Editing Agatha Christie (section)

=== Works of fiction ===
==== Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple ====

[[File:American-13-for-Dinner.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Drawing of a gentleman in a dinner suit twirling his large moustache, illustrating the Christie story "13 for Dinner"|An early depiction of detective Hercule Poirot, from ''[[The American Magazine]]'', March 1933]]

Christie's first published book, ''[[The Mysterious Affair at Styles]]'', was released in 1920 and introduced the detective [[Hercule Poirot]], who appeared in 33 of her novels and more than 50 short stories.

Over the years, Christie grew tired of Poirot, much as Doyle did with Sherlock Holmes.<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{Rp|230}} By the end of the 1930s, Christie wrote in her diary that she was finding Poirot "insufferable", and by the 1960s she felt he was "an egocentric creep".<ref name=":19">{{cite book |last=Gross |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/newoxfordbooklit00gros_551 |title=The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0199543410 |page=[https://archive.org/details/newoxfordbooklit00gros_551/page/n281 267] |url-access=limited}}</ref> Thompson believes Christie's occasional antipathy to her creation is overstated, and points out that "in later life she sought to protect him against misrepresentation as powerfully as if he were her own flesh and blood".<ref name="thompson"/>{{Rp|282}} Unlike Doyle, she resisted the temptation to kill her detective off while he was still popular.<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{Rp|222}} She married off Poirot's "[[Dr. Watson|Watson]]", Captain [[Arthur Hastings]], in an attempt to trim her cast commitments.<ref name="Auto1993"/>{{Rp|268}}

[[Miss Jane Marple]] was introduced in a series of short stories that began publication in December 1927 and were subsequently collected under the title ''[[The Thirteen Problems]]''.<ref name="thompson"/>{{Rp|278}} Marple was a genteel, elderly spinster who solved crimes using analogies to English village life.<ref name=":16"/>{{Rp|47, 74–76}} Christie said, "Miss Marple was not in any way a picture of my grandmother; she was far more fussy and spinsterish than my grandmother ever was", but her autobiography establishes a firm connection between the fictional character and Christie's step-grandmother Margaret Miller ("Auntie-Grannie"){{Refn|Christie's familial relationship to Margaret Miller (née West) was complex. As well as being Christie's maternal great-aunt, Miller was Christie's father's step-mother as well as Christie's mother's foster mother and step-mother-in-law{{snd}}hence the appellation "Auntie-Grannie".|group=lower-alpha}} and her "Ealing cronies".<ref name="Auto1993"/>{{Rp|422–23}}<ref name="BBCdustyClues">{{cite news |last=Mills |first=Selina |date=15 September 2008 |title=Dusty clues to Christie unearthed |work=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7612000/7612534.stm |access-date=29 April 2020 |archive-date=28 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120328000220/http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7612000/7612534.stm |url-status=live}}</ref> Both Marple and Miller "always expected the worst of everyone and everything, and were, with almost frightening accuracy, usually proved right".<ref name="Auto1993"/>{{rp|422}} Marple appeared in 12 novels and 20 stories.

During the Second World War, Christie wrote two novels, ''[[Curtain (novel)|Curtain]]'' and ''[[Sleeping Murder]]'', featuring Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, respectively. Both books were sealed in a [[bank vault]], and she made over the copyrights by deed of gift to her daughter and her husband to provide each with a kind of insurance policy.<ref name="thompson"/>{{rp|344}}<ref name=":16"/>{{rp|190}} Christie had a heart attack and a serious fall in 1974, after which she was unable to write.<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{rp|372}} Her daughter authorised the publication of ''Curtain'' in 1975,<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{rp|375}} and ''Sleeping Murder'' was published posthumously in 1976.<ref name=":16"/>{{rp|376}} These publications followed the success of the [[Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film)|1974 film version]] of ''Murder on the Orient Express''.<ref name="Auto1993"/>{{Rp|497}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mainecrimewriters.com/2018/01/25/dame-agatha-and-her-orient-express/ |title=Dame Agatha and Her Orient Express |last=Vaughan |first=Susan |date=25 January 2018 |website=Maine Crime Writers |access-date=20 March 2019 |archive-date=13 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613072515/https://mainecrimewriters.com/2018/01/25/dame-agatha-and-her-orient-express/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

