Part I: Introduction

Boredom can inspire. Covid-19 causes boredom. Logic would dictate, then, that Covid-19 inspires. Without realizing that 2020 was the 100^th anniversary of the publication of Agatha Christie’s first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, last February I decided upon the lengthy project of listening to all of Christie’s mystery novels and short stories. I qualify this because she wrote several plays and six romance novels under a pseudonym that I haven’t included on my list. I am an audio book addict and opted to listen to, rather than read, her books. It helped that I already owned a selection of her audio books, and I could re-listen to them.

Between 1920 and 1976, Christie, or Dame Agatha as she is called by some, wrote 66 mystery/detective/espionage novels and 14 short story collections. The books were initially published in the UK and the US, sometimes under different titles. The short story collections vary in UK and US publications. To date, Christie’s books have sold over two billion copies. My impressions and comments are based on the audio versions sold on Audible.com, mainly because I am a long term member. None of my comments relate to Audible.

Most of us are familiar with Christie’s two famous detectives, the Belgian ex-police officer Hercule Poirot and the “elderly” Miss Jane Marple, resident of St. Mary Meade. But she also developed a host of other characters, some of which weave in and out of her detective and espionage novels. Poirot and Miss Marple, however, never appeared in the same book. And she wrote a large number of standalone mystery/espionage stories that feature none of her recurring characters. Surprisingly, she was interested in the occult, the supernatural, and the unseen, which feature in many of her short stories.

My favorite character outside of Poirot and Miss Marple is Ariadne Oliver, a scattered, bewigged mystery writer who appears as a secondary character in several Poirot stories. She has some great dialogue. Check out Hallowe’en Party, 1969. Her only stand alone, The Pale Horse, is one of my favorite Christie books. Tommy and Tuppence Beresford are featured in six books dealing with espionage and crime. They are the main characters in Christie’s second novel, The Secret Adversary, published in 1922, and her last written novel, Postern of Fate, published in 1973. The final Poirot, Curtain, published in 1975, and the final Miss Marple, Sleeping Murder, published posthumously in 1976, were both written in the 1940s and locked in a bank vault for later publication.

Superintendent Battle of the CID also gets the starring role in a couple of books, as does Colonel Race, who has an undefined job in the British secret service. Both Battle (The Secret of Chimney’s, 1925) and Race (The Man in the Brown Suite, 1924), appear before Miss Marple’s first novel Murder at the Vicarage in 1930. Battle, Race, and Poirot are all featured in Cards on the Table, which was published in 1936. Colonel Race is also featured in Poirot’s Death on the Nile in 1936.  

Moving away from the mystery/detective genre, we meet two intriguing characters who appear only in short story collections. Parker Pyne, (Parker Pyne Investigates, published in 1934) styles himself as a detective, but considers himself a detective of the heart. He is a fixer for the lovelorn, for people trapped in loveless marriages, and for the unhappy. Ariadne Oliver appears briefly in a couple Pyne stories, as does Miss Lemon, who goes on to become Hercule Poirot’s secretary. The Mysterious Mr. Quin stories feature Mr. Satterwaite, who drifts through high society, and Mr. Harley Quin, who may or may not be a figment of Satterwaite’s subconscious. The stories are hard to characterize. The supernatural feeling is strong throughout.

Of course, we can’t forget Captain Arthur Hastings, who is predominantly featured in most Hercule Poirot short stories and in several of the novels. After Murder on the Links (1923) in which he meets his future wife and moves to the Argentine, Hastings appears rarely in Poirot novels. Poirot regards Hastings as a not too bright sidekick, though probably his best friend. Hastings is never featured on his own unless narrating the story of one of Poirot’s cases. He is, however, with Poirot at the end in Curtain (1975), Poirot’s final case.

I am almost finished with my listening project. I have three novels left, and I have to revisit The Mysterious Mr. Quin. My current listen, They Came to Baghdad (1951), I must say is not my favorite book in the Christie library. More on that and other meanderings on Agatha Christie’s books and characters in the future.