source of revenue.

This book does a very nice job of rounding out the character of Our Agatha. Almost everyone living and breathing has heard of this famous mystery writer, but a fraction of those people know the events in Christie's life that created a basis for her most loved tales. Gill's obvious respect for Christie allows her readers to enjoy reading this biography almost as much as Gill must have had in writing it. One criticism would be that this book does tend to linger in the area of deconstruction of the style of mystery writing that Agatha Christie used in her many-decade career. The general idea of how a mystery is constructed is interesting, but a bit less of this would tighten up Gill's otherwise delightful biography.

The author of this works shows how Agatha Christie's private life and the traumas she endured pushed her to go beyond the usual norms of mystery writing, surprising and enchanting her readers. Recommended for fans of Agatha Christie's writing, as it lends insight into her life and her work.