All About Agatha (christie)

This is about as close as an Agatha Christie novel gets to an episode of "The Love Boat," and in some ways it gets kind of close! Climb aboard as we journey from England to South Africa with our plucky heroine Anne Beddingfeld, getting embroiled in murder, diamonds, espionage, and of course romance along the way.... Are there all sorts of troubling implications in this rollicking adventure of both the gender and race relations variety? Of course! Let's try untangling it together.

Our second short story episode! And while there's more than enough tragedy to go around in the original version--including a(n arguably) coerced confession and incredibly poor doctoring skills, the Suchet adaptation may be more aptly titled The Comedy at Marsdon Manor. So many hijinks!

So... there is surprisingly little golf in this Poirot novel, given its title, but there are many, many other things: an unfriendly rivalry between detectives; not one, but two romantic subplots; and lots of “continental” flair. Oh my. Come play with us… not in a creepy-haunted-hotel-twins kind of a way, but in a tumbling-vaudevillian-twins kind of way. I.e., goofy, and dopey, but more fun.

Our first "interstitial" episode between novels. Brush up on your Nineteenth Century detective novels and clichéd Twentieth Century portrayals of Asian culture. Also, take a closer look with us at the televised adaptation: witness the softening of Poirot from page to screen, and some crucial differences in the Poirot/Hastings relationship. Poor Hastings.

Time for Dame Agatha's very first thriller featuring the delightful detective duo Tommy & Tuppence taking on the devious criminal mastermind "Mr. Brown." Was Tuppence modeled at least somewhat on young Agatha herself? Is "hanging a lantern" an appropriate technique to use in a novel? Do American teenagers really know French *that* well? All these answers... and more!

In which we dive into the delicious world of David Suchet and Hugh Fraser as Poirot and Hastings. (Shout out to Philip Jackson as Inspector Japp, too.) We also introduce you to our ranking system, which involves an extended discussion about some of the more difficult aspects of enjoying Christie's fiction from a Twenty-First Century perspective....

Episode 1! In which we tackle Agatha Christie's first published novel--and first Poirot novel--The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Deep-dive with us as we try to figure out how Christie crafted this cunning "puzzle mystery," and why one woman would regularly ingest coffee, cocoa, tonic, and sleeping powders all in one night.... Come for the kissing cousins, stay for the discussion of Holmes/Watson homage (a.k.a. fan-fic).

A preview of the upcoming podcast. Also: happy 126th birthday, Dame Agatha!