Obituary:

Eric Ambler (1909-1998), an English thriller writer and even wrote screenplays died at the age of 89 on 23rd October. His major works are Dark Frontier, Epitaph For a Spy, The Mask of Dimitrias, A Coffin for Dimitrias, Journey into fear, The Light of Day, The Levanter, The Care of Time and The Night Comes. His screenplays include The Wreck of the Mary Deare and The Cruel Sea. His autobiography, Here Lies, was published in 1986.  Robert Ludlum (Ludlum, Robert (1927-2001), is an American author of novels of suspense and intrigue. Born in New York City, he was one of the bestselling novelist of our time. More>>

AGATHA CHRISTIE'S PAGE

Agatha Christie says>> Praises for her books>>
Entire cast of characters of the four plays by Agatha Christie>>	Appointment with Death Cards on the Table

A Profile:
                  The Queen of detective fiction, Agatha Christie was born in Torquay (click here to know about Torquay) in the year 1890. She had her education at home. In 1914, she got married to Archibald Christie. Her marriage broke up in 1926 and she got married to the archaeologist Max Mallowan. She made a journey with her husband to the excavation sites in Syria and Iraq and wrote about those experiences in Come Tell me How You Live (1946).

She began her writing career in the year1920 when her first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles featuring the little Belgian detective Hercule Poirot was published by Bogley Head. Since then, she did not look back and continued on writing masterpieces of the detective genre like The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) , And Then There were None (1939) , Murder on The Orient Express (1934), Murder in Vicarage (1930) and Death on the Nile (1937) and success came her way. Beside Poirot, her other major sleuths were Miss Jane Marple, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford and Parker Pyne.

She also wrote six romantic novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott but they are no as widely read as her detective novels. She even wrote her autobiography titled An Autobiography in the 1977. The first of her detective novels to dramatized was The Murder of Roger Ackroyd under the name Alibi. But her most famous play is Mousetrap which is still running all over the world and is the longest running play in the history. Her other plays in book form are Witness for Prosecution, And then there were none, Appointment with Death, The Hollow, Go back for Murder and Verdict. 

Agatha Christie was made a Dame in the year 1971. The last detective novel she wrote was The Postern of Fate featuring the husband and wife, Tommy and Tuppence but the last books to be published were The Curtain (featuring Hercule Poirot)  and  Sleeping Murder  (featuring Miss Marple). They were both published posthumously. She managed to kill Poirot in this last case of his but Miss Marple was seen looking out on the harbor at Torquay at the end of Sleeping Murder. 

Agatha Christie died in the year 1976. She was buried in Cholsey Churchyard Cholsey, Oxfordshire, England.

Quotable Quotes:

"An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have: the older she gets, the more interested he is in her."- Agatha Christie

Praises for her Books:

Death Comes as the End
'Startlingly new.....my already insensate admiration for her leaps even higher.'- Observer

'More realistic than many a thriller-writer's idea of London.'- Evening Standard

'A fascinating problem....baffling the most perspicacious reader.'- Scotsman

Cat Among the Pigeons
'A completely delightful mixture of Prince Ali's jewels, smuggled from Rabat to England, and the goings-on at an exclusive girls' school.....'- San Francisco Chronicle

'Agatha Christie at her best.'- The New York Times Review

'An Honest-to Betsy Christie Twister.' - Saturday Review

Appointment with Death Click on the picture of the book to buy this title

'Poirot has surpassed himself! Never before has he been so brilliant, so accurate, so fair and so logical.' - Evening News

'Twice as brilliant as Death on the Nile, which was entirely brilliant.' - Observer

 Murder in the Mews

'All four tales are admirable entertainment...her solutions are unexpected and satisfying.'- Daily Mail

A Murder is Announced

'The most ingenious story she has written.'

'A super- smooth Christie.'

Dead Man's Folly

'The game begins but the victim isn't 'playing dead'. For her, the hunt is over. For Hercule Poirot it is only just beginning....'

Elephants can Remember

'A classic example of the ingenious three-card trick that she has been playing on us for so many years.'- Sunday Express

'Splendid.....she tells us what we want to know and nothing that is irrelevant.'- The Times

Cards on the Table Click on the picture of the book to buy this title

'The finest murder story of her career..Mrs Christie has never been more ingenious.' - Daily Mail

A Caribbean Mystery

'The marvel is that it remains true today that there is no more cunning player of the murder game than Agatha Christie.'- Julian Simmons, Sunday Times

By the Pricking of my Thumbs

'The most macabre and eerie Christie I have read for a long time.'- Sunday Express

Come Tell Me How You Live (A Memoir)

'Perfectly delightful...colourful, lively  and occasionally touching and thought-provoking.'- Charles Osborne, Books and Bookmen

'Good and enjoyable....she has a delightful light touch.'- Marghanita Laski, Country Life

Agatha Christie: An Autobiography

'A wonderful book....written with a delight in the gradual unfolding of seventy-five years through the eyes of an exceptional old lady- and writer.' - Financial Times

'The best thing she has ever written. - Woman's Own

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Amazing Facts: 

*Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of famous sleuths such as Perry Mason, Bertha Cool and Donald Lam  wrote under these three pseudonyms A. A. Fair, Doug Selby and the D.A.

*John Creasey wrote 562 books under these 28 pseudonyms: Gordon Ashe, M.E.Cooce, Margaret Cooce, Henry St. John Cooper, Norman Deane, Elise Fecamps, Robert Caine Frazer, Patrick Gill, Michael Halliday, Charles Hogarth, Brian Hope, Colin Hughes, Kyle Hunt, Abel Mann, Peter Manton, J.J. Marric, James Marsden, Richard Martin, Rodney Mattheson, Anthony Morton, Ken Ranger, William K. Reilly, Tex Riley, Jeremy York.

Famous Literary Sleuths and their Creators:

1. Hercule Poirot- Agatha Christie
2. Miss Jane Marple- Agatha Christie
3. Nero Wolfe- Rex Stout
4. Perry Mason- Erle Stanley Gardner
5. Adam Daglish- P.D. James
6. George Smiley- John Le Carre
7. Maigret- Georges Simenon
8. Lord Peter Wimsey- Dorothy Leigh Sayers
9. Frank and Joe Hardy- Franklin W. Dixon
10.Inspector Alleyn- Ngaio Marsh
11.Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford- Ruth Rendell


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Links to my favorite Agatha Christie sites

The official website of Agatha Christie. Check this one out!!!
     http://www.agathachristie.com
Another wonderful website dedicated to Agatha Christie. Its great!
     http://www.mumbo.20m.com
Simply a great site with its discussion board on Agatha Christie, her life and works as well as on other great mystery writers. Highly recommended!!
     http://www.mysterynet.com/community/discuss.shtml
Another wonderful site where you discuss about Agatha Christie
     http://pub76.ezboard.com/btheagathachristieforums

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