.......... From the first moment I learned to read, books were my passion. I was never without a book. Then when I discovered murder mysteries, I devoured them. Out of all the mystery writers, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Agatha Christie. She had me sitting on the edge of my chair right to the end. With most mystery writers, I could figure out who was the murderer about third way into the book. But not Agatha Christie's mysteries. Not until the very end. I have most of her books. Many have been reread several times.

Agatha Christie had been born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller in 1890. Little Agatha was home schooled by her mother, then governesses. Since she was alone alot, she learned to play games by herself.
In 1914, she married Archie Christie, one of the first pilots in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I. After her husband fell in love with another woman, they divorced. She eventually met and married Max Mallowan, an archaecologist, in 1930. Agatha went on expeditions with Max.



Agatha Christie's most famous detective is Hercule Poirot. He was from Belgium and was with the Belgian police until he retired in 1904. He then began taking on private cases. It would have been a shame if, with his brilliant mind, he had quit "detectiving" all together. Poirot had a "side-kick" in Arthur Hastings, who he trusted and considered a true friend. Hastings was to Poirot what Watson was to Sherlock Holmes. Hastings gave this description of Poirot in "The Mysterious Affair at Styles".

"I came across a man in Belgium once, a very famous detective, and he quite inflamed me. He was a marvellous little fellow. He used to say that all good detective work was a mere matter of method. My system is based on his though of course I have progressed rather further. He was a funny little man, a great dandy, but wonderfully clever." and "Poirot was an extraordinary-looking little man. He was hardly more than five feet four inches, but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound".

Poirot and Hastings shared rooms until Hastings got married. It is Hastings who is "documenting" most of the tales. George became Poirot's butler and Miss Lemon came as his secretary.
Hastings had been a captain in World War I, but had been sent home to "convalescence", where he ran into Poirot and they started their adventures together. Poirot said about Hastings,

"Hastings was occasionally of an embecility to make one afraid", and he had "a lamentable absence of order and method". But he also said, "Hastings has a knack of stumbling over the truth unawares-without noticing it himself".

Agatha Christie's other mystery solver was Jane Marple. Miss Marple was an elderly spinster. Some remarks made about her are, "...a dithering old maid who is all caught up in her knitting", and she has been called "a nasty old cat".
Jane Marple is described as tall and thin with lots of snowy white hair, pale blue eyes, and "a pink crinkled face". She enjoys birdwatching and gardening. She was 74 years old when she first appeared in "Murder at the Vicarage". The vicar, Leonard Clement , said about Miss Marple, "in the art of seeing without being seen, Miss Marple has no rival".

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	1920	The Mysterious Affair at Styles
	1922	The Secret Adversary
	1923	Murder on the Links
	1923	Poirot Investigates
	1923	The Underdog and Other Stories
	1924	Witness for the Prosecution
	1924	The Golden Ball and Other Stories
	1924	The Man in the Brown Suit
	1925	The Secret of Chimneys
	1925	Three blind Mice and Other stories
	1926	The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
	1927	The Big Four
	1928	The Mystery of the Blue Train
	1928	The Seven Dials Mystery
	1928	The Tuesday Club Murders
	1929	Partners in Crime
	1930	The Murder at the Vicarage
	1931	Murder at Hazelmoor
	1931	Dead Man's Mirror
	1931	Peril at End House
	1932	Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective
	1932	The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories
	1933	Thirteen at Dinner
	1933	Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
	1934	Murder on the Orient Express
	1934	Murder in Three Acts
	1935	Death in the Air
		The A.B.C. Murders
	1935	Murder in Mesopotamia
	1936	Cards on the Table
	1937	Poirot Loses a Client
	1937	Death on the Nile
	1937	Appointment with Death
	1938	A Holiday for Murder
	1938	Easy to Kill
	1939	And Then There Were None
	1939	Sad Cypress
	1939	The Labors of Hercules
	1940	The Patriotic Murders
	1940	Evil Under the Sun
	1941	N or M?
	1941	The Body in the Library
	1941	Murder in Retrospect
	1942	The Moving Finger
	1943	Remembered Death
	1944	Death Comes as the End
	1944	Towards Zero
	1946	The Hollow
	1946	Come Tell Me How You Live
	1948	There is a Tide....
	1948	Crooked House
	1950	A Murder is Announced
	1951	They Came to Baghdad
	1951	Mrs. McGinty's Dead
	1952	Murder with Mirrors
	1953	Funerals are Fatal
	1953	A Pocket Full of Rye
	1954	So Many Steps to Death
	1955	Hickory Dickory Death
	1956	Dead Man's Folly
	1957	What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!
	1958	Ordeal By Innocence
	1959	Cat Among the Pigeons
	1961	The Pale Horse
	1962	The Mirror Crack'd
	1963	The Clocks
	1964	A Caribbean Mystery
	1965	At Bertram's Hotel
	1966	Third Girl
	1967	Endless Night
	1968	By the Pricking of My Thumbs
	1969	Hallowe'en Party
	1970	Passengers to Frankfurt
	1971	Nemesis
	1972	Elephants Can Remember
	1973	Postern of Fate
	1975	Curtain
	1976	Sleeping Murder
	1977	An Autobiography