Even more Agatha Christie-related crime fiction

Agatha Christie in crime novels is a topic I've mentioned a couple of times before but not for a while. You can read my posts here and here. At least three crime novels featuring Agatha are due to be published in the next few months.

In date order (blurbs from amazon):

Just released is Kelly Oliver's The Case of the Christie Conspiracy which is the first in a new Detection Club series.

Agatha Christie is about to embark on a new, gripping murder case. But this time, she’s not the author – she’s a suspect…

1926 – Christie is a darling of the literary circuit and the most desired guest in London’s glittering social scene. She can often be found at meetings of the Detection Club – where mystery writers come together to share ideas, swap secrets and drink copiously. But then a fellow author's initiation ceremony takes a gruesome turn, and one of the group ends up dead. Now, Agatha is no longer just the creator of great mystery plots – she’s a player in one.

And when Agatha disappears the day after the murder, she’s widely assumed to be guilty. Only Eliza Baker, assistant to the Club’s enigmatic secretary, Dorothy Sayers, is interested in investigating the case. But in a world where murder is the ultimate plot device, can Eliza piece together the evidence and find the killer before it’s too late?

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict (out 18 Mar) features not only Agatha but a whole host of Golden Age authors:

The New York Times bestselling author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie returns with a thrilling story of Christie’s legendary rival Dorothy Sayers, the race to solve a murder, and the power of friendship among women. London, 1930. The five greatest women crime writers have banded together to form a secret society with a single goal: to show they are no longer willing to be treated as second class citizens by their male counterparts in the legendary Detection Club. Led by the formidable Dorothy L. Sayers, the group includes Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. They call themselves the Queens of Crime. Their plan? Solve an actual murder, that of a young woman found strangled in a park in France who may have connections leading to the highest levels of the British establishment. May Daniels, a young English nurse on an excursion to France with her friend, seemed to vanish into thin air as they prepared to board a ferry home. Months later, her body is found in the nearby woods. The murder has all the hallmarks of a locked room mystery for which these authors are famous: how did her killer manage to sneak her body out of a crowded train station without anyone noticing? If, as the police believe, the cause of death is manual strangulation, why is there is an extraordinary amount of blood at the crime scene? What is the meaning of a heartbreaking secret letter seeming to implicate an unnamed paramour? Determined to solve the highly publicized murder, the Queens of Crime embark on their own investigation, discovering they’re stronger together. But soon the killer targets Dorothy Sayers herself, threatening to expose a dark secret in her past that she would do anything to keep hidden. Inspired by a true story in Sayers’ own life, New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict brings to life the lengths to which five talented women writers will go to be taken seriously in the male-dominated world of letters as they unpuzzle a mystery torn from the pages of their own novels.

And in August, Amanda Chapman's Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library is released.

Book conservator Tory Van Dyne and a woman claiming to be Agatha Christie on holiday from the Great Beyond join forces to catch a killer in this spirited mystery from Amanda Chapman.

Tory Van Dyne is the most down-to-earth member of a decidedly eccentric old-money New York family. For one thing, as book conservator at Manhattan's Mystery Guild Library, she actually has a job. Plus, she's left up-town society behind for a quiet life downtown. So she's not thrilled when she discovers a woman in the library's Christie Room who calmly introduces herself as Agatha Christie, politely requests a cocktail, and announces she's there to help solve a murder-- that has not yet happened.

But as soon as Tory determines that this is just a fairly nutty Christie fangirl, her socialite/actress cousin Nicola gets caught up in the suspicious death of her less-than-lovable talent agent. Nic, as always, looks to Tory for help. Tory, in turn, looks to Mrs. Christie. The woman, whoever or whatever she is, clearly knows her stuff when it comes to crime.

Aided by a found family of unlikely sleuths--including a snarky librarian, an eleven-year-old computer whiz, and an NYPD detective with terrible taste in suits--Tory and the woman claiming to be her very much deceased literary idol begin to unravel the twists and turns of a murderer's devious mind. Because, in the immortal words of Miss Jane Marple, "murder is never simple."

New Agatha Christie Biography on its way

Because I'm reading The Christie Affair (still), I went rummaging around on Amazon to see what the latest books about Agatha were and lo...there is a new biography out in September by Lucy Worsley:  Agatha Christie - An Elusive Woman:

(blurb & US cover from Amazon)

A new, fascinating account of the life of Agatha Christie from celebrated literary and cultural historian Lucy Worsley.

"Nobody in the world was more inadequate to act the heroine than I was."

Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was "just" an ordinary housewife, when clearly she wasn't? Her life is fascinating for its mysteries and its passions and, as Lucy Worsley says, "She was thrillingly, scintillatingly modern." She went surfing in Hawaii, she loved fast cars, and she was intrigued by the new science of psychology, which helped her through devastating mental illness.

So why--despite all the evidence to the contrary--did Agatha present herself as a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure?

She was born in 1890 into a world that had its own rules about what women could and couldn't do. Lucy Worsley's biography is not just of a massively, internationally successful writer. It's also the story of a person who, despite the obstacles of class and gender, became an astonishingly successful working woman.

