Premium Members Get 10% Off and Earn Rewards Find Out More

Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets from Her Notebooks

Add to Wishlist

Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets from Her Notebooks

Paperback

$16.99

View All Available Formats & Editions

Paperback
$16.99

View All Available Formats & Editions

SHIP THIS ITEM

Qualifies for Free Shipping
PICK UP IN STORE
Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Available within 2 business hours

Want it Today?
Check Store Availability

Related collections and offers

Overview

John Curran reveals the secrets of the world’s greatestmystery writer in Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making, the fascinating follow up to Agatha Christie’s SecretNotebooks featuring moreinsight into Christie’s captivating life story and a new windfall ofChristie’s unpublished work—including letters, archival papers, and a keenly incisive analysis of Christie’s last, unfinished novel.For readers new to Christie’s mysteries and for life-long fans of Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and Tommy and Tuppence, eitherfrom classic Christie novels like Murder on the Orient Express or fromthe popular Masterpiece Theater adaptations, “Curran’s discoveries will shapehow Christie is read.” (Independent on Sunday).

Product Details
About the Author

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062065438
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/11/2012
Pages:	430
Sales rank:	382,186
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 5.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

John Curran is the longtime literary adviser to Agatha Christie’s estate. For many years he edited the official Agatha Christie newsletter and acted as consultant to the National Trust during its restoration of Greenway House, Christie’s Devon home. He lives in Dublin.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Page 1 of

Editorial Reviews

With a greater emphasis on the queen of crime’s inner life, Christie expert Curran reveals both Christie’s dedication to her craft and his own enthusiasm for his subject in his engaging follow-up to his 2010 Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks.....Even 120 years after her birth, the allure of Christie continues, and this volume will rightly prolong her reign.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making
“Not a book to read in one sitting, but one to love: a sumptuous buffet for fans who wish the Queen of Crime had lived forever.” — Kirkus Reviews on Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making
“Curran’s analysis of these notes in the context of Christie’s life is first-rate.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer on Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making
“Curran sheds light on the method of crafting a mystery story by the world’s most popular writer of whodunits.” — Iron Mountain Daily News on Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making
“This is a wonderful companion piece to [Christie’s] autobiography and a must-read for every Agatha Christie fan. It provides a unique look into one of the world’s most successful authors.” — Daily America on Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making

From the Publisher

Curran sheds light on the method of crafting a mystery story by the world’s most popular writer of whodunits.

Iron Mountain Daily News on Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making

Curran’s analysis of these notes in the context of Christie’s life is first-rate.

Cleveland Plain Dealer on Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making

This is a wonderful companion piece to [Christie’s] autobiography and a must-read for every Agatha Christie fan. It provides a unique look into one of the world’s most successful authors.

Daily America on Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making

Curran sheds light on the method of crafting a mystery story by the world’s most popular writer of whodunits.

Iron Mountain Daily News on Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making

This is a wonderful companion piece to [Christie’s] autobiography and a must-read for every Agatha Christie fan. It provides a unique look into one of the world’s most successful authors.

Daily America on Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making

Curran’s analysis of these notes in the context of Christie’s life is first-rate.

Cleveland Plain Dealer on Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making

"This is a wonderful companion piece to [Christie’s] autobiography and a must-read for every Agatha Christie fan. It provides a unique look into one of the world’s most successful authors."

on Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making - Daily America

Interest in Agatha Christie's works continues unabated 35 years after her death. Curran is an archivist, Christie expert, and literary adviser to the Christie estate who in 2005 discovered 73 of the writer's notebooks in a cupboard in her Devon home while he was advising the National Trust on its restoration. He began to mine the notebooks for insights into Christie's works and published Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks (2009), which included two previously unpublished short stories, excerpts from the notebooks, and Curran's comments placing the excerpts in context for the reader. The present volume follows the same pattern. Excerpts from the notebooks (dashed-off notes, brief plot or character ideas, fragments of writing) are filtered through Curran's extensive knowledge of Christie's works, shedding light on the writer's creative process. Also included are a previously unpublished Miss Marple story and an essay by Christie on her attitude toward her character Hecule Poirot. VERDICT Not for those who simply seek a good mystery, but recommended to avid Christie fans and researchers wanting deeper knowledge of her life and works.—Alison M. Lewis, Drexel Univ., Philadelphia

Library Journal

Following Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks (2009), which scrutinized the early stages of some two-dozen novels by the legendary mystery novelist, Christie expert Curran returns to exhume and analyze selected entries from her 73 notebooks dealing with dozens of other novels and stories. "Selected" is the key word, since the material presented is by no means exhaustive, and often thematically rearranged into categories like "Unused Ideas, 1-4" and "Agatha Christie and Poison." Curran's shaping editorial hand is inevitable because the notebooks are so chaotic. Christie, whose meticulously plotted detective stories present her as a master of logic and detail, could scatter undated entries on a given novel across several different notebooks, and her handwriting presented distinct challenges to her editor. Her preference for tight plotting, a deceptive but generous use of clues, a limited array of stock characters and a neutral, highly serviceable dialogue and descriptive prose are too well-known to be further illuminated here, but Curran produces some welcome surprises. His selection reprints a hitherto unpublished courtroom climax to The Mysterious Affair at Styles, an earlier version of "The Red Signal" and an alternate version of "The Case of the Caretaker's Wife." He describes a never-staged dramatization of The Secret of Chimneys, reveals the two quite different motives for murder in the British and American editions of Three Act Tragedy and notes that Christie intended to publish Sleeping Murder under the title Cover Her Face until P.D. James anticipated her in the long interval between Sleeping Murder's composition and its publication. Curran's single most important general revelation is Christie's fondness for playing with unpromisingly skeletal ideas until they turned into the high concepts for which she is best remembered. Not a book to read in one sitting, but one to love: a sumptuous buffet for fans who wish the Queen of Crime had lived forever.

Kirkus Reviews

Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets from Her Notebooks

Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets from Her Notebooks

Paperback

Paperback

Related collections and offers

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Customer Reviews

Related Searches

Explore More Items

Related collections and offers

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Related Subjects

Customer Reviews