Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making

Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making

by John Curran
Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making

Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making

by John Curran

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Overview

Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks is the fascinating exploration of the contents of Agatha Christie’s long hidden notebooks, including illustrations, analyses, and two previously unpublished Hercule Poirot short stories. Not only will Christie’s legions of ardent fans find a treasure chest of new material from the author of such classics as And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express, and Death on the Nile, but Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks is also a must-read tutorial for writers who want to learn the intricacies of constructing crime novels.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780061988370
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 02/15/2011
Pages: 496
Sales rank: 113,388
Product dimensions: 5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

John Curran is the longtime literary adviser to Agatha Christie’s estate. For many years he edited the official Agatha Christie newsletter and acted as consultant to the National Trust during its restoration of Greenway House, Christie’s Devon home. He lives in Dublin. 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 9

Notes 11

Foreword 13

Preface 15

Introduction 21

1 A Murder is Announced: The Beginning of a Career 29

2 Dumb Witness: The Evidence of the Notebooks 41

Exhibit A The Detection Club 60

3 The Moving Finger: Agatha Christie at Work 66

Exhibit B Other Crime Writers in the Notebooks 102

4 Cat among the Pigeons: The Nursery Rhyme Murders 105

Exhibit C Agatha Christie in the Notebooks 159

5 Blind Man's Buff: A Game of Murder 162

Exhibit D True Crime in the Notebooks 191

6 The Girl in the Train: Murder Aboard 195

7 Elephants Can Remember: Murder in Retrospect 217

Exhibit E N or M? a Titles Quiz 257

8 Destination Unknown: Murder Abroad 259

9 In a Glass Darkly: The Unknown Christie 286

Exhibit F The House of Dreams: Unused Ideas 303

10 Sanctuary: A Holiday for Murder 310

11 Poirot Investigates: The Labours of Hercules 346

Exhibit G Murder is Easy: Seeds of Inspiration 369

12 The Body in the Library: Murder by Quotation 373

Appendix: Swan Song - Two Last Stories 423

The Capture of Cerberus 425

The Incident of the Dog's Ball 453

Agatha Christie Chronology 485

Index of Titles 491

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