With access to personal letters and papers that have rarely been seen, Lucy Worsley's biography is both authoritative and entertaining and makes us realize what an extraordinary pioneer Agatha Christie was--truly a woman who wrote the twentieth century.

Just spotted the UK Cover =>

More Agatha Christie-related crime fiction

I did a short post last year about Golden Age crime writers and/or their characters living on and in 2017 a more specific post about Agatha Christie featuring in crime novels, however it's time to revisit this theme and we have not one but three recent/upcoming books which include her (or her homes), all from US authors/publishers.

Have you read any of these or plan to?

Here are the covers and blurbs taken from amazon:

Death at Greenway by Lori Rader Day

Bridey Kelly has come to Greenway House--the beloved holiday home of Agatha Christie--in disgrace. A terrible mistake at St. Prisca's Hospital in London has led to her dismissal as a nurse trainee, and her only chance for redemption is a position in the countryside caring for children evacuated to safety from the Blitz.

Greenway is a beautiful home full of riddles: wondrous curios not to be touched, restrictions on rooms not to be entered, and a generous library, filled with books about murder. The biggest mystery might be the other nurse, Gigi, who is like no one Bridey has ever met. Chasing ten young children through the winding paths of the estate grounds might have soothed Bridey's anxieties and grief--if Greenway were not situated so near the English Channel and the rising aggressions of the war.

When a body washes ashore near the estate, Bridey is horrified to realize this is not a victim of war, but of a brutal killing. As the local villagers look among themselves, Bridey and Gigi discover they each harbor dangerous secrets about what has led them to Greenway. With a mystery writer's home as their unsettling backdrop, the young women must unravel the truth before their safe haven becomes a place of death . . .

Murder at Mallowan Hall by Colleen Cambridge

Tucked away among Devon's rolling green hills, Mallowan Hall combines the best of English tradition with the modern conveniences of 1930. Housekeeper Phyllida Bright, as efficient as she is personable, manages the large household with an iron fist in her very elegant glove. In one respect, however, Mallowan Hall stands far apart from other picturesque country houses... 

The manor is home to archaeologist Max Mallowan and his famous wife, Agatha Christie. Phyllida is both loyal to and protective of the crime writer, who is as much friend as employer. An aficionado of detective fiction, Phyllida has yet to find a gentleman in real life half as fascinating as Mrs. Agatha's Belgian hero, Hercule Poirot. But though accustomed to murder and its methods as frequent topics of conversation, Phyllida is unprepared for the sight of a very real, very dead body on the library floor...

A former Army nurse, Phyllida reacts with practical common sense--and a great deal of curiosity. It soon becomes clear that the victim arrived at Mallowan Hall under false pretenses during a weekend party. Now, Phyllida not only has a houseful of demanding guests on her hands--along with a distracted, anxious staff--but hordes of reporters camping outside. When another dead body is discovered--this time, one of her housemaids--Phyllida decides to follow in M. Poirot's footsteps to determine which of the Mallowans' guests is the killer. With help from the village's handsome physician, Dr. Bhatt, Mr. Dobble, the butler, along with other household staff, Phyllida assembles the clues. Yet, she is all too aware that the killer must still be close at hand and poised to strike again. And only Phyllida's wits will prevent her own story from coming to an abrupt end...

The Christie Affair by Nina De Gramont

In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days. Only I know the truth of her disappearance.
I’m no Hercule Poirot.
I’m her husband’s mistress.

Agatha Christie’s world is one of glamorous society parties, country house weekends, and growing literary fame.

Nan O’Dea’s world is something very different. Her attempts to escape a tough London upbringing during the Great War led to a life in Ireland marred by a hidden tragedy.

After fighting her way back to England, she’s set her sights on Agatha. Because Agatha Christie has something Nan wants. And it’s not just her husband.

Despite their differences, the two women will become the most unlikely of allies. And during the mysterious eleven days that Agatha goes missing, they will unravel a dark secret that only Nan holds the key to . . .

Golden Age authors & characters living on

I recently posted this brief article about follow-ups to the Queens of Crime, written by modern authors, on my library's Facebook page:

Fans of the Golden Age queens of crime: Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L Sayers, Margery Allingham and Josephine Tey may like to know that their characters and indeed lives carry on in a number of recent books.

Agatha Christie’s infamous 11 day disappearance in 1926 when she absconded to Harrogate has never been officially explained and she does not refer to it in her autobiography. Was it illness after the death of her mother or revenge on her philandering husband that prompted her flight? Or was it due to aliens as postulated by the Doctor Who episode, The Unicorn and the Wasp (available on iPlayer)? The Channel 5 film, Agatha & The Truth of Murder, now available on Netflix, also looks at this event. In books, rather than television, we have Andrew Wilson’s crime series featuring Agatha as the main character which begins with A TALENT FOR MURDER and has another and more sinister take on her disappearance.

If you can’t get enough of Christie’s most famous detective, Hercule Poirot, then you’ll be pleased to know that Sophie Hannah has brought him back to life in a series of books beginning with THE MONOGRAM MURDERS.

