Queen of Crime
February 10th, 2010
I asked for and got Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks for Christmas. It sounds fascinating, looking at how Christie drafted her novels, the notes she kept about them, and even two previously unpublished Poirot stories.
But when I looked over what Christie books I’ve read recently, I found that it was only one in the last two and a half years I’ve been keeping track on Goodreads. I’ve read some before that, but I couldn’t tell you which ones. All I could remember is that I liked Poirot and didn’t like Marple.
So I was eager to dig into this volume, since it sounds so much like it could be an insight into the mind of the very prolific writer. A writer that keeps the reader guessing and works in more twists than a pretzel factory. Alas, when I came to first read the book, what did I discover but that the book would be revealing and discussing some of the solutions to the novels. It makes sense, because how can you discuss how the books came to be if not to also discuss the full idea of the book.
At least the author gives a list at the beginning of each chapter of which books he’ll talk about and you can be prepared. I looked over the list of books in the first chapter. Eight novel solutions revealed. And, as far as I can remember, I’ve only read one or two of them. I looked ahead and saw that I had a lot of books to read just to get through the first few chapters. And I would hate to spoil her novels by knowing ahead who murdered whom.
So I made a list and put in a lot of reservations through the library. (I love the free reservation service!) I also went directly to the central library in town to pick some up so I could start right away. I had a fun afternoon digging through to find some of the more obscure, including the play version of Witness for the Prosecution. I decided on a couple that I remembered well enough not to bother reading again now, including One, Two, Buckle My Shoe.
I had a large pile of Agatha Christie books to read, but it would allow me to get through the first three chapters of the Notebooks. As discussed, I read nine in January and this month I have read a lot so far. I’m at the point where I have only two more to read to finish that list, and they are in the volume called Poirot in the Orient, which I just started this morning. It’s got three novels in it, and I don’t remember which I need to read for Chapter 1 and Chapter 3. So I will finish the volume before going back to the Notebooks. I might even be able to read the first three chapters by next week.
But then… I’ll have another list to find, another pile to read. First, I’ll see how the first three chapters go, and decide if it’s really all that big a deal to read the books first.
After all, the few I’ve picked up the last month and a half and I remembered at the beginning that I’ve already read them, I really couldn’t remember the endings, and having already read the books didn’t spoil the enjoyment. I’ll see how it goes!