‘It was Agatha all along’ why Agatha Christie is undoubtably the best

We all know that Agatha Christie is the greatest mystery writer of all time. 

You’ve probably heard a lot of compliments about Agatha Christie over the years. She writes the best plot twists. She defined the future of popular fiction. Every thriller writer currently publishing is writing in her shadow. With The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie confirms her legacy. She is undoubtably the greatest. 

I am in no ways a Christie expert (that title is reserved for a couple of my closest friends), but I have read a fair few of her novels over the past few years. During the first lockdown, I discovered how much I love a murder mystery (as opposed to contemporary thriller fiction). There is something about the dynamics of family, friends, or strangers stuck in one singular location that just appeals to me… I think this is partly the reason that I love a dinner party trope (yes Fleabag, I am looking at you). I found myself bored of reading about middle aged alcoholic women who are unrealisable narrators (partly because they are an alcoholic, partly because the author is judging their unfeminine approach to motherhood). The murder mystery might have a longer tradition (and for some be an overdone genre full of tropes), but the atmosphere is always great. They create a pressure cooker that reveals the worst in everyone involved. The distinction between the two genres relies heavily on the vibe for me. While both include different tropes, conventions, and narrative structure, the main difference between the two is that murder mysteries infuse the disturbing with the desired (most typically wealth).

As I became obsessed with novels like Lucy Folely’s The Guest List and films like Knives Out, I had to try out the queen of the genre. In some ways it is embrassing how little I knew about Agatha Christie’s work before picking one up. I am not ashamed to say that the main source of my knowledge is ‘The Unicorn and The Wasp’ episode of Doctor Who. In my humble opinion, this is one of the greatest Doctor Who episodes of all time. It features the best Doctor and companion due (David Tennant and Catherine Tate are second to none), a selection of iconic scenes (it is hard to forget the scene where the doctor requires something salty, but not as salty as salt), and it features many up and coming actors (watching it now, you may be surprised to notice that future Oscar nominee Felicity Jones has a major role). Yet despite knowing far too much about this episode, I knew very little about miss Christie herself. Basically, I knew that she once went missing and could name her most iconic titles. I was basically a civilian.

The first novel I picked up was And Then There Were None and this is hands down one of my favourite book concepts of all time. Since reading, I just have to pick up any book focusing on a group where one person dies on by one (and there are quite a few, Ruth Ware’s One by One being just one of a long list). With this novel Agatha Christie proved herself to be the creator of the best plots and concepts. Even though the who-done-it is perhaps not the most exciting reveal, the rest of the novel more than makes up for it. This is one reason why Christie is so great, the enjoyment of her books does not rely heavily on their ending. Many a thriller has been ruined by an ending that doesn’t quite make sense, but you won’t be upset by a Christie ending. Every detail is carefully plotted and designed. Regardless of whether you like her reveals, you cannot deny that it makes perfect sense. You couldn’t make a hole in them if you were a hole puncher.

Immediately after finishing this book (I mean this more literally then you are perhaps imagining) I picked up Murder on the Orient Express and this novel features my favourite plot twist I have ever read. I did start this novel knowing that she features this twist in one of her stories and yet I was still shocked and blown away. It is another perfect ending to a novel.

Since then, I have read a few more novels including Halloween Party, Death on the Nile, and The ABC Murders and I thoroughly enjoyed all of them (although, I did find Christie’s repetition of how annoying the murdered child Joyce is beyond frustrating). I was also privileged to witness the immersive experience of The Mousetrap. It was this fantastic play (and my friend Tyler) that finally encouraged me to pick up another of Christie’s iconic titles, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. This book made me realise what others have known for a long time. Agatha Christie is the greatest mystery writer of all time.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is another classic murder mystery and yet it subverts all of the traditions masterfully. It is the perfect mix of the known and the unexpected. Set in a small village, a widow dies and soon afterwards so does her dear friend Roger Ackroyd. The novel follows a local doctor and, everyone’s favourite detective Poirot, as they unpick this chain of events. What made this reading experience totally unique was that I guessed the ending AND I still loved it. I managed to predict who the murderer was and decipher a major earlier reveal. Don’t worry, this blog is not now going to turn into a lengthy humble brag. Instead, I am going to reassure that I am very dumb. The murderer normally has one over me. It is very rare for me to guess a who-done-it, and even in the rare case that I do, I never get all the details. This is why I was in love with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (in fact, I enjoyed it so much that I would call it my favourite mystery novel of all time). Even though I guessed what is for many a shocking reveal, I had less than no idea of how it could work. Christie is truly the master of making what civilians think as impossible entirely plausible within her world. When reading her novels, you are never unaware that she is far more intelligent than you are.