Ngaio Marsh’s debonair sleuth Roderick Alleyn returns for one last case in THE MONEY IN THE MORGUE a novel begun and abandoned by Marsh, but now completed by Stella Duffy.

Jill Paton Walsh took up the Lord Peter Wimsey mantle back in 1998 when she was invited to complete Dorothy L Sayers’s THRONES, DOMINATIONS. She has written another Wimsey book based on clues left by Sayers, plus two more from her own ideas.

Margery Allingham is probably best known for her Albert Campion series, televised in 1989/90 starring Peter Davison. Her husband, Pip Youngman Carter, continued the Campion series with two book and an unfinished one which has recently been completed by Mike Ripley as MR CAMPION’S FAREWELL. Ripley has gone on to write six more original Campion novels.

And finally Josephine Tey stars in a series of crime novels by Nicola Upson. As Gordon Daviot, Tey (real name Elizabeth MacKintosh), wrote plays including the hit ‘Richard of Bordeaux’ which starred John Gielgud. And it is this play which forms the backdrop to the first book in Upson’s series, AN EXPERT IN MURDER. In a later book in the series, FEAR IN THE SUNLIGHT, Tey is mixing with the Hitchcocks at Portmeirion.

Little People, Big Dreams - Agatha Christie

This series of Little People, Big Dreams books is aimed at the younger reader (suggested age range 4 to 7) and included among the artists, writers, inventors, scientists and other trailblazers is one Agatha Christie.

Amazon blurb:

In the Little People, Big Dreams series, discover the lives of outstanding people from designers and artists to scientists. All of them went on to achieve incredible things, yet all of them began life as a little child with a dream. The book follows Agatha Christie, who taught herself to read at the age of five, on her journey to becoming the most famous crime writer of all time. This inspiring and informative little biography comes with extra facts about Agatha's life at the back.

This entry in the series is written by Isabel Sanchez Vegara, illustrated by Elisa Munso and translated by Raquel Plitt and published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books.

I haven't come across this series before so I've pointed it out to my library manager.

TV News: Sky Arts' Urban Myths and Agatha Christie

Next week's episode of Urban Myths on Sky Arts (17 May) puts its own spin on the mysterious disappearance of Agatha Christie in 1926:

From Sky:

Agatha Christie's mysterious 11 day disappearance in 1926 gripped the nation and set off one of the biggest manhunts ever mounted. In desperation, Britain's most famous crime writers of the time, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dorothy L. Sayers, were drafted in to help the search. As they took matters into their own hands with their contrasting methods of detection, this was the beginning of crimes most unlikely investigative partnership: Sayers and Conan Doyle, together at last and on the hunt for Agatha Christie.

Starring Anna Maxwell Martin (Agatha Christie), Bill Paterson (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), Rosie Cavaliero (Dorothy L. Sayers), Adrian Scarborough (Inspector Danders) and Robert James-Collier (Colonel Archie Christie).

Written by Paul Doolan and Abigail Wilson. Directed by Guillem Morales. Produced by John Rushton. Executive Producers Lucy Lumsden and Lucy Ansbro. Produced by Yellow Door Productions.

New Agatha Christie-related crime fiction

I've recently received a couple of proofs of books featuring either Agatha Christie or one of her plots:

Andrew Wilson's A Talent for Murder is published by Simon and Schuster on 18 May 2017 and features the lady herself.
Official blurb:

I wouldn't scream if I were you. Unless you want the whole world to learn about your husband and his mistress.’

Agatha Christie, in London to visit her literary agent, boards a train, preoccupied and flustered in the knowledge that her husband Archie is having an affair. She feels a light touch on her back, causing her to lose her balance, then a sense of someone pulling her to safety from the rush of the incoming train. So begins a terrifying sequence of events. Her rescuer is no guardian angel; rather, he is a blackmailer of the most insidious, manipulative kind. Agatha must use every ounce of her cleverness and resourcefulness to thwart an adversary determined to exploit her genius for murder to kill on his behalf.

Fred Van Lente's Ten Dead Comedians is published by Quirk Books on 11 July 2017.
Official blurb:

Fred Van Lente s brilliant debut is both an homage to the Golden Age of Mystery and a thoroughly contemporary show-business satire. As the story opens, nine comedians of various acclaim are summoned to the island retreat of legendary Hollywood funnyman Dustin Walker. The group includes a former late-night TV host, a washed-up improv instructor, a ridiculously wealthy blue collar comic, and a past-her-prime Vegas icon. All nine arrive via boat to find that every building on the island is completely deserted. Marooned without cell phone service or wifi signals, they soon find themselves being murdered one by one. But who is doing the killing, and why?

A darkly clever take on Agatha Christie s And Then There Were None and other classics of the genre, Ten Dead Comedians is a marvel of literary ventriloquism, with hilarious comic monologues in the voice of every suspect. It s also an ingeniously plotted puzzler with a twist you ll never see coming!"