Shortly before the publication of ''Curtain'', Poirot became the first fictional character to have an obituary in ''The New York Times'', which was printed on page one on 6 August 1975.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.poirot.us/obituary.php |title=Poirot's Obituary |last=Hobbs |first=JD |date=6 August 1975 |publisher=Poirot |access-date=11 April 2020 |place=US |archive-date=1 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200501223503/http://www.poirot.us/obituary.php |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/06/archives/hercule-poirot-is-dead-famed-belgian-detective-hercule-poirot-the.html |title=Hercule Poirot Is Dead; Famed Belgian Detective |last=Lask |first=Thomas |date=6 August 1975 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=16 October 2020 |place=US |archive-date=7 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107112341/http://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/06/archives/hercule-poirot-is-dead-famed-belgian-detective-hercule-poirot-the.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Christie never wrote a novel or short story featuring both Poirot and Miss Marple.<ref name=":16"/>{{Rp|375}} In a recording discovered and released in 2008, Christie revealed the reason for this: "Hercule Poirot, a complete egoist, would not like being taught his business or having suggestions made to him by an elderly spinster lady. Hercule Poirot{{snd}}a professional sleuth{{snd}}would not be at home at all in Miss Marple's world."<ref name="BBCdustyClues"/>

In 2013, the Christie family supported the release of a new Poirot story, ''[[The Monogram Murders]]'', written by British author [[Sophie Hannah]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.agathachristie.com/the-monogram-murders |title=The Monogram Murders |publisher=Agatha Christie.com |access-date=11 April 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403183934/http://www.agathachristie.com/the-monogram-murders/ |archive-date=3 April 2015}}</ref> Hannah later published several more Poirot mysteries, ''[[Closed Casket (novel)|Closed Casket]]'' in 2016, ''[[The Mystery of Three Quarters]]'' in 2018.<ref name=":7">{{cite web |url=https://www.agathachristie.com/news/2016/an-interview-with-sophie-hannah |title=An interview with Sophie Hannah |website=The Home of Agatha Christie |date=22 August 2016 |language=en-US |access-date=29 April 2020 |archive-date=31 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190831125357/https://www.agathachristie.com/news/2016/an-interview-with-sophie-hannah |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=2020 |title=The Mystery of Three Quarters |url=https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062792341/the-mystery-of-three-quarters/ |access-date=29 April 2020 |website=[[HarperCollins]] Publishers |archive-date=13 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180813045824/http://www.harpercollins.com/9780062792341/the-mystery-of-three-quarters/ |url-status=live}}</ref> ''The Killings at Kingfisher Hill'' in 2020, ''Hercule Poirot's Silent Night'' in 2023 with a sixth instalment being commissioned in 2024.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/agatha-christie-fans-gather-in-golden-age-dress-for-harpercollins-sold-out-a-christie-for-christmas | title=Agatha Christie fans gather in Golden Age dress for HarperCollins' sold-out 'A Christie for Christmas' }}</ref>

In 2021, following the success of Sophie Hannah's outings with Poirot, the Christie family supported the release of a collection of Miss Marple short stories. Called ''Marple'', the collection was released in 2022 and each story was written by a different author. This included  Naomi Alderman, Leigh Bardugo, Alyssa Cole, Lucy Foley, Elly Griffiths, Natalie Haynes, Jean Kwok, Val McDermid, Karen M. McManus, Dreda Say Mitchell, Kate Mosse and Ruth Ware.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.agathachristie.com/en/news/2021/introducing-a-new-collection-starring-jane-marple | title=Introducing a New Collection Starring Jane Marple | date=31 August 2021 }}</ref>

==== Formula and plot devices ====

Early in her career, a reporter noted that "her plots are possible, logical, and always new".<ref name=":6"/> According to Hannah, "At the start of each novel, she shows us an apparently impossible situation and we go mad wondering 'How can this be happening?'. Then, slowly, she reveals how the impossible is not only possible but the only thing that could have happened."<ref name=":7"/>

