Why I Love Agatha Christie and Her World of Crime

I remember I was looking up the bookshelves in my school’s library, trying to find some fiction to read. Exams had just been over and so, I wanted to spend my time immersed in stories rather than studies. I came across a few books by this author named “Agatha Christie”. Incidentally, just a few days ago, I had asked my father who Agatha Christie was and he replied in a very simple manner that she was an author who wrote crime fiction. One of the books available in my school was “And Then There Were None”, and I picked it just because I liked the title. When I brought the book home, my father told me that it was a good choice. And boy was that true. Till then, I had not read anything like that. From the way the characters were introduced to the manner in which the surroundings were described, everything pointed out that something dark is lurking behind the shadows. Needless to say, I was engrossed in the story from the very beginning and by the time I finished the book, I knew that I was an absolute fan. With all my excitement of just finishing a fantastic book, I told my father about my newfound love for Agatha Christie’s writing only to realize that he already was a huge admirer of her work. It felt really special and surreal when I realized that the love and affection that I feel for Christie’s work is something that I shared with my father.

Afterward, I started to look for her books almost everywhere. I started reading her books back to back. Some of the most notable ones were “Sad Cypress”, “Lord Edgware Dies”, and “The ABC Murders” which introduced me to my favorite detective - Monsieur Hercule Poirot. There was nothing humble about Poirot. He knew that he was the best and most intelligent person around equipped with his “little grey cells”, and he was never sorry for it. Somehow, one wouldn’t expect to like such a character but I grew to love him. His funny little quips to his friend, Captain Arthur Hastings, about his English ways were very endearing. His eccentricity about cleanliness, symmetry, and order had been iterated and reiterated many times in the books. I really started to love and look forward to the last act of every Poirot book where he’d call every other character and unravel the mystery. Everything that had happened throughout the story would be dissected and pieced back together in a manner that would be make everything perfectly clear, all thanks to the cunningness of Monsieur Poirot. Creating such an eccentric, yet lovable character spoke volumes about the writing prowess of Agatha Christie. “The Murder on the Orient Express” and “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” would always remain my favorite works of Christie featuring Poirot. I was blown away by the story in both these novels and I still haven’t gone through the same set of emotions ever since in a crime fiction novel. Agatha Christie’s talent for story-telling can also be experienced in novels like “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans” and “Crooked House”. Both these novels had very intriguing storylines and I never would have guessed the ending for both these stories.

It stands to mention that her autobiography, “An Autobiography” is extremely well-written. She wrote her autobiography over a period of 15 years, but as a reader, I felt that it was written in one sitting. The coherency and consistency that I experienced while reading it were phenomenal. The writing never felt segmented. It was very natural, almost as if someone was telling you about their life experiences where one story flowed smoothly into the next. There were stories from her childhood, her teens, her older years, and everything in between. Most importantly, the story was the story of her life, and never in those many pages, did I feel like I was reading about a well-established author. The narration was very down-to-earth, but captivating and engaging at the same time. It was a close-up view of her life and I enjoyed every second of it. I read her autobiography at a phase in my life when I was not able to appreciate any of the non-fiction that I was reading. I found them all a little too preachy or a little too over my head. But reading her autobiography cemented my belief that Agatha Christie can make me read even when I did not want to read anything else.

What I love about Agatha Christie’s writings the most is that even after all these years, her magic still holds strong. Her stories had a very human touch. The investigations and the big reveal at the end were never made too technical. The stories were narrated such that everyone and anyone can follow what was going around and yet had an amazing underlying plot waiting to be uncovered. Several people read her stories now and think that there are a lot of common crime fiction tropes in these stories. But those tropes have become commonplace only now but were not so when the books were written. Her stories were a product of her time and ever since they are one of a kind. Many modern crime thrillers have been inspired by her works. Her novels have been adapted as radio shows, TV series, and movies. What she did was more than just write stories. She created characters like Poirot, Hastings, Miss Marple, Ariadne Oliver, and many more, who will stay with you even though it has been many years since you have read their stories.