In addition, Agatha Christie stars as the sleuth in Alison Joseph's series which began with Murder Will Out (in 2015), followed by (so far) Hidden Sins and Death in Disguise.

Official blurb:

1923. The Great War is over, but the ghosts of the dead still linger. Agatha Christie was one of the lucky ones - her husband returned from the conflict - and for her, and her local neighbours, life has resumed. Agatha is beginning to gain some notoriety for her crime writing and she is busy working on her latest novel. But then her neighbour tells her there has been a real ‘murder at the vicarage’ - a young man, Cecil Coates, has been poisoned, and due to Christie’s expertise in the crime genre, the neighbourhood wants her to investigate. At first Agatha is reluctant to get involved. After all, she is a writer, not a detective. But then Robert Sayer, godson of her neighbour, and one of the main suspects in the case, appeals to her directly for help, and she finds herself being drawn in… What secrets and lies are lying beneath the village’s tranquil exterior? Can Agatha Christie use her imagination to draw the murderer out? ‘Murder Will Out’ is the first in a new series of murder mysteries, in which famous authoress Agatha Christie takes time out from writing to investigate real crime.


UPDATE (15/2/17)

Agatha plays a small but important role in Miss Christie Regrets by Guy Fraser-Sampson which was published 12 January 2017 by Urbane Publications:

Official Blurb: he second in the Hampstead Murders series opens with a sudden death at an iconic local venue, which some of the team believe may be connected with an unsolved murder featuring Cold War betrayals worthy of George Smiley. It soon emerges that none other than Agatha Christie herself may be the key witness who is able to provide the missing link.

As with its bestselling predecessor, Death in Profile, the book develops the lives and loves of the team at 'Hampstead Nick'. While the next phase of a complicated love triangle plays itself out, the protagonists, struggling to crack not one but two apparently insoluble murders, face issues of national security in working alongside Special Branch.

On one level a classic whodunit, this quirky and intelligent read harks back not only to the world of Agatha Christie, but also to the Cold War thrillers of John Le Carre, making it a worthy successor to Death in Profile which was dubbed 'a love letter to the detective novel'.

Books About Town: Criminally Good Benches

This beautiful bench, representing Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly is one of 50 that have sprung up around London as part of Books About Town. Other crime-related benches are 'James Bond Stories' and 'Sherlock Holmes Stories'. All three are on the Bloomsbury Trail.

From the press release:

From today, benches shaped like open books will pop up all over the capital for Londoners, families and visitors to find and enjoy. ‘Books about Town’, launched by the National Literacy Trust and Wild in Art brings 50 unique BookBench sculptures to the city, created by local artists and famous names, to celebrate London’s literary heritage and reading for enjoyment.

The BookBenches feature stories linked to London and are based on a range of iconic books from treasured children’s stories such as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Peter Pan to classic adult titles including 1984 and The Day of the Triffids.

Axel Scheffler has illustrated a bench which celebrates his work with Julia Donaldson and the characters they have created together, including The Gruffalo and characters from their new book The Scarecrow’s Wedding. Among the other top artists involved is Ralph Steadman who illustrated Lewis Caroll’s children’s classic Through the Looking Glass in 1973 and has reproduced some of these illustrations on a unique BookBench. Children’s authors Lauren Child and Cressida Cowell have each designed benches based on their own series Clarice Bean and How To Train Your Dragon. Original illustration by Rae Smith, the Tony and Olivier award-winning stage designer of the National Theatre’s production of War Horse also features on a bespoke War Horse BookBench.

Well-loved literary heroes such as Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, Mary Poppins and Hercules Poirot also appear on benches which visitors can discover by following literary trails in Greenwich, City of London, Riverside and Bloomsbury until mid-September. On 7 October, the BookBenches will be auctioned at the Southbank Centre to raise valuable funds for the National Literacy Trust to tackle illiteracy in deprived communities across the UK.

Agatha Christie news - "new" Hercule Poirot story

Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly is available as an ebook at the moment with the print version being released next year. It is £1.99 for both kindle and epub (eg Waterstones, Kobo) and my lovely spy Margot tells me it's a similar price in the US.

Official blurb: In 1954, Agatha Christie wrote this novella with the intention of donating the proceeds to a fund set up to buy stained glass windows for her local church at Churston Ferrers, and she filled the story with references to local places, including her own home of Greenway. But having completed it, she decided instead to expand the story into a full-length novel, Dead Man's Folly, which was published two years later, and donated a Miss Marple story (Greenshaw's Folly) to the church fund instead.

Unseen for sixty years, Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly is finally published in this eBook exclusive edition, with a new cover by Agatha Christie's most famous cover artist, Tom Adams.

New US Cozies & Agatha Christie

Here are three new American cozies with links to Agatha Christie - which have gone onto my wishlist (I still haven't yet read Christietown by Susan Kandel (2007)).

Published in March this year, The Christie Curse is the first in a new series by Victoria Abbott. Book two, The Sayers Swindle is scheduled for December 2013.