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| caption1          = [[Abney Hall]], Cheshire, the inspiration for Christie novel settings such as Chimneys and Stonygates
| caption2          = Christie used inspiration from her stay at the [[Old Cataract Hotel]] on the banks of the [[River Nile]] in [[Aswan]], Egypt, for her 1937 novel ''[[Death on the Nile]]''.
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Christie developed her storytelling techniques during what has been called the [[Golden Age of Detective Fiction|"Golden Age"]] of detective fiction.<ref name=":20"/> Author Dilys Winn called Christie "the doyenne of Coziness", a sub-genre which "featured a small village setting, a hero with faintly aristocratic family connections, a plethora of red herrings and a tendency to commit homicide with sterling silver letter openers and poisons imported from Paraguay".<ref>{{cite book |last=Winn |first=Dilys |title=Murder Ink: The Mystery Reader's Companion |publisher=[[Workman Publishing]] |year=1977 |location=New York |page=3}}</ref> At the end, in a Christie hallmark, the detective usually gathers the surviving suspects into one room, explains the course of their deductive reasoning, and reveals the guilty party; but there are exceptions where it is left to the guilty party to explain all (such as ''[[And Then There Were None]]'' and [[Endless Night (novel)|''Endless Night'']]).<ref name="me">{{cite journal |last=Mezel |first=Kathy |s2cid=162411534 |date=2007 |title=Spinsters, Surveillance, and Speech: The Case of Miss Marple, Miss Mole, and Miss Jekyll |journal=[[The Journal of Modern Literature]] |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=103–20 |doi=10.2979/JML.2007.30.2.103 |jstor=4619330| issn = 0022-281X }}</ref><ref name="be">{{cite journal |last=Beehler |first=Sharon A. |date=1998 |title=Close vs. Closed Reading: Interpreting the Clues |journal=[[The English Journal]] |volume=77 |issue=6 |pages=39–43 |doi=10.2307/818612 |jstor=818612}}</ref>

Christie did not limit herself to quaint English villages{{snd}}the action might take place on a small island (''And Then There Were None''), an aeroplane (''[[Death in the Clouds]]''), a train (''Murder on the Orient Express''), a steamship (''[[Death on the Nile]]''), a smart London flat (''[[Cards on the Table]]''), a resort in the West Indies (''[[A Caribbean Mystery]]''), or an archaeological dig (''[[Murder in Mesopotamia]]''){{snd}}but the circle of potential suspects is usually closed and intimate: family members, friends, servants, business associates, fellow travellers.<ref name=":8"/>{{Rp|37}} Stereotyped characters abound (the {{Lang|fr|[[femme fatale]]}}, the stolid policeman, the devoted servant, the dull colonel), but these may be subverted to stymie the reader; impersonations and secret alliances are always possible.<ref name=":8">{{cite book |last=Curran |first=John |title=Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-06-200652-3 |location=London}}</ref>{{Rp|58}} There is always a motive{{snd}}most often, money: "There are very few killers in Christie who enjoy murder for its own sake."<ref name="thompson"/>{{Rp|379, 396}}

Professor of Pharmacology Michael C. Gerald noted that "in over half her novels, one or more victims are poisoned, albeit not always to the full satisfaction of the perpetrator."<ref name=":11">{{cite book |last=Gerald |first=Michael C. |title=The Poisonous Pen of Agatha Christie |publisher=[[University of Texas Press]] |year=1993 |isbn=0-292-76535-5 |location=Austin, Texas}}</ref>{{Rp|viii}} Guns, knives, garrottes,<!-- "garrottes" has a double t in BrEng --> tripwires, blunt instruments, and even a hatchet were also used, but "Christie never resorted to elaborate mechanical or scientific means to explain her ingenuity,"<ref name=":12">{{cite book |last=Curran |first=John |title=Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |year=2011 |isbn=978-0062065445 |location=London}}</ref>{{Rp|57}} according to [[Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks|John Curran]], author and literary adviser to the Christie estate.<ref>{{cite web |date=2020 |title=John Curran author |url=https://www.harpercollins.com/author/cr-105484/john-curran/ |access-date=11 April 2020 |website=[[HarperCollins]]Publishers |archive-date=11 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200411084002/https://www.harpercollins.com/author/cr-105484/john-curran/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Many of her clues are mundane objects: a calendar, a coffee cup, wax flowers, a beer bottle, a fireplace used during a heat wave.<ref name=":8"/>{{Rp|38}}

