Recently I watched an episode of The ABC Murders, starring John Malkovich as a rather twitchy, guilt-ridden, autumnal Poirot. It is directed by Brazilian. Alex Gabassi, and often has a rather brutal, phantasmagorical quality. It is more David Lynch than the genteel Christieville world of cucumber sandwiches at the vicarage that we are used to.
Intrigued, I paid a visit to IMDB and was struck by how many well/known actors have played Poirot. Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov, David Suchet, Orson Welles and Kenneth Branagh. The recent Orient Express movie feels like a vanity project so that our Ken would get a chance to play the great sleuth.
Initially it was beyond my ken, why Hercule should be so popular, but on reflection, I began to appreciate the charm of this rather stiff and pedantic Belgian brainbox. And of course a detective with flaws is always appealing.
Agatha Christie was definitely rather fond of her creation who was inspired by the Belgians she met working as a nurse during the Great War. Poirot appeared in 33 novels, one play and over 50 short stories.
By contrast, her other great character, Miss Jane Marple from the village of St Mary Mead appeared in only 12 novels and several short stories. I like Christie’s description of her as “the sort of old lady who would have been rather like some of my step grandmother’s Ealing cronies – old ladies whom I have met in so many villages where I have gone to stay as a girl.”
Two wonderful roles for any actor! Hamlet, Hedda Gabler, Lady MacBeth or King Lear might look better ona thespian CV. But I suspect that playing a sleuth, from Philip Marlowe to Inspector Rebus, from Precious Ramotswe to Vera Stanhope, is just as much of a challenge and a lot more fun.
Back in the 1930s, Christie and the other Queens of Crime, Ngaio March, Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham, ruled supreme. How many of them are read now? Today there are many pretenders to the throne and crime fiction is a ridiculously broad field. From Greenland to Glasgow, is there a geographical location that has not appeared in a crime novel? And as for historical periods…… Medieval murder mysteries are probably a genre in their own right.
Personally, I have a great weakness for the Tartan Noir of Rankin and Brookmyre. A while back I binge read some of Donna Leon’s novels about Venetian cop Guido Brunetti and enjoyed them a lot. Please give us a few clues about your favourite crime fiction characters: either on the page, or on the screen!
Kaisfatdad says
A trivia titbit. In 1983, Estonian actress, Ita Ever, starred as Miss Marple in a Soviet era remake of A Pocketful of Rye.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086407/
If you have a spare 90 minutes you can watch it here. Magnificently peculiar. Filmed in London but everybody is speaking Russian.
Kaisfatdad says
How about Ten Little Indians in Russian – with English subtitles?
I discovered it in this book about film adaptations of Christie’s novels.
https://books.google.se/books?id=UeZODQAAQBAJ&pg=PA303&lpg=PA303&dq=russian+film+%22secret+of+the+blackbirds%22&source=bl&ots=sXV3OknCYU&sig=ACfU3U1nUjf0PwdW31utCORI2LgTOlIu_g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiUspfz_NvjAhWu_CoKHaj9ADkQ6AEwBnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=russian%20film%20%22secret%20of%20the%20blackbirds%22&f=false
There are a lot of them!
salwarpe says
There are three great Hercule Poirot stories – the first (Mysterious Affair at Styles), the Mystery of Roger Ackroyd, and the last (Curtain). In turn they set, overturn and muse elegiacally upon the classic country house murder mystery.
Kaisfatdad says
Very eloquently put, Sal. I googled to find out when Cluedo as launched. It was 1949 which says a lot about how well established the conventions of the country house murder mystery were established.
Here is a poignant story about how its creator, Anthony Pratt, died penniless.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150210122936/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/mr-pratt-in-the-old-peoples-home-with-an-empty-pocket-1184258.html
salwarpe says
Thanks, KFD! I made a schoolboy error above – it is the Murder of Roger Ackroyd – though it is a mystery as well, of course.
Kaisfatdad says
Mark Aldridge, who wrote that book, has a rather entertaining blog about Christie film adaptations.
Here he is talking about the worst of them.
https://agathachristieonscreen.com/2016/07/08/the-five-worst-agatha-christie-screen-adaptations/
I was amused by the description of The Alphabet Murders from 1965. It’s the ABC Murders redone as a jaunty sex comedy with lots of gratuitous nudity. A kind of Carry on Poirot.
I watched the first five minutes. It is a total travesty but a rather entertaining one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6my3gZ1GwZE
Bargepole says
Holmes, Watson & Lestrade are my all time favourites, followed by their literary equivalents Poirot, Hastings & Japp.
In more recent times, Ian Rankin’s Rebus, Stuart MacBride’s Logan MacRae and Phillip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther.