In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared—making headlines across the world—only to show up eleven days later at a spa under an assumed name. During those eleven days, did she have time to write a play?
Jordan Kelly needs a new job and a new place to live. She’s back in Harrison Falls, New York, living with her not so law-abiding uncles, in debt thanks to a credit card–stealing ex and pending grad school loans.

Enter the perfect job, a research position that includes room and board, which will allow her to spend her days hunting down rare mysteries for an avid book collector. There’s just one problem: her employer, Vera Van Alst—the most hated citizen of Harrison Falls.

Jordan’s first assignment is to track down a rumored Agatha Christie play. It seems easy enough, but Jordan soon finds out that her predecessor was killed while looking for it, and there is still someone out there willing to murder to keep the play out of Vera’s hands. Jordan’s new job is good…but is it worth her life?

What's not to like about this cover? A cat, books and a library and the first in the series... Kyle Logan's Mayhem at the Orient Express was published in June.

At a local Chinese restaurant, it's the owner who gets taken out...

Most folks aren't forced by court order to attend a library-book discussion group, but that’s just what happens to B and B proprietor and ex-Manhattanite Bea Cartwright, hippy cat lover Chandra Morrisey, and winery owner Kate Wilder after a small-town magistrate has had enough of their squabbling. South Bass, an island on Lake Erie, is home to an idyllic summer resort, but these three ladies keep disturbing the peace.

The initial book choice is Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, and that sets their mouths to watering. The Orient Express is the island’s newest Chinese restaurant. They might not agree about much, but the ladies all love the orange chicken on the menu. But their meal is spoiled when the restaurant’s owner, Peter Chan, has the bad fortune of getting murdered. Now, with Christie as their inspiration, the League of Literary Ladies has a real mystery to solve…if they can somehow catch a killer without killing each other first.

Out in August. I'm read a few of this series so I must try and catch-up as Murder on the Orient Espresso is the eighth in Sandra Balzo's coffee series:

It's November and Maggy Thorsen, co-owner of the Wisconsin gourmet coffeehouse, Uncommon Grounds, is in South Florida at an annual crime-writers' conference with her beau, local sheriff Jake Pavlik, who is due to speak as a 'forensics expert'. Maggy's pledge to behave solely as a tourist becomes trickier than she anticipated when the conference's opening night event turns out to be a re-enactment of Agatha Christie's classic, Murder on the Orient Express. As Maggy and Jake reluctantly set off on the night train to the Everglades to solve the 'crime', it's clear that, as in the original novel, nothing is quite what it seems. And amidst rumours of careers taken, manuscripts stolen and vows broken, it seems that in the Everglades - as in life - the predator all too often becomes the prey.

TV News: Big Four reunite for Poirot's The Big Four

I'm pleased to see the return of Japp, Hastings and Miss Lemon!

From an ITV press release yesterday:

Hugh Fraser, Philip Jackson and Pauline Moran are reunited with David Suchet for Agatha Christie’s The Big Four.

Last seen together in the television adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Evil Under the Sun, Hugh Fraser, Philip Jackson and Pauline Moran are back to reprise their iconic roles as Captain Hastings, Inspector Japp and Miss Lemon alongside David Suchet as the legendary Hercule Poirot in The Big Four.

Adapted by award-winning screenwriter and actor Mark Gatiss and actor Ian Hallard, The Big Four plunges Poirot into a world of global espionage where he uncovers a theatrical tale of murder, secrets, lies and love, set against the backdrop of the impending World War II.

As a deadly game of chess unfolds, Russian grandmaster, Dr Ivan Savaranoff (Michael Culkin) meets a shocking end, sending the public spiralling into panic, as suspicion is cast upon Peace Party stalwarts Abe Ryland (James Carroll Jordan) and Madame Olivier (Patricia Hodge). In one of his toughest challenges yet, Poirot must work out who the good guys are from the bad, as a complex plot sees a host of international figures used like pawns by a gang of dangerous dissidents tagged “The Big Four”.

As the murders and disappearances stack up one by one, Poirot is joined in his investigations by his old friend Japp (Philip Jackson), the dogged journalist Tysoe (Tom Brooke), and struggling actress, Flossie Monro (Sarah Parish), in an attempt to snare the killer and shatter “The Big Four” for good.

Agatha Christie Theatre Company's Go Back for Murder

The next production for the Agatha Christie Theatre Company is Go Back for Murder, which will be touring from January 2013:

Now in its eighth thrilling year, the Agatha Christie Theatre Company presents a production of the queen of crime’s classic Go Back For Murder.

Carla Le Marchant learns a disturbing family secret; her
mother, Caroline Crale, died in prison after being convicted of poisoning her father. Caroline leaves an intriguing legacy in the form of a letter professing her innocence and, believing this to be true, Carla is determined to clear her mother’s name. Suspects, secrets, and red herrings abound in this thrilling new production





I haven't got the full itinerary but early stops include Windsor, Malvern, Wolverhampton and Cardiff. Another non-comprehensive listing can be found here.

Apparently the play Go Back for Murder was adapted by Agatha Christie from her Poirot novel Five Little Pigs.