This blog post has been leading up to one final conclusion and it is one I have basically already stated earlier. No one ends a mystery like Agatha Christie. Sure, a writer might use the same concept or trope as Christie, but they cannot write like her at all. They cannot make you like a controversial ending, love a twist you knew was coming, or fascinated to disocver how who did it actually did it. The enjoyment of her novels does not rest on the ending, because her endings are always so well connected to the entire novel. No one writes an ending like Agatha Christie because they add an ending to their novel rather than naturally draw an ending out of a satisfying plot.

Exploring Agatha Christie

In the past couple of months, I have read 4 different Agatha Christie novels – before this, I had literally never read one of her books. After doing a quiz on Agatha Christie and watching Knives Out I had a real itching to read some mysteries and I thought I should obviously start with the master. I also came to the conclusion that I prefer a whodunnit rather than a psychological thriller – mystery is often not a genre I pick up because I don’t find it fulfilling, but I do like a whodunnit. I thought I would test this theory out! Below I am going to discuss my feelings on the whodunnit murder mystery genre and see whether it is something that I like.

Before I discuss the Agatha Christie novels I read I think it is worth mentioning that I did read other mysteries during this period. I read The Guest List by Lucy Foley and The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Tutton. Both of these books I wanted to read because they gave me Agatha Christie vibes. The Guest List has a premise that reminds me of And Then There Were None and The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle reminded me of the stereotypical idea of an Agatha Christie novel with a twist. Both of these books I have mixed feelings about – more so than any of Agatha Christie’s novels. I liked some of the reveals but I wasn’t blown away by any of them – while some reveals were shocking they didn’t make me amazed by how clever it was. However, I must say that I don’t think the genre satisfies me in the way other genres are able to – I am not currently sure if I would ever rate one 5/5 stars. To hear more of my specific thoughts on these books, check out my July Wrap up.

Now onto Agatha Christie.

My favourite, and the first, book of her’s I read is And Then There Were None. I have mentioned many times on this blog how I flew through this book – after about 50 pages I was thoroughly engaged and couldn’t put it down. The reveal wasn’t my favourite, but I think that was more how it was done rather than the reveal itself. I found this book so intriguing and the plot of the novel was so different too other mysteries.

I also read Murder on the Orient Express. My experience of reading this book was definitely impacted by the fact that I knew how one of her books ended (without knowing what book it was) and it happened to be the ending of this one. Despite this, I think it is a fantastic novel – again I read this really quickly and was so interested in the clues and what was happening.

Sparkling Cyanide, the most recent of her books I have read failed to draw me in. This book has a slightly different structure and felt much slower.

Ultimately, I do think that murder mystery whodunnits are a genre that I really like. I just need to be more selective with what I read and perhaps not read so many of them in such a short period of time. This year I have found that I read a lot of the same thing (generally an easy to read genre) and then I have less of an interest in it going forward – I did the same thing with the romance genre earlier on this year. Hence, I should try and vary what I read more than I currently do. I imagine if I read one a month or every other month they might be able to have more of an impact on me.

I am, however, planning to read ABC Murders soon so my opinions might change even more – I will let you know if they do. I know I probably shouldn’t read another one so close to reading the last one, but I am doing it for a readathon so I don’t feel so bad about it.

I also think to test if whodunnits are my favourite mysteries I might need to read more of the genre. I think I might in the future aim to read a few domestic mysteries, or some other subsections of the genre, to test this out fully. I think I will give this a rest for the time being though.

Reading Rush 2020 TBR

I have never done a TBR on my blog before so we will see how this goes! Here are the books I am planning to read for this year’s reading rush. Last year I did try, halfheartedly, to participate but this year I am approaching it with more gusto. Also, last year I was working full time and this year I have way more time to read due to the worldwide pandemic. I do have some things I need to do which is why I do have two different plans, so if I’m not particularly into reading this week I can count some of the books I am reading for more than one of the categories.

Challenges

1) Read a book with a cover that matches the colour of your birthstone.