According to crime writer [[P. D. James]], Christie was prone to making the unlikeliest character the guilty party. Alert readers could sometimes identify the culprit by identifying the least likely suspect.<ref name=":9">{{cite book |last=James |first=P.D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fcGke2wlt0UC&pg=PT26 |title=Talking About Detective Fiction |publisher=[[Random House]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-307-39882-6 |access-date=4 April 2016 |archive-date=19 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119174118/https://books.google.com/books?id=fcGke2wlt0UC&pg=PT26 |url-status=live}}</ref> Christie mocked this insight in her foreword to ''Cards on the Table'': "Spot the person least likely to have committed the crime and in nine times out of ten your task is finished. Since I do not want my faithful readers to fling away this book in disgust, I prefer to warn them beforehand ''that this is not that kind of book''."<ref name=":10">{{cite book |last=Gillian |first=Gill |title=Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries |publisher=[[Free Press (publisher)|The Free Press]] |year=1990 |isbn=002911702X |location=New York City}}</ref>{{Rp|135–36}}

On BBC Radio 4's ''[[Desert Island Discs]]'' in 2007, [[Brian Aldiss]] said Christie had told him she wrote her books up to the last chapter, then decided who the most unlikely suspect was, after which she would go back and make the necessary changes to "frame" that person.<ref name="Brian Aldiss claims Agatha tells method">{{cite web |last=Aldiss |first=Brian|author-link=Brian Aldiss |title=BBC Radio 4 – Factual – Desert Island Discs |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs_20070128.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090211235326/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs_20070128.shtml |archive-date=11 February 2009 |access-date=22 February 2009 |work=[[BBC]]}}</ref> Based upon a study of her working notebooks, Curran describes how Christie would first create a cast of characters, choose a setting, and then produce a list of scenes in which specific clues would be revealed; the order of scenes would be revised as she developed her plot. Of necessity, the murderer had to be known to the author before the sequence could be finalised and she began to type or dictate the first draft of her novel.<ref name=":8"/> Much of the work, particularly dialogue, was done in her head before she put it on paper.<ref name="Auto1993"/>{{Rp|241–45}}<ref name=":10"/>{{Rp|33}}

In 2013, the 600 members of the [[Crime Writers' Association]] chose ''[[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd]]'' as "the best [[whodunit]]{{nbsp}}... ever written".<ref name=":18">{{cite news |last=Brown |first=Jonathan |date=5 November 2013 |title=Agatha Christie's ''The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'' voted best crime novel ever |work=[[The Independent]] |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/agatha-christies-the-murder-of-roger-ackroyd-voted-best-crime-novel-ever-8923395.html |access-date=19 February 2014 |archive-date=4 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191104035244/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/agatha-christies-the-murder-of-roger-ackroyd-voted-best-crime-novel-ever-8923395.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Author [[Julian Symons]] observed, "In an obvious sense, the book fits within the conventions{{nbsp}}... The setting is a village deep within the English countryside, Roger Ackroyd dies in his study; there is a butler who behaves suspiciously{{nbsp}}... Every successful detective story in this period involved a deceit practised upon the reader, and here the trick is the highly original one of making the murderer the local doctor, who tells the story and acts as Poirot's Watson."<ref name=":20">{{cite book |last=Symons |first=Julian|author-link=Julian Symons |title=Mortal Consequences: A History from the Detective Story to the Crime Novel |publisher=[[Harper (publisher)|Harper & Row, Publishers]] |year=1972 |location=New York City}}</ref>{{Rp|106–07}} Critic Sutherland Scott stated, "If Agatha Christie had made no other contribution to the literature of detective fiction she would still deserve our grateful thanks" for writing this novel.<ref>{{cite book |last=Scott |first=Sutherland |title=Blood in Their Ink |publisher=[[Stanley Paul]] |year=1953 |location=London |quote=Cited in Fitzgibbon (1980). p. 19.}}</ref>

In September 2015, to mark her 125th birthday, ''And Then There Were None'' was named the "World's Favourite Christie" in a vote sponsored by the author's estate.<ref name=":15">{{cite web |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=2 September 2015 |title=And Then There Were None declared world's favourite Agatha Christie novel |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/01/and-then-there-were-none-declared-worlds-favourite-agatha-christie-novel |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=16 May 2017 |archive-date=30 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730203411/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/01/and-then-there-were-none-declared-worlds-favourite-agatha-christie-novel |url-status=live}}</ref> The novel is emblematic of both her use of formula and her willingness to discard it. "''And Then There Were None'' carries the 'closed society' type of murder mystery to extreme lengths," according to author Charles Osborne.<ref name=":16"/>{{Rp|170}} It begins with the classic set-up of potential victim(s) and killer(s) isolated from the outside world, but then violates conventions. There is no detective involved in the action, no interviews of suspects, no careful search for clues, and no suspects gathered together in the last chapter to be confronted with the solution. As Christie herself said, "Ten people had to die without it becoming ridiculous or the murderer being obvious."<ref name="Auto1993"/>{{Rp|457}} Critics agreed she had succeeded: "The arrogant Mrs. Christie this time set herself a fearsome test of her own ingenuity{{nbsp}}... the reviews, not surprisingly, were without exception wildly adulatory."<ref name=":16"/>{{Rp|170–71}}