Poirot & Me by David Suchet (Press Release)

I'm looking forward to this one, Poirot and Me by David Suchet and Geoffrey Wansell:

Press Release:

Headline’s Emma Tait has acquired the world rights in Poirot and Me by David Suchet, writing with Geoffrey Wansell.

Filming is about to commence on the very last episodes of the international television phenomenon Agatha Christie’s Poirot. These final five episodes will mean that all the Poirot stories have been filmed with Suchet in the starring role. In Poirot and Me David Suchet will reflect, for the first time, on the 24 years that he has played the role and the fondness he has formed for the eccentric Belgian detective, and his fans worldwide.

The book was bought at auction from Michael Alcock at Johnson and Alcock. Headline plans to publish in autumn 2013.

Emma Tait: ‘I am so excited to be publishing this book, which offers a unique opportunity in television publishing. Rather than an outsider's overview, it is the story of an iconic role told by the actor himself and it is fantastic to be working so closely with David and Geoffrey. I believe it will be a very special book and a wonderful way for David to bid farewell to his old friend Hercule Poirot.’

David Suchet and Geoffrey Wansell: ‘We are thrilled to be given this chance by Headline to bring his portrayal of Hercule Poirot to life for his millions of fans around the world. It's a wonderful – and rare – opportunity for a character actor to be able to explain his life and craft and exactly how he brought such a famous character to television audiences in more than eighty countries.’

Extracts from book:

“He was as real to me as he had been to her, a great detective, a remarkable man, if, perhaps, just now and then, a little irritating. He had inhabited my life every bit as much as he must have done hers as she wrote thirty-three novels, more than fifty short stories, and a play about him – making Poirot the most famous fictional detective in the world alongside Sherlock Holmes.

But how had it come to this? How had I come to inhabit his morning jacket and pin-striped trousers, his black patent leather shoes and his elegantly brushed grey Homburg hat for so many years? What brought us together? Was there something in me that found a particular echo in this short, tubby man in his sixties given to pince-nez and saying ‘chut’ instead of ‘ssh’?

Looking back now, these many years later, I suspect in my heart there was.”

“In the end Brian and I came up with a moustache that we both thought exactly conveyed what Dame Agatha had in mind – a small, neat, carefully waxed one that curled upwards at each end, and where the tip of each of end of the moustache would be level with the tip of my nose. For us it was the best-looking waxed moustache in England, and exactly what Hercule Poirot must have.”

More Poirot & Marple on ITV1

Separate announcements today have revealed that 5 more Poirots and 3 more Marples are on their way.

From The Telegraph:

Five new films, based on a mixture of novels and short stories, will go into production next year.

Suchet said: ''I'm more than delighted to be reprising my role as Poirot. It's been my life's ambition to bring this amazing canon of works to completion on ITV.

The new films include Curtain, which is Poirot's last case and sees the detective, immobilised with arthritis, call on his old friend Captain Hastings to help him as they return to the scene of their first ever case to try to prevent another murder.

And in an ITV press release:

ITV is delighted to announce that acclaimed stage and television actress Julia McKenzie will return to her role as Miss Marple.

Three Marple films including Caribbean Mystery have been commissioned from ITV Studios and Agatha Christie Ltd.

A Caribbean Mystery will be the first film to be shot during the summer of 2012 with two further films Endless Night and The Seven Dials Mystery produced during the autumn of 2012.

New Reviews: Billingham, Burke, Chance, Christie, Larsson, Magson, Rayne, Sharp, Stark & Competition

And the reviews are back! A slightly longer break than I'd anticipated due to family matters but 9 new reviews follow below plus a very short-term competition to win tickets to meet actors from The Killing (Danish version) at The Scandinavia Show next Sunday. I have 4 tickets to giveaway, just enter a few details in this form.

Here are this week's (globe-trotting) reviews:

Geoff Jones reviews the tenth in the Tom Thorne series by Mark Billingham, Good as Dead;

Laura Root reviews Down These Green Streets: Irish Crime Writing in the Twenty-First Century edited by Declan Burke an "anthology of essays and short stories centred on Irish crime writing";

Lynn Harvey reviews Alex Chance's second thriller, now out in mass market paperback Savage Blood which she describes as "Denis Wheatley meets Dan Brown";

I review the audio version of two recently unearthed Hercule Poirot stories by Agatha Christie: The Capture of Cerberus & The Incident of the Dog's Ball which are read by David Suchet;

Maxine Clarke reviews the long-awaited fourth book in translation by Asa Larsson: Until Thy Wrath Be Past, tr. Laurie Thompson which Maxine sums up in one word: "brilliant";

Terry Halligan reviews the second in Adrian Magson's 1960s France-set DI Rocco series, Death on the Rive Nord and he hopes for more in the series;

Amanda Gillies praises highly Sarah Rayne's latest psychological thriller, What Lies Beneath now out in paperback;

The first of two books set in the US written by UK authors is Alex Sharp's Driver: Nemesis, set in New Orleans; it's based on a computer game and written pseudonymously by an "English thriller writer" and reviewed here by Rich Westwood

and the second is Oliver Stark's 88 Killer, his second book set in New York City and which Michelle Peckham found "absorbing".

