Kate over at Cross Examining Crime has decided to mark Dame Agatha Christie's 126th birthday with a list of suggestions for first-time Christie readers. She has also issued a challenge to her fellow bloggers to do the same. The challenge in full? To go out on a limb and suggest the best novels to introduce readers to Hercule Poirot, Miss Jane Marple, Tommy & Tuppence Beresford, and Superintendent Battle, as well as the best introduction to Christie's stand-alone novels and thrillers. She would love to know which novels you would recommend and if you are twitter adept (which, like Kate, does not include me) the hastag is #ChristieFirsts
I'm going to offer up two suggestions. First is "Christie the Bev Way"--as near as I can recall this will be the route to a life-long Christie (and mystery) addiction using the books that first introduced me to these various characters and types of books. Except for Jane Marple. I do not suggest that anybody get their first taste of Miss Marple via At Bertram's Hotel (explanation to follow) and I will suggest the second book that I read with our favorite spinster.
1. Hercule Poirot: My first introduction to the great detective with the egg-shaped head and the fabulous moustaches was when I bought a two-book set of Christie novels at our elementary school's book fair. Up till then, my mystery diet had pretty much consisted of Nancy Drew and I had never hear of Agatha Christie before--but the synopses really grabbed me...especially Murder on the Orient Express. I was so glad that this baffling murder with all those interesting suspects and the exotic train stuck in the snowbank was my first taste of Christie. I loved the interviews with the passengers and the finding of the clues--both real and false. I was hooked.
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4. Superintendent Battle: My first introduction to the good superintendent was in Murder Is Easy. But this is more of a cameo appearance and shouldn't really count. My first real experience with Battle was in The Seven Dials Mystery and I was fascinated with him, "Bundle" Brent, and the secret society involved in the mystery.
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6. Thriller: They Came to Baghdad was the first. I have to admit, thrillers and espionage novels have never been a big draw for me, but Christie does tend to have fairly engaging heroines which help. I'm not over the moon on this one, but, as I point out, this path did keep me headed on the detective-genre journey that Nancy Drew started on.
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My alternate suggestion for those detectives who appear more than once? Start with the earliest appearance of each. Whenever possible I do like to read series characters/stories in order. It's nice to see how characters might change over the course of the series. Not that Christie's detectives change a great deal, but I do think there are slight changes over time. One of these days I plan on rereading all of Christie in the order of publication. When I have time for an intense reread....
6 comments:
So many similarities to my own experience and preferences, Bev! I KNEW you were a brilliant colleague! :)
Interesting choices! A Murder is Announced definitely seems to be another popular choice, as does Partners in Crime. Great seeing which Christie's you first read. Not sure I can remember which were my first ones.
Nice choices, I'd be happy with them. I picked Murder is Announced too, and almost chose Seven Dials
I like this approach you took, Bev. I'll join you with my actual first Christie reads.
Poirot - Murder on the Orient Express
Marple - The Body in the Library
Beresfords - The Secret Adversary
Supt. Battle - The Seven Dials Mystery
Col. Race - Cards on the Table
Stand alone - Murder at Hazelmoor (aka The Sittiford Mystery)
Thriller - The Man in the Brown Suit
Story Collection - Hmmm... It was either Parker Pyne, Detective or The Mysterious Mr. Quin. Maybe it was The Regatta Mystery (and other stories). Not too sure about that one.
I don't think any of those were clunkers except for parts of The Secret Adversary which I remember boring me as a high school teen. My high school friend Paul and I tore through the entire works of Agatha Christie over a two year period. Paul read them all and I sort of got sidetracked and began reading other writers just as voraciously. And I never stopped. But I never really finished reading all of Agatha because Paul warned me that some were so awful that I should spare myself the misery of reading them. To this day I still haven't read Passenger to Frankfurt, Elephants Can Remember, Destination Unknown, and the infamous Postern of Fate which Paul referred to as Postern of...something else. HA!
My firsts:
First standalone (and first Christie EVER!): And Then There Were None (although I read it as Ten Little Indians. My copy was published to accompany the 1966 film.)
First Poirot (and my SECOND Christie ever): Murder on the Orient Express
First short story collection (and my THIRD Christie ever): The Mousetrap and other stories.
So at this point I figured that in a mystery: 1) every character could die; 2) every character could be the murderer; and 3) the policeman could be the culprit! Christie set the bar really high.
Here's where it gets more vague:
First Miss Marple: I'm almost positive it was A Caribbean Mystery.
First Tommy and Tuppence: It must have been The Secret Adversary, which I liked much more the first time I read it than any time since.
First Superintendent Battle AND First Colonel Race: Cards on the Table.
First thriller: Gosh, I don't really remember. I believe it was Destination Unknown (which I read as So Many Steps to Death).
John & Brad: Thanks for sharing your actual Christie firsts. I have to say--I'm one of the few people who actually like Destination Unknown. But I'm not a big fan of standard thrillers, so I think I just like what Christie does with the usual tropes. Elephants Can Remember is pretty bad--although I did enjoy the production with David Suchet. A whole (connected) subplot was added that fills out the story in a very nice way. David Suchet and Zoe Wannamaker are excellent as Poirot and Mrs. Oliver. It was nice that they were able to take a sub-par book and make it into a pleasurable viewing experience.
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