I've set myself the goal of reading through the Agatha Christie mysteries. I discovered quite by accident on Instagram that the official website in her memory, hosts an annual Read Christie Challenge. It's been going for a few years but I'll jump aboard, as we're all invited to do. It involves ticking off and discussing the book of the month, without being in a hurry to finish them all.
My mother collected many, many Christie titles throughout my childhood, so I'm in the enviable position of being able to pluck them off her shelf rather than search elsewhere.
I'm quite keen to get started on these. Amor Towles' character, Katey Kontent, from his novel, Rules of Civility has this to say about her mania for reading Agatha Christie.
'You can make what claims you will about the psychological nuance of Proust or the narrative scope of Tolstoy, but you can't argue that Mrs Christie fails to please. Her books are tremendously satisfying. Yes, they're formulaic. Bus she doles out her little surprises at the carefully calibrated pace of a nanny dispensing sweets to the children in her care... Poirot and Marple are not really central characters in the traditional sense. They are simply the agencies of intricate moral equilibrium that was established by the Primary Mover at the dawn of time.'
I'll set them under the following headings, which will gradually swell in time. I will also include the psychological titles she wrote under the pseudonym 'Mary Westmacott.'
Hercule Poirot mysteries
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Miss Jane Marple mysteries
Tommy and Tuppence mysteries
Colonel Race mysteries
Stand-Alone titles
Mary Westmacott titles
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