I was born in November so my birthstone is topaz or citrine, so I was looking for a book with yellow on the cover. Ideally, I plan on reading Love, Creekwood by Becky Albertaili. I thought that this book would be a great choice as it is short, an ebook, told through emails and is about characters I already know. However, it does come out in the UK during the week so I might not be able to get to it and I do have other books which can also fill the challenge.

2) Read a book that starts with the word “The”.

My plan for this challenge does also complete the first challenge. I am planning to read The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. This is quite a long book so perhaps not the best pick but as I can use it for a few challenges I am not that bothered. I have been wanting to read this book for a while and recently this urge has been even more prominent.

I have also realised that as I am rereading Ali Smith’s books for my dissertation. I think I am going to be reading The Accidental this week so that could count for this challenge. In which case The Nightingale can count for the first challenge. I wish I had realised it earlier and not when I had almost finished writing this post.

3) Read a book that inspired a movie you’ve already seen.

I struggled with this challenge the most. For all of these books I am wanting to read books I either already own, can get through the library or can get relatively cheaply. I have bought some books but I couldn’t think of a book for this challenge that I wanted to read enough to justify buying it. I also realised I needed an audiobook to listen to for this week. So I decided to listen to Matilda by Roald Dahl. I only read a few of his books when I was younger (all of them through school) so I think it will be nice to finally read this modern children’s classic.

4) Read the first book you touch.

This is perhaps my least favourite challenge as I don’t own that many books I haven’t read at the moment – when the challenges were announced I didn’t even own a physical book that I wanted to read. I also don’t see how this is a real challenge as technically I can just purposely touch a book and choose to read that one. I have decided to interpret this challenge as to read a book I physically own. At the moment I don’t own many books that I haven’t read that I am that interested in reading – I have a few that I bought very cheaply that I am not in any great rush to read. For this challenge, I am going to try to read All That She Can See by Carrie Hope Fletcher. However, I might end up reading The Nightingale for this challenge as well – see this book is a good pick as it can fit into up to three different challenges.

5) Read a book completely outside of your house.

For this challenge, I knew what I was going to read relatively quickly as I had seen this book on my library and noticed that the audiobook is very short. No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference by Greta Thunberg is my choice for this one. I listen to audiobooks on 2x speed so I should be able to get through it in a 40-minute walk. 

6) Read a book in a genre that you’ve always wanted to read more of.

Again this is a challenge that other books can fit into. The Nightingale can count for this one as it is historical fiction (something I hardly ever read but have been getting more into), so could No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference (I don’t read a lot of non-fiction, especially non-autobiographical non-fiction) and so could my pick for the next challenge as it is a thriller. However, I have decided to pick ABC Murders by Agatha Christie for this challenge as recently (the last month or two) I have been delving into mysteries and this is one of Agatha Christie’s books that I can get through my library. 

7) Read a book that takes place on a different continent than where you live.

This challenge I initially struggled with, I could have easily picked a book set in North America but that seemed too easy. For this challenge, I am reading My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. This book is set in Nigeria so it completes the challenge really well. I have been vaguely interested in this book for a little while and since I have become more into mysteries and thrillers this interest has grown. It is also quite a short book, so it is perfect for this readathon.

Reading Order

As I have a couple of plans in place I think it is important to specify the order I am going to read them in – also this will help clear it up in my mind.

• The first book I will pick up will be The Accidental as I will work on it on Monday morning. This will complete ‘the’
• I am going to try and read No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference next as it will be the quickest to read. This will complete reading outside.
• I will also pick up The Nightingale on Monday as it is the longest so might take a while to read. This will complete the birthstone challenge and the first book you touch.
• I will then pick up My Sister the Serial Killer at some point during the week. This will complete reading a book set in another continent and a genre you want to read more of.
• Throughout the week I will listen to the audiobook of Matilda. This will complete reading a book that you have seen the adaption of.

This is the least number of books I plan on completing throughout the week. Obviously, this is still a lot so it might be hard to complete, but I think if I try and can do it.

Then if I have more time I will try to read the following books:

• ABC Murders – for the genre challenge
• All The Light She Can See – for the touch challenge
• Lastly, I will try to read Love Creekwood for the birthstone challenge if I have time – I won’t need it to complete the challenges as I realised that my university work fits a challenge. However, it would be nice to complete all the challenges without including that one as it isn’t a book I am purely reading for fun. This is definitely my last priority though.