==== Character stereotypes and racism ====
{{About||information on Christie's book originally titled ''Ten Little Niggers''|And Then There Were None}}

Christie included stereotyped descriptions of characters in her work, especially before 1945 (when such attitudes were more commonly expressed publicly), particularly in regard to Italians, Jews, and non-Europeans.<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{Rp|264–66}} For example, she described "men of [[Hebrews|Hebraic]] extraction, sallow men with hooked noses, wearing rather flamboyant jewellery" in the short story "The Soul of the Croupier" from the collection ''[[The Mysterious Mr Quin]]''. In 1947, the [[Anti-Defamation League]] in the US sent an official letter of complaint to Christie's American publishers, [[Dodd, Mead and Company]], regarding perceived [[antisemitism]] in her works. Christie's British literary agent later wrote to her US representative, authorising American publishers to "omit the word 'Jew' when it refers to an unpleasant character in future books."<ref name="thompson"/>{{Rp|386}}

In ''[[The Hollow]]'', published in 1946, one of the characters is described by another as "a [[Whitechapel]] Jewess with dyed hair and a voice like a [[corncrake]]&nbsp;... a small woman with a thick nose, henna red hair and a disagreeable voice". To contrast with the more stereotyped descriptions, Christie portrayed some "foreign" characters as victims, or potential victims, at the hands of English malefactors, such as, respectively, Olga Seminoff (''[[Hallowe'en Party]]'') and Katrina Reiger (in the short story "How Does Your Garden Grow?"). Jewish characters are often seen as un-English (such as Oliver Manders in ''[[Three Act Tragedy]]''), but they are rarely the culprits.<ref>{{Citation |last=Pendergast |first=Bruce |title=Everyman's Guide to the Mysteries of Agatha Christie |page=399 |year=2004 |location=Victoria, BC, Canada |publisher=[[Trafford Publishing|Trafford]] |isbn=1-4120-2304-1}}</ref>

In 2023, the ''[[The Daily Telegraph|Telegraph]]'' reported that several Agatha Christie novels have been edited to remove "passages containing descriptions, insults or references to ethnicity". Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries written between 1920 and 1976 have had passages reworked or removed in new editions published by [[HarperCollins]], in order to strip them of language and descriptions that modern audiences find offensive, especially those involving the characters Christie's protagonists encounter outside the UK. Sensitivity readers had made the edits, which were evident in digital versions of the new editions, including the entire Miss Marple run and selected Poirot novels set to be released or that have been released since 2020.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Simpson |first1=Craig |title=Agatha Christie classics latest to be rewritten for modern sensitivities |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/25/agatha-christie-classics-latest-rewritten-modern-sensitivities/ |access-date=29 March 2023 |work=The Telegraph |date=25 March 2023}}</ref>

==== Other detectives ====
In addition to Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, Christie also created amateur detectives Thomas (Tommy) Beresford and his wife, Prudence "Tuppence" ''née'' Cowley, who appear in four novels and one collection of short stories published between 1922 and 1974. Unlike her other sleuths, the Beresfords were only in their early twenties when introduced in ''The Secret Adversary'', and were allowed to age alongside their creator.<ref name=":16"/>{{Rp|19–20}} She treated their stories with a lighter touch, giving them a "dash and verve" which was not universally admired by critics.<ref name=":17"/>{{Rp|63}} Their last adventure, ''Postern of Fate'', was Christie's last novel.<ref name="thompson"/>{{Rp|477}}

