
The Case of Agatha Christie - samclemens
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n24/john-lanchester/the-case-of-agatha-christie
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everdev
> You cannot read such a book, you run through it to see the problem worked
> out

I read dozens of Christie novels in middle school. Somehow I kept getting
hooked by the obvious question: "Who did it?" and gobbled up the book until I
had the answer.

With my last Christie book I decided to skip the 150 pages of "fluff" and go
straight to the last chapter. The immediate gratification allowed me to get
busy with other things, but felt so much less interesting than the delayed
gratification.

It was a point of no return though and I never went back to another Christie
book or another mystery novel.

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umvi
I hope you at least read her books with the biggest payoffs:

And Then There Were None

Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Murder on the Orient Express

The ABC Murders

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steve19
The BBC (it think) produced a mini series of and then there were none
recently. Very, very good.

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howard941
Did Christie take herself and her writing so seriously? I don't know. I'm not
sure it's meant to be highbrow entertainment.

I prefer to imbibe Christie by way of the various TV adaptations. Notably
enjoyable IMO are the first three or four seasons of the PBS Masterpiece
Poirot series with David Suchet as Poirot, the Joan Hickson Marple television
films from the 90s, and the short-lived Partners in Crime series.

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interfixus
_The Murder at the Vicarage_ was the first non childrens' book I ever read,
albeit in a translation to my native language. I was eight at the time, and
found it enjoyable enough, even if it didn't really leave a lasting
impression.

Recently, fifty years later, I tried to reread, solely for nostalgic reasons.
And must confess agreement with Wilson as quoted: The thing was wooden, flat,
and ultimately unreadable - I opted out halfway.

In contrast, a couple of years ago, I read straight through the Peter Wimsey
novels, and absolute found them still worthwhile. Wouldn't have cracked them
at eight, though. 14 or 15 first time around.

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projektir
Funny, The Murder at the Vicarage was the book I started with about a year ago
and I was _hooked_.

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larsga
Like everything else John Lanchester writes, very much worth reading.

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hyperpallium
Am I right in thinking it is impossible to solve an Agatha Christie story
before the end, because crucial evidence is always withheld til then? i.e.
it's not a "fair puzzle".

Also, the only two fans of her work that I have met don't actually like or
engage in the puzzle aspect; they don't try to solve (nor - curiously - even
have a concept of evaluating multiple hypotheses).

These two observations make me wonder if popular detective fiction _isn 't_
puzzle fiction at all...

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projektir
> Am I right in thinking it is impossible to solve an Agatha Christie story
> before the end, because crucial evidence is always withheld til then? i.e.
> it's not a "fair puzzle".

I'm not sure about impossible. There was one story, Peril at End House, where
I have figured out who the murderer was very early on, in the first few
chapters or so. It was a weird feeling of thinking that Poirot was being led
astray for a while.

That being said, as your other comments say, this is not really a goal for me.
If I was serious, I'd lay out the story carefully with pen and paper. But
mostly I'd rather just read the story.

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whatever_dude
Behind a registration wall.

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danso
You can get around the registration by typing in a nonsense address like
`asdfaadsfasdfdsadsff@yahoo.com`

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jaclaz
How dare you use _my_ e-mail address? (and calling it nonsense ...) ;-)