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here.

Review: The Capture of Cerberus & The Incident of the Dog's Ball by Agatha Christie read by David Suchet

Hercule Poirot in The Capture of Cerberus & The Incident of the Dog's Ball by Agatha Christie read by David Suchet (AudioGo, September 2011, ISBN: 9781408468593, 2 CDs (1hr 25 mins))

Some background information taken from the back cover:
In 2004, a remarkable archive was unearthed at Agatha Christie’s family home, Greenway – 73 of her private notebooks, filled with pencilled jottings and ideas. Hidden within this literary treasure trove were two rare, never-before-published short stories, discovered by archivist John Curran and published in his book ‘Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making’.

‘The Capture of Cerberus’ was intended to be the twelfth in her collection of Poirot stories, ‘The Labours of Hercules’, but she eventually rewrote it, keeping only the title.

‘The Incident of the Dog’s Ball’, probably written in 1933, was reworked as the novel ‘Dumb Witness’ (1937) with a different murderer and motive.

Review: In The Capture of Cerberus, Hercule Poirot is in Geneva. The Second World War is looming and he wishes that people would be passionate about peace rather than fighting. A meeting with the fascinating Countess Vera Rossakoff leads him to investigate a case for a German man who cannot believe that his son assassinated an important leader. Poirot must find the truth for him.

In The Incident of the Dog's Ball Poirot appears in a more typical investigation, when he receives a very delayed letter in the post from an elderly lady who is troubled. When Poirot and Captain Hastings go to visit her, they are too late - she has died. The companion inherits, cutting out the two heirs. Was the death natural causes, or murder?

A fabulous coup for AudioGO, getting the actor who is Poirot to narrate these two rediscovered stories. David Suchet has a compelling natural voice and of course can perform the necessary accents and voices well (with the exception of the oddly Welsh sounding Russian one given to Vera Rossakoff). In The Capture of Cerberus gives a glimpse into life as tension grew in Europe and is a rather different tale than you might expect from the author associated with vicarages and stately homes. In this one Poirot plays more of a central control figure, getting others to do the leg-work, rather than getting out himself. The Incident of the Dog's Ball, which is a few minutes longer than the other story, is a cut down version of a typical Poirot investigation - you may be able to solve the case before Poirot, just.

With the number of new Suchet/Poirot/Christie episodes on the tv running low, as most have been filmed now, I'm very grateful for these additional two stories which I enjoyed listening to.

Agatha Christie's Verdict - on tour

Agatha Christie's play Verdict will be touring the UK next year. Verdict will be showing at the following venues/times, taken from kenwright.com:

11 - 22 Jan	Theatre Royal Windsor	01753 853 888	Book Online
24 -29 Jan	Theatre Royal Bath	01225 448844	Book Online
31 Jan- 5 Feb	Everyman Theatre Cheltenham	01242 572573	Book Online
7- 12 Feb	Theatre Royal Plymouth	01752 230440	Book Online
15 - 19 Feb	New Theatre Cardiff	029 2087 8889	Book Online
21 - 26 Feb	Grand Theatre Wolverhampton	01902 429212	Book Online
28 Feb - 5 Mar	Queen's Theatre Barnstaple	01272 324242	Book Online
7 - 12 Mar	Palace Theatre Southend	01702 351135	Book Online
14 - 19 Mar	Swan Theatre High Wycombe	01494 512 000	Book Online
21 - 26 Mar	Festival Theatre Malvern	01684 892277	Book Online
28 Mar - 2 Apr	Churchill Theatre Bromley	08448 717 620	Book Online
4 - 9 Apr	Derby Theatre Derby	01332 255800	Book Online
25 - 30 Apr	Richmond Theatre Richmond	0844 871 7651	Book Online
Please note casting is not confirmed for the following venues
16 - 21 May	Assembly Hall Tunbridge Wells	01892 530613	Book Online
23 - 28 May	Floral Pavilion New Brighton	0151 666 0000	Book Online
30 May - 4 Jun	Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guildford	01483 44 00 00	Book Online

Following the huge success of The Hollow, The Unexpected Guest, And Then There Were None, Spider’s Web, and most recently Witness For The Prosecution, the Agatha Christie Theatre Company, now in its sixth outstanding year, is proud to present Verdict, the most riveting and compelling drama by the undisputed ‘Queen of Crime.’

An all-star cast is led by Dawn Steele, best known for playing Lexie MacDonald in the hit BBC drama Monarch of the Glen and recently starring as Alice Collins in the popular ITV series Wild at Heart, which continues for its sixth season in 2011. She is joined by Robert Duncan (Gus Hedges in the multi award-winning comedy Drop the Dead Donkey) and Ali Bastian who shot to fame as Becca Dean in Hollyoaks and PC Sally Armstrong in The Bill, and reached the semi-finals in the hit BBC show Strictly Come Dancing in 2009. The cast also includes Peter Byrne (Dixon of Dock Green), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom in the hugely successful Harry Potter film series), Elizabeth Power (Eastenders) and 60’s pop idol Mark Wynter.