Harley Quin was "easily the most unorthodox" of Christie's fictional detectives.<ref name=":17"/>{{Rp|70}} Inspired by Christie's affection for the figures from the [[Harlequinade]], the semi-supernatural Quin always works with an elderly, conventional man called Satterthwaite. The pair appear in 14 short stories, 12 of which were collected in 1930 as ''The Mysterious Mr. Quin''.<ref name=":16"/>{{Rp|78, 80}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vervel |first1=Marc |title='Mystery' Beyond Reason: Mr. Quin, a Revealer of the Powers of Fiction According to Agatha Christie? |journal=Clues: A Journal of Detection |date=2022 |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=39–48 |url=https://mcfarlandbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/5-Vervel-Clu402.pdf |access-date=18 April 2023}}</ref> Mallowan described these tales as "detection in a fanciful vein, touching on the fairy story, a natural product of Agatha's peculiar imagination".<ref name=":16"/>{{Rp|80}} Satterthwaite also appears in a novel, ''Three Act Tragedy'', and a short story, "[[Murder in the Mews|Dead Man's Mirror]]", both of which feature Poirot.<ref name=":16"/>{{Rp|81}}

Another of her lesser-known characters is Parker Pyne, a retired civil servant who assists unhappy people in an unconventional manner.<ref name=":16"/>{{Rp|118–19}} The 12 short stories which introduced him, ''[[Parker Pyne Investigates]]'' (1934), are best remembered for "The Case of the Discontented Soldier", which features [[Ariadne Oliver]], "an amusing and satirical self-portrait of Agatha Christie". Over the ensuing decades, Oliver reappeared in seven novels. In most of them she assists Poirot.<ref name=":16"/>{{Rp|120}}

==== Plays ====
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}}

In 1928, [[Michael Morton (dramatist)|Michael Morton]] adapted ''The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'' for the stage under the name of ''[[Alibi (play)|Alibi]]''.<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{Rp|177}} The play enjoyed a respectable run, but Christie disliked the changes made to her work and, in future, preferred to write for the theatre herself. The first of her own stage works was ''[[Black Coffee (play)|Black Coffee]]'', which received good reviews when it opened in the [[West End theatre|West End]] in late 1930.<ref>Thompson, Laura (2008), ''Agatha Christie: An English Mystery'', London: Headline Review, p. 277, 301. ISBN 978-0-7553-1488-1</ref> She followed this up with adaptations of her detective novels: ''[[And Then There Were None (play)|And Then There Were None]]'' in 1943, ''[[Appointment with Death (play)|Appointment with Death]]'' in 1945, and ''[[The Hollow (play)|The Hollow]]'' in 1951.<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{Rp|242, 251, 288}}

In the 1950s, "the theatre&nbsp;... engaged much of Agatha's attention."<ref>Thompson, Laura (2008), ''Agatha Christie: An English Mystery'', London: Headline Review, p. 360. ISBN 978-0-7553-1488-1</ref> She next adapted her short radio play into ''[[The Mousetrap]]'', which premiered in the West End in 1952, produced by [[Peter Saunders (impresario)|Peter Saunders]] and starring [[Richard Attenborough]] as the original Detective Sergeant Trotter.<ref name="Mousetrap record"/> Her expectations for the play were not high; she believed it would run no more than eight months.<ref name="Auto1993"/>{{Rp|500}} ''The Mousetrap'' has long since made theatrical history as the world's longest-running play, staging its 27,500th performance in September 2018.<ref name="Mousetrap record">{{cite news |last=Moss |first=Stephen |date=21 November 2012 |title=The Mousetrap at 60: Why is this the world's longest-running play? |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/nov/20/mousetrap-60-years-agatha-christie |access-date=8 April 2020 |archive-date=10 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810022443/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/nov/20/mousetrap-60-years-agatha-christie |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Brantley |first=Ben |date=26 January 2012 |title=London Theater Journal: Comfortably Mousetrapped |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/london-theater-journal-comfortably-mousetrapped/ |access-date=26 January 2012 |archive-date=30 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930221446/https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/london-theater-journal-comfortably-mousetrapped/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[https://www.the-mousetrap.co.uk/Online ''The Mousetrap'' website] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150623162102/https://www.the-mousetrap.co.uk/Online/|date=23 June 2015}}, the-mousetrap.co.uk. Retrieved 2 June 2015.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://uk.the-mousetrap.co.uk/the-history/ |title=The History |website=The Mousetrap |language=en-GB |access-date=25 April 2020 |archive-date=19 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190119121315/https://uk.the-mousetrap.co.uk/the-history/ |url-status=live}}</ref> The play temporarily closed in March 2020, when all UK theatres shut due to the [[COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom|coronavirus pandemic]],<ref>{{cite web |date=17 March 2020 |title=The West End and UK Theatre venues shut down until further notice due to coronavirus |url=https://www.londontheatredirect.com/news/the-west-end-and-uk-theatre-venues-shut-down-until-further-notice-due-to-coronavirus |access-date=5 May 2020 |website=[[London Theatre Direct]] |language=en |archive-date=8 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200508232524/https://www.londontheatredirect.com/news/the-west-end-and-uk-theatre-venues-shut-down-until-further-notice-due-to-coronavirus |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=22 April 2020 |title=The London theatres that are closed due to coronavirus |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/theatre/london-theatres-west-end-closed-coronavirus-a4388676.html |access-date=5 May 2020 |website=[[Evening Standard]] |language=en |archive-date=19 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200419211926/https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/theatre/london-theatres-west-end-closed-coronavirus-a4388676.html |url-status=live}}</ref> before it re-opened on 17 May 2021.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lawson |first1=Mark |title=The case of the Covid-compliant murder: how The Mousetrap is snapping back to life |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/may/05/case-covid-compliant-mousetrap-snapping-back-agatha-christie-whodunnit |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=20 July 2022 |language=en |date=5 May 2021}}</ref>

