2x Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie remains a favorite author of mine. It does not matter how many times I have read them, I still enjoy her books and I rewatch the Poirot and Miss Marple series regularly. I am glad I am not alone and it seems that Agatha Christie is still finding her way to people's hearts and even today people enjoy her books and admire her plots and writing skills. 

Recently I read two books related to Agatha Christie, and I would like to share them with you. 

Biography

First of all, I read the new biographie by Lucy Worsley: Agatha Christie, An elusive woman. 

In this biographie Lucy Worsley (who is an excellent historian and writer and I love her books and television programmes) gives us a new perspective on Agatha Christie. The two previous biograhies were published in 1984 and 2007, so it was time for a new one. And in my mind, this is the best one and the definate one. 

Lucy does not shy away from some critisism on Agatha but on the whole tells her story based on the information Agatha gives herself and gives us a rounded, well informed, and interesting portrait of a writer who always downplayed her own writng. 

I love that Lucy Worsley explains that for us, Agatha Christie is associated with nostalgia, but she was writing about her own time and she was for her time a very modern woman. She loved fast cars, was one of the first white woman to surf and was knowlegdable about the up-to-date forensic science. 

I really recommend this book, it is excellent!

Marple

The other book is called Marple, twelve new mysteries, where twelve writers each wrote a new Miss Marple story. 

As always in a collection of stories, there will be one or two you do not really like, but hopefully the majority of the stories are good. I am happy that this was the case!

I loved how for example Val McDermid wrote a story about a murder in the vicarage, told by the vicar, just as in the first Miss Marple book. Tone and style were excellent. I also loved most of the other stories that clevery played with hints to stories and Miss Marple books, and in general were amazing fun. 

The Jade Empress by Jean Kwok saw Miss Marple in Hongkong, in A deadly wedding day by Dreda Say Mitchell Miss Marple teamed up with Miss Bella, a lady from the Carribean island of St. Honoré. Miss Marple's Christmas by Ruth Ware was a nice oldfashioned Miss Marple, Evil in small places by Lucy Foley cleverly played with the contrast between evil from the outside while the real danger is much closer and Murder at the Villa Rosa by Elly Griffiths was also excellent. 

I hated Miss Marple takes Manhattan by Alyssa Cole and The disappearance by Leigh Burdago, since I do not think these authors caught the essense of Miss Marple and completely missed the mark. But then again, others might love these stories. 

I also hate this cover by the way, I think it is hideous, but of course you cannot judge a book by its cover :-) But on the whole, it was a good read and I loved most of the stories. 

Both books were published in 2022.