Happy Birthday, Agatha Christie!

Happy Birthday, Agatha Christie!

Over the years, I've read just about every novel and story, play, and reference book on or by the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie. I've taught classes on Agatha Christie at UCB, Santa Cruz, and St. Mary's College, as well as focused on Agatha Christie in my mystery book group. 

Agatha Christie visited the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden and was particularly taken by the Peruvian Lily. Poisonous? Yes. In honor of that long-ago visit, I organized a poison tour for my book group at the UC Botanical Garden. We had a very knowledgeable guide.

For Agatha Christie's Centennial, I attended the CWA (Crime Writer Association- UK) conference in Torquay which included an Agatha Christie Centennial Celebration Banquet. Everyone was there, and by that, I mean all my favorite British crime writers and several of the actors who portrayed Christie's characters over the years. David Suchet sat at the next table. I saw Joan Hickson in the Ladies Room. During that same trip, I went with CWA to visit Greenway. This was long before it opened to the public. The family was in residence at the time, and either they forgot that a group of mystery writers was stopping by or they didn’t care, as the house was in a bit of disarray after what must have been Sunday dinner (lunch to us!). It was a very lovely (and intimate) tour of the house.

When I returned to the States that year, I was on the organizing committee of the U.S. Agatha Christie Centennial. There were reading challenges, library talks, courses, and lectures, and I even wrote an 'Agatha-Christie inspired' interactive mystery event. It was great fun!

And here's a real treat: A Video of a 1955 interview with Agatha Christie from the BBC Archives in which Agatha Christie talks about her lack of formal education and how boredom during childhood led her to write The Mysterious Affair at Styles. She outlines her working methods, Miss Marple, Herculte Poirot, and discusses why it is much easier to write plays than novels. 

Raise a glass today to Agatha Chrisite, the Queen of Crime!
 

MYSTERIES SET DURING THE DAYS OF AWE: Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur

According to Jewish religion, the Days of Awe are the days between the beginning of the New Year (Rosh Hashana) and Yom Kippur. These are 10 days of repentance and renewal that begin at sunset on Rosh Hashanah and close with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Rosh Hashanah starts this Friday night, but you'll have 8 days to read these books. 

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. That a murder would take place on Yom Kippur (or during the Days of Awe) runs counter to Jewish belief or action. Let's hope murders only take place in fiction!

Here's an updated short list of Mysteries that take place on Rosh Hashana, during the Days of Awe, and on Yom Kippur. As always, I welcome any additions to this list. May you be inscribed in the Book of Life for another year!

Mysteries set during the Days of Awe

Three Weeks in October by Yael Dayan
The Day of Atonement by Breck England
Days of Atonement by Michael Gregorio
The Yom Kippur Murder by Lee Harris
A Guide for the Perplexed by Dara Horn
Day of Atonement by Faye Kellerman
Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry by Harry Kemelman
The Day of Atonement by David Liss
A Possibility of Violence by D.A. Mishani

Nights of Awe by Harri Nykanen

Yom Killer by Rabbi Ilene Schneider
Devil Among Us by Jack Winnick

Short Stories:  

Murder is no Mitzvah: Short Mysteries about Jewish Occasions
Mystery Midrash: An Anthology of Jewish Mystery & Detective Fiction, edited by Lawrence W. Raphael
Jewish Noir, edited by Kenneth Wishia

Jewish Noir II: Tales of Crime and Other Deeds, ed. by Kenneth Wishnia and Chantelle Aimee Osman

"The Lord is my Shamus" by Barb Goffman 

Children's Books

Pinky Blog and the Case of the Silent Shofar by Judy Press and Erica-Jane Waters

Non-Fiction

Family Blood: The True Story of the Yom Kippur Murders by Mr. Marvin J. Elf and Mr. Larry Attebery

May you be inscribed in the Book of Life for another year! And, may we have peace in the world!

Cartoon of the Day: Goldilocks

From the great Tom Gauld

PUZZLE FOR PLAYERS: THE MYSTERY WRITING PROCESS - Guest Post by Tom Mead

My first novel, Death and the Conjuror, was published in July of 2022. It was everything I had wanted it to be: a vintage-style locked-room mystery set in 1930s London, featuring retired magician and amateur detective Joseph Spector - a character I’ve used in several short stories for publications like Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. I was delighted with the response the book received from readers and reviewers, but it left me with an interesting dilemma that every writer must face at some point: where to go from here? 

I am positively obsessed with Golden Age mystery fiction: the work of writers like John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen, Helen McCloy, and – of course – Agatha Christie. One factor they have in common is that they wrote successful long-running series. Since I make a point of paying tribute to all those authors in my work, and I look on them as role models, it made sense to try and turn the standalone Spector novel into a series as well. 