In 1953, she followed this with ''[[Witness for the Prosecution (play)|Witness for the Prosecution]]'', whose [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] production won the [[New York Drama Critics' Circle]] award for best foreign play of 1954 and earned Christie an [[Edgar Award]] from the [[Mystery Writers of America]].<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{Rp|300}}<ref name=":12"/>{{Rp|262}} ''[[Spider's Web (play)|Spider's Web]]'', an original work written for actress [[Margaret Lockwood]] at her request, premiered in the West End in 1954 and was also a hit.<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{Rp|297, 300}} Christie became the first female playwright to have three plays running simultaneously in London: ''The Mousetrap'', ''Witness for the Prosecution'' and ''Spider's Web''.<ref>{{cite news |title=Everyone loves an old-fashioned murder mystery |url=https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/theatre/everyone-loves-an-old-fashioned-murder-mystery/article25664054.ece |newspaper=The Hindu |date=4 December 2018 |access-date=29 August 2020 |last1=Phukan |first1=Vikram |archive-date=20 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520060606/https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/theatre/everyone-loves-an-old-fashioned-murder-mystery/article25664054.ece |url-status=live}}</ref> She said, "Plays are much easier to ''write'' than books, because you can ''see'' them in your mind's eye, you are not hampered by all that description which clogs you so terribly in a book and stops you from getting on with what's happening."<ref name="Auto1993"/>{{Rp|459}} In a letter to her daughter, Christie said being a playwright was "a lot of fun!"<ref name="thompson"/>{{Rp|474}}

==== As Mary Westmacott ====

Christie published six mainstream novels under the name Mary Westmacott, a pseudonym which gave her the freedom to explore "her most private and precious imaginative garden".<ref name="thompson"/>{{Rp|366–67}}<ref name=":16"/>{{Rp|87–88}} These books typically received better reviews than her detective and thriller fiction.<ref name="thompson"/>{{Rp|366}} Of the first, ''[[Giant's Bread]]'' published in 1930, a reviewer for ''The New York Times'' wrote, "...{{nbsp}}her book is far above the average of current fiction, in fact, comes well under the classification of a 'good book'. And it is only a satisfying novel that can claim that appellation."<ref>{{cite news |date=17 August 1930 |title=Book Review |page=7 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> It was publicized from the very beginning that "Mary Westmacott" was a pen name of a well-known author, although the identity behind the pen name was kept secret; the dust jacket of ''Giant's Bread'' mentions that the author had previously written "under her real name...half a dozen books that have each passed the thirty thousand mark in sales." (In fact, though this was technically true, it disguised Christie's identity through understatement. By the publication of ''Giant's Bread'', Christie had published 10 novels and two short story collections, all of which had sold considerably more than 30,000 copies.) After Christie's authorship of the first four Westmacott novels was revealed by a journalist in 1949, she wrote two more, the last in 1956.<ref name="thompson"/>{{Rp|366}}

The other Westmacott titles are: ''[[Unfinished Portrait (novel)|Unfinished Portrait]]'' (1934), ''[[Absent in the Spring]]'' (1944), ''[[The Rose and the Yew Tree]]'' (1948), ''[[A Daughter's a Daughter]]'' (1952), and ''[[The Burden]]'' (1956).