Agatha Christie - the Queen of Crime

Sushmita Dutta

“Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions.” [ Hercule Poirot in ‘The ABC Murders’] Whenever we speak of crime thrillers, mystery novels and detective stories, one name almost immediately crops in our mind. It’s that of a lady, whose books had competition only from the Bible in the ‘Best-selling Books of All Time’ category. She brought to life unforgettable characters like Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple on the pages of her books. Yes, she is none other than the ‘Queen of Crime’- Dame Agatha Christie. Agatha Christie was born on 15th September 1890, at Devon in England. She never attended school and was educated at home by governesses and private tutors. She was an extremely shy child and could never express herself. It is believed that she had dyslexia and it was extremely difficult for her to understand texts. Her mother, Clarissa Miller, had initiated her into music. But her shyness and stage fright never let her continue with music. Her mother encouraged her to write and Christie further explored her writing talents and began writing short stories. In 1920, Agatha Christie published her first novel, ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’. With this story, she introduced the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.She got married to Archibald Christie in 1914, but the marriage did not work out and she got divorced in 1928. During this period she was working as a nurse. It is during this time she learnt about medicines, poisons and its antidotes etc. Later, she used them in her novels. In 1926, when she came to know of her husband’s affair, Agatha Christie disappeared from her house. For almost eleven days, no one had a clue as to her whereabouts. Her fans, who were by then enticed by her novels, created a huge uproar over her disappearance. Eleven days later, she was identified in a hotel in Yorkshire, where she was staying in the name of Mrs Teresa Neele. After her divorce with Archibald, Christie went on several trips especially to the Middle –Eastern and African countries. It is during these journeys that she met the famous archaeologist Max Mallowan. In 1930, she again got married to Max Mallowan. This marriage lasted her entire lifetime and was pretty much happier than the previous one. After her first novel, the character of Hercule Poirot became an instant hit with public. Agatha Christie published 33 detective and 54 short stories with Poirot as the lead. Some of the famous Poirot stories are – ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’, ‘The Murder on the Orient Express’, ‘The ABC Murders’, ‘The Mystery of the Blue Train’ etc. Agatha Christie’s other character Miss Marple was an elderly spinster, who is shown as an amateur detective. The first time Miss Marple made her appearance was in the story ‘The Tuesday Night Club’ in 1927. But her regular appearance began in 1930 with the novel ‘The Murder at the Vicarage’. Agatha Christie has written twelve novels with Miss Marple as the lead character. The famous Miss Marple books include ‘A Murder is Announced’, ‘A Pocketful of Rye’ and others. No other novelist barring perhaps Arthur Conan Doyle has ever been so successful with the ‘whodunit’ genre. Agatha Christie also wrote a lot of other short stories and novels, which did not feature her most, established characters. One such famous story is the ‘Ten Little Niggers’ or better known as ‘Then There Were None’. This story was converted into a famous blockbuster movie later. It is said the Hindi movie ‘Gumnaam’ was influenced by this novel. The Guinness Book of World Record has referred Agatha Christie as the best selling author ever with almost four billion copies sold. Her stage play ‘The Mousetrap’ has a world record of being the longest running play. It opened at the Ambassador Theatre in London on 25th November 1952 and is still running successfully. The play has recorded almost 23,000 performances. After 1971, health did not permit Agatha Christie to continue much with her literary works. In 1975, Christie handed over the rights of her most successful venture, ‘The Mousetrap’, to her grandson Mathew Prichard. After creating an enormous fan following through her books and plays, Agatha Christie left this mortal world on 12th January, 1976 at the age of 86. During her lifetime, Agatha Christie was highly felicitated. In 1971 she received the highest honour from the British Empire. She was felicitated with the title of Dame Commander. Agatha Christie took the genre of crime and thriller to a far greater level. Even after so many years, Poirot and Marple are a hit with book-lovers. The author’s works will remain etched in the hearts of all detective story lovers. May the Queen of Crime live forever through her works!