Agatha Christie, the “Queen of Crime”, has sold more books than any other writer of detective stories. Written in clear, unpretentious English, her books are intriguing puzzles which lead the bemused reader through shoals of red herrings until the murderer’s identity is revealed in the final chapter. She hated violence, and saw detective stories as modern morality tales about “the hunting down of Evil and the triumph of Good”.
Chriistie was born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller on 15 September 1890 at her parents’ home just outside Torquay. On Christmas Eve 1914 she married RFC pilot Archie Christie, but they were separated by the First World War, and were not to live together until 1918. During the war, Christie worked …
Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.