Having been forced to flee persecution in his home country, the brilliant and idealistic Professor Karl Hendryk leads a content and morally upstanding life, but his world is turned upside-down when the prospect of life-saving treatment for his invalid wife persuades him to take on a new pupil against his better judgement; the spoilt, conniving minx Helen who will stop at nothing to get her way. With murderous intentions afoot, it only remains to be seen what verdict will be delivered, and if justice will prevail...

Murder on the Orient Express

Christmas Day tv's looking good in the UK: Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol (update: 6pm UK, BBC America at 9pm ET) and Murder on the Orient Express on ITV at 9pm.


From the ITV press release:

World-famous sleuth Hercule Poirot has just solved a complex case in Istanbul for the British Army, when he witnesses an act of brutal injustice on the streets. Relieved when a new case calls him back to London, Poirot’s old acquaintance Xavier Bouc (Serge Hazanavicius), secures him a last minute ticket on the luxurious Orient Express.

Among the eclectic range of passengers are Princess Dragomiroff (Dame Eileen Atkins) and her nervous maid Hildegard Schmidt (Susanne Lothar), English Governess Mary Debenham (Jessica Chastain) and Swedish missionary Greta Ohlsson (Marie-Josée Croze).

Whilst aboard the train Poirot is approached by ruthless American businessman Samuel Ratchett (Toby Jones) who offers him $10,000 to watch his back. Could Ratchett be fearful of the Italian Antonio Foscarelli (Joseph Mawle), English Colonel John Arbuthnott (David Morrissey), pushy American Mrs Hubbard (Barbara Hershey) or Hungarian diplomat Count Andrenyi (Stanley Weber) and his wife, Countess Andrenyi (Elena Satine)? Poirot awakes the following morning to find the train stuck in a snowdrift and Ratchett dead in his compartment

With nothing but a scrap of paper to go on, Poirot must piece together Ratchett’s identity before he can establish which of his fellow passengers murdered him and their motive.

David Suchet says: “It's an honour to have such a wonderful international cast on board for this world famous murder mystery. Writer, Stewart Harcourt, has created an exquisite script. His attention to detail is impeccable.”

Producer Karen Thrussell says: “We’re all incredibly delighted that 21 years after David Suchet first played Hercule Poirot he is now starring in arguably the most ingenious and best loved Agatha Christie title of all time.”

Solve The ABC Murders on the DS

Already out in the US, Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders DS game will be out in the UK on the 20th.

As easy as A...B...C?

Agatha Christie’s A.B.C Murders tells the story of Captain Hastings and Hercule Poirot as they attempt to solve a series of bizarre murders committed by an elusive madman.

Going off the simple clue of the A.B.C railway guide left at the scene of each crime, Hastings and Poirot follow the leads to Andover, Bexhill, Churston, and Doncaster trying to apprehend the killer before the next crime is committed.

He soon realizes a serial killer is on the loose, murdering his victims in alphabetical order, leaving an ABC Railway Guide beside each body and playing a dangerous game with Hercule Poirot. He alerts Poirot in advance of the locations of the murders, but Poirot always arrives too late. Intrigued by the psychopath’s mind and methodology, Poirot travels the length and breadth of England - determined to track down this ruthless killer.


FEATURES

* Live through a modern classic for the first time on the Nintendo DS.

* Solve the crime in multiple ways, and then solve it again!

* Complete mind-bending puzzles!

* Use your Investigator’s Journal to record clues and notes.

* Collect hidden notes found in-game that contains unique facts about Agatha Christie or one of her characters.

Watch the trailer:



Having been disappointed with some recent mystery DS games, I'd appreciate some feedback on this one.

Le Crime Est Notre Affaire

The French Film Festival is currently running in some venues in the UK. (See here for which cinemas are taking part.) It finishes on 20 December.

One of the films on offer is 2008's Le Crime Est Notre Affaire (Crime is Our Business) in which Agatha Christie's married sleuths, the Beresfords, return:

The latest adventures of Belisaire and Prudence Beresford, adapted stylishly from Agatha Christie, find the pair enjoying peaceful days in their château but Prudence is bored and longs for a crime.

Bringing back most of the cast and crew from his two previous Christie yarns, By the Pricking of My Thumbs and Towards Zero, writer-director Pascal Thomas adds another instalment to a consistently entertaining series.

Based primarily on the short story The House of Lurking Death, which appeared in the author's 1929 collection Partners in Crime, but also including shades of 4:50 From Paddington, Thomas brings back that uncanny duo Prudence (Frot) and Belisaire Beresford (Dussollier), last seen Sherlocking together in Thumbs.

With Belisaire now retired from the secret service and the couple living tranquilly in the stunningly photographed Rhône-Alpes region, bored Prudence is just dying for a new crime to solve. Her wish is soon granted when visiting Auntie Babette (Annie Cordy in an engaging cameo) arrives on a train, on which she claims to have witnessed a murder.

The trailer below shows the first few minutes of the film: