Agathon 1. The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)

[cassiphone]

Originally published at tansyrr.com. You can comment here or there.

Kathryn and I have taken the challenge to read every book written by Agatha Christie, in order of publication and we’re blogging as we go along. We’re calling it the Agathon! You can find Kathryn’s post over here if you’d like to read the conversation going on in the comments. As a

Comments

[godiyeva]

It is much more common in older murder mysteries to have a longer, slower time frame, and not uncommon at all to see a trial at the end, with moralising or reconciliation occurring in the wake of it... or a hiatus of several months as the case comes to trial before the detective has supplied a resolution... this is much less common now as readers, or at any rate publishers, seem to require a fairly hectic breakneck plot, where you are surprised to realise at the end that the whole thing is supposed to have unfolded over about 36 hours, and wonder how they managed it without sleeping, eating, or going to the bathroom. Or in the case of Kay Scarpetta, despite spending approximately 27 of those hours eating, sleeping and going to the bathroom

[andy_yayus]

Great idea for a blog. Will be very keen to see how this goes. Do you have any favourites you're looking forward to? I was OBSESSED with Agatha in my early teens, read dozens of them. Best of luck!

[cassiphone]

I had a handful of favourites which I read over and over: Sleeping Murder (which I was shocked to discover is the last Miss Marple - no sign of that in the text!) and the ABC Murders, Sparkling Cyanide and The Body in the Library. I also have favourites from the telemovies I watched in my childhood, which are so ingrained that I still recognise actors from them, like A Murder is Announced.

I have read almost none of the really famous ones such as The Orient Express or Roger Ackroyd, though I have been spoiled for their twists, long ago. I still look forward to visiting them!