 

Rewind two years: summer of 2020. The UK, where I live, was in lockdown. I was stuck at home, working part-time and writing on a freelance basis. But my passion was (and still is) the murder mystery; I love the puzzles, I love the atmosphere, I love the period detail, I love the characters. Basically, I love everything about that “Golden Age” period that covers the 1920s through the 1930s and some of the ‘40s. It was during that very strange time that I decided to channel my love of the genre into the creation of something new, which eventually ended up as Death and the Conjuror. 

But I didn’t stop there. I tend to adopt a “less is more” approach to writing; the books are relatively short, but densely packed with characters, ideas and incident. This means I inevitably have a few leftovers when I’m done. That’s why, when Death and the Conjuror was complete (and before I’d even thought about finding a publisher), I immediately got to work on what would eventually become its sequel, the second book in the Joseph Spector mystery series, The Murder Wheel. I finished the second book before the end of 2020, and before I knew it I had a series on my hands. 

When Death and the Conjuror was accepted for publication in summer 2021, it gave me a major confidence boost. So, I got to work on book three. I didn’t have a contract for it or anything like that, it was written purely for my own entertainment. The book is still going through its final editorial stages, and won’t be published until summer of 2024, but I can tell you that it’s called Cabaret Macabre. 

So now I’m right back where I started: where do I go from here? 

You might think it would be frustrating, after spending so much time and energy on a book, to suddenly find oneself staring at a blank canvas once again. Personally, though, I love it. It’s an irresistible challenge, and in some ways the earliest stages are the most fun: that’s when I’m assembling the building blocks, before I get caught up in the details. 

When it comes to plotting, I’ve tried two different approaches – it’s tough to say which I prefer, though both have their respective merits. The first begins with the puzzle, the unanswered question. Like for instance: how does a murdered corpse appear onstage during a magic act in front of a packed auditorium? That’s one of the scenarios that presents itself in my new novel The Murder Wheel, and when I came up with it I knew that it would inevitably form a major part of the plot. But how could it have happened? If I didn’t know, how could my sleuth Joseph Spector be expected to untangle the problem? 

The alternative approach is the inverse of the first. It involves coming up with a fun, clever or amusing gimmick that could be employed in a seemingly impossible situation. This is where my research in the world of magic comes into play. I’ve written a lot in the past about how I like to adapt real-life illusions and turn them into devices for mystery plots. My short story “The Indian Rope Trick” would be the most obvious example of this, because the titular illusion becomes intrinsic to a killer’s complicated scheme. 

Essentially, some plots oblige me to come up with a solution to fit the puzzle, while others require the puzzle to fit the solution. But of course, no two plots are the same, and inevitably the finished work is a kind of mish-mash of different approaches. But it’s a method that seems to work – although even after writing three books I can’t claim to understand how it works. 

Maybe that’s why the process of it, the rise and fall, is still such a thrill to me. It’s the reason I keep coming back, and the reason I wouldn’t give up my job for anything in the world. I’m trying to give readers a fun, challenging mystery – and the only way to do that is to challenge myself first. 

***

Tom Mead is a mystery author based in Derby, UK. The first novel in his Joseph Spector series, Death and the Conjuror, was named one of the best mysteries of 2022 by Publishers Weekly and nominated for Debut Crime Novel of the Year at the UK's Capital Crime Awards. The sequel, The Murder Wheel, was published in July 2023. A third in the series, Cabaret Macabre, will be published in 2024. Tom's short fiction has appeared in various publications including Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and The Best Mystery Stories of the Year, edited by Lee Child.

A HAUNTING IN VENICE: Kenneth Branagh as Poirot

I have not seen a preview of A Haunting in Venice, so come back for my viewing comments. Personally I think David Suchet's portrayal of Hercule Poirot is the best, but I've enjoyed other actor's performances including Peter Ustinov's. I'm easy. I really enjoy Agatha Christie's books, plays, short stories, and movies. That being said, I did not enjoy the 2022 Death on the Nile with Kenneth Branagh. Not sure if I'm in the minority, but I found the sets off-putting. I think because they were sets and not the real thing. I also recall that the film was slow moving and confusing. Oh well, I'll let you know know what I think after I see A Haunting In Venice. Feel free to post comments about the film.

A HAUNTING IN VENICE, featuring Kenneth Branagh as Agatha Christie's Belgian Detective Hercule Poirot, opens in Theaters on September 15. 

Kenneth Branagh reprises his role in A Haunting in Venice after previously portraying Poirot in the 2022 movie Death on the Nile and 2017's Murder on the Orient Express. The movie is set in post-World War II Venice, where Poirot, now retired and living in his own exile, reluctantly attends a seance at an All Hallows' Eve party. But when one of the guests is murdered, it is up to the former detective to once again uncover the killer. 

Cartoon of the Day: Godot