All About Agatha (Christie)
All About Agatha is a podcast all about, well, Agatha. Agatha Christie, of course. The Queen of Crime, a real-life Dame of the British Empire and author of sixty-six mystery novels that spanned the Twentieth Century, defining a genre. The podcast's specific project is to rank these novels--because imposing objectivity on a subjective experience like reading is the sort of fruitless exercise that leads to all sorts of fruitful observations, even revelations. More broadly, the idea is to approach Christie by way of a rigorous literary analysis she so rarely gets, but so richly deserves. The same can be said about the mystery genre overall, which is why episodes about Christie are peppered liberally with interviews of contemporary mystery authors, literary scholars, and others. Call it a Christie-fest, if you will, as we revisit Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, and so much more.
Episodes
"For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought." Words of wisdom courtesy of Edmund Spenser (and Colonel Brandon, as played by the inimitable Alan Rickman, RIP). And I'm taking them to heart in this episode, as we get to discover two Christie television adaptations that were not readily available to us until quite recently, a Poirot and a Marple. It isn't often that I can say this, but: hooray for the Internet!
Who doesn't love a puzzle? Maureen and Jay have gone *full bore* on the notion of a solvable Golden Age mystery. Call it a mashup between Agatha Christie and Dennis Wheatley's "crime dossiers" (if you know you know). I have a feeling many of you will enjoy the heck out of it.
You can check out the book, which is now available in the U.S. and UK, on Maureen's website here.
Here are those links I mentioned at the end of the episode t...
Rejoice: it is time for another live episode from the Agatha Christie Festival, in Christie's birthplace of Torquay! This time I braved the stage all by myself, to discuss Christie's use of true crime in her fiction. As usual, I had an absolute blast.
To visit and subscribe to the podcast's Patreon page, click here.
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Please enjoy this time capsule from early 2017, all about the real-life disappearance of our favorite author.... See (some of) you in England! Details below regarding my two appearances there.
I'll be appearing first, in London, 12-13 September, at Silent Echoes: Golden Age Crime Fiction and Trauma, hosted by Golden Age Mysteries and Florida State University's College of Communication & Information.
At long last, another episode about YA mystery! If you haven't yet heard of Marthe Jocelyn's Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen series, you are in for a treat....
Visit Marthe on her website, or on Instagram, or just check out the Aggie Morton books directly. Marthe wanted me to note that the il...
Riley Sager has been producing bestselling mystery thrillers with Christie-like consistency for nine years now. His latest, With a Vengeance, is his most Christie-like yet. It was a pleasure to speak with him about the book, Christie's influence, and what it's like to be a mystery writer in the world of publishing today.
You can visit Riley and peruse his prodigious output on his website here.
I could not be more thrilled to welcome back A+++ listener, and now two-time guest co-host, Helen Frank, to discuss the flesh-and-blood secretaries of Agatha Christie's life. We already covered the ones that Christie created for herself out of ink, so this episode is a completist's delight. So many secretaries!
For those of you in the SoCal area, consider purchasing tickets for Christie's adaptation of Towards Zero, directed by fo...
How has it taken me this long to talk about audiobooks?! Huge thanks to Gray Robert Brown, for his willingness to share his considerable expertise on this topic. Thank you also to Hugh Fraser, for the many, many hours he has spent speaking Agatha Christie's words into a microphone. We salute you, Captain Hastings.
You can find Gray at his website here, and if you aren't listening yet, please do check out his stupendous podcast The...
Steen Just is a Danish gentleman who is passionate about Agatha Christie--so much so that he has spent his retirement contributing hugely to the Danish-language Wikipedia articles on Agatha Christie. I had a great time talking with him about his unique perspective on our favorite author.
The following Christie titles are spoiled to some degree in this episode: By the Pricking of My Thumbs, Endless Night, Lord Edgware Dies, A Murder...
There's a decent chance you've heard about the recent online course put out by BBC Maestro, in which a digitally manipulated representation of Agatha Christie teaches the craft of writing a mystery. Yes, really! I was fortunate enough to sit down with the person responsible for all the research that went into this quite heavily researched project: Dr. Mark Aldridge. As many longtime listeners will kno...
When A+++ podcast listener Helen Frank contacted me about doing a themed episode on the secretaries of Agatha Christie, little did I know there would be so much to talk about. And little did she know that I would hoodwink her into co-hosting the episode in question! But I'm so glad I did. I think you'll be as well.
Loose Lips, the second book in my Ghostwriter Mysteries series, is
It was a delight to speak to Jeffrey Round--both about his work, and of course, about Agatha Christie. He is every bit as much of a Christie fan as me, and so many of you....
You can visit Jeffrey at his website, or check out his novel The Sulphur Springs Cure directly.
To visit and subscribe to the podcast's Patreon page, click here.
What fun it was to put together this roving episode of All About Agatha! Thanks again to Christopher Diehl for inviting me to A Poirot Double Bill. I'm already looking forward to his next Christie theatrical production.
Come see me this week, May 4th-9th, on my tour of the (U.S.) South! Click on my website for more details.
Visit and subscribe to the podcast's Patreon page.
You can still buy tickets for my upcoming appearance...
We've done so many Christies for Christmas, it's about time we did one for Easter. Alas, mutations from the radioactive byproduct of a 1960s-era nuclear power plant did not move me or my guest co-host the way Christie seems to have intended. But perhaps your mileage varies.
The following titles are spoiled to varying degrees in this episode: The Man from the Sea, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, The Murder at the Vicarage...
It isn't every day I get to interview a map designer on All About Agatha. Nor is it every day I get to work on a map with a map designer, which is something I've been doing on the side in tribute to my late co-host, Catherine Brobeck, whom Ben and I talk about at some length in our conversation. We also talk some Christie, because of course we do; I know Catherine wouldn't have had it any other way.
Visit my website for details on ...
Letters! We get letters! We get stacks and stacks of letters! It's a mailbag-only episode of All About Agatha, and you know what that means: Sia's heartbreaking "Breathe Me" song underlying my chatter at various points in the episode! No, I couldn't have predicted this either, but the Sia is a testament to how deeply I cherish all these messages, and how important they are to the podcast. Thank you, one and all, for your contributi...
First, dogs. Now, cats. Who knows where this podcast will lead me next?
Come see me on tour! 4th-9th of March in the Northeastern U.S.! Visit my website for more details.
You can now buy Loose Lips, the second book in my Ghostwriter Mysteries series, here in the United States.
Check out Kate Jackson's excellent article about cats and m...
Love and marriage are said to go together like a horse and carriage, but what about love and murder? Like a sheep and herder, maybe? I'm just spitballing here, forgive me; I'm a little delirious after exploring so many iterations of love in so many different Christie works. I hope you enjoy the episode. It was a labor of--well, you know.
BLANKET SPOILER WARNING: spoilers abound in this episode (I cover a lot of ground), so if you a...
Chances are you know exactly who Lucy Foley is, and have read one of her bestselling mystery thrillers, all of which have been compared to Agatha Christie. Lucy is also a massive Christie fan herself, and it was such a joy to speak with her about her work, and our shared love of Dame Agatha (and in particular Miss Marple!).
Here are a few organizations to contribute to, in L.A.'s ongoing effort to combat and recover from these deva...
Thank you to everyone for understanding. As I mentioned, here are a few organizations you can contribute to, if you are so inclined.
Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation
California Community Foundation's Wildlife Recovery
Stay safe, everyone.
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