Christie is consistently dismissed as merely a brilliant plotter of mysteries. But she’s so much more than that
“Agreeing to marry her husband made me feel so powerful … The other suitors thought me simply wonderful, and, of course, it would have been very nice for them to have me. But I’m everything you most dislike and disapprove of, and yet you couldn’t withstand me! My vanity couldn’t hold out against that. It’s so much nicer to be a secret and delightful sin to anybody than to be a feather in his cap. I make you frightfully uncomfortable and stir you up the wrong way the whole time, and yet you adore me madly.”
That’s the vicar’s wife speaking, at the beginning of The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie, a writer too often dismissed as merely a brilliant plotter of mysteries. As I hope the above quote proves, it is a charge that’s grossly unfair. Christie’s books are so much more than great puzzles. Each of her novels demonstrates a profound understanding of people – how they think, feel and behave – all delivered in her crisp, elegant, addictively readable style. While immersed in a Christie mystery, you might not notice the wisdom sprinkled throughout the pages because you’re having too much fun, growling with frustration because you’d love to be able to guess the solution but can’t.
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That’s the vicar’s wife speaking, at the beginning of The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie, a writer too often dismissed as merely a brilliant plotter of mysteries. As I hope the above quote proves, it is a charge that’s grossly unfair. Christie’s books are so much more than great puzzles. Each of her novels demonstrates a profound understanding of people – how they think, feel and behave – all delivered in her crisp, elegant, addictively readable style. While immersed in a Christie mystery, you might not notice the wisdom sprinkled throughout the pages because you’re having too much fun, growling with frustration because you’d love to be able to guess the solution but can’t.
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