Bargepole says
On screen, David Suchet was the definitive Poirot for me, while Holmes was captured to perfection by Jeremy Brett.
dai says
Used to avidly read Poirot as a kid (mostly borrowed from library), I find most or all TV and movie adaptations to be pretty awful. Not really sure why they keep making them. I think I would find the books to be similarly uninteresting if I picked one up today.
Morrison says
Miss Marple also had the best theme tune – hot harpsichord action courtesy of maestro Ron Goodwin.
Sniffity says
As covered by the Fun Boy Three on their second LP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1vDKYOiFA0
salwarpe says
Joan HIckson was Miss Marple for me – sharp, decisive, brisk in the English upper class rural way.
minibreakfast says
One of my favourite feem toons ever.
salwarpe says
It’s a great ear worm with quiet/loud movements almost worthy of a Pixies track. I do wonder what a mash up with the Black Adder soundtrack would be like – they are very similar.
Sniffity says
‘ullo ‘ullo ‘ullo….someone must have been in a Marple frame of mind when coming up with the theme for early 90s Oz medico series “GP”
minibreakfast says
Marvelous stuff, never heard that one before.
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks Morrison! I enjoyed that. Crime show theme tunes is a rich theme indeed.
What about Maigret?
Incidentally, Ms Christie appeared in a episode of Dr Who. Other than Dickens, I don’t think any other writer has had that honour.
Sniffity says
The Bard of Avon turned up in The Shakespeare Code, a Tennant & Martha Smith episode.
Those two you could pretty well expect – don’t think we’ll be seeing Carlos Castaneda or Iain M Banks as guest characters any time soon.
Kaisfatdad says
I am not so sure, Sniffity. The Whovian crew seem to enjoy pushing the envelope. The new Doctor has met Rosa Parks..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykL1kQyC7-4
Colin H says
I’m a big fan of ‘golden age’ British crime writing – usually defined as the period between the wars, and stretching into the 50s in some cases. Freeman Wills Crofts is my favourite writer from that period – master of ‘the humdrum mystery’ as it became known. Which might explain why I don’t think he ever translated to TV. His plots are generally based around Inspector French relentlessly trying to break impressive alibis. I like the atmosphere and slightly starchy style of them. the British Library Crime Classics series has republished four of them recently, and I have a load of others via eBay – albeit the easier to find ones. There are 10 or so I haven’t acquired because originals are too pricey and they haven’t been reprinted.
I’ve read a fair number of Christie’s books in recent years too – better than I’d been led to believe, and again full of period atmosphere. George Bellairs is an underrated writer from that period. Seen as a ‘humdrum’ writer like Crofts, his writing and plots actually have more wit and pizzaz about them. I’ve only read 3 or 4 of his books, but will seek out more.
John Dickson Carr is the master of the ‘locked room mystery’ from that era. I find his writing and some of his characters (Gideon Fell not least) a bit annoying, but his plotting was incredible.
SouthernExile says
Have you read this? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Golden-Age-Murder-Martin-Edwards/dp/0008105987/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=golden+age+of+murder&qid=1564489290&s=gateway&sr=8-1
It is a history of the Detection Club and the works of Christie, Sayers, Crofts and many others.
Colin H says
Yes. Recommended.
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks for that, Southern. I had never heard of the Detection Club. There were some serious heavyweights involved, which indicates how far crime fiction had come by 1930.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detection_Club
Not least of these was the first chairman, G. K. Chesterton.
He was a fine writer and his Father Brown stories, with their strong philosophical leanings, are still a joy to read.
In 1930, crime writer came to together to form a dining club. In 2019, they get together a form a rock band.
Val McDermid’s hobby band, which includes Chris Brookmyre among others, landed a gig at Glasto.
https://www.scotsman.com/news/people/crime-writer-val-mcdermid-s-rock-band-land-glastonbury-gig-1-4919906
And let’s not forget their US counterparts, the Rock Bottom Remainders.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Bottom_Remainders
“We play music as well as Metallica writes novels.” Dave Berry
Being a writer is a pretty lonely business. If not sitting in their garden shed writing, they are probably on the road on a long promotional tour. So if my favourite crime writers want to get together, make some noise, and turn the volume up to 11, they certainly have my blessing,
If she had been born a few generations later, I am sure that Agatha Christie would have had a band. How would that have sounded. A bit Siouxsie Sioux perhaps.
Or how about a Queens of Crime metal supergroup: Tigresses in the Smoke! What is not to like …
Kaisfatdad says
That is interesting, Colin! I’d never heard of the “humdrum novelists”. Somebody ought to do them a post-humous favour and come up with a more enticing name.
They are clearly a lot more interesting.
https://pastoffences.wordpress.com/2013/06/09/curtis-evans-masters-of-the-humdrum-mystery-2/
Hamlet says
The Suchet-starring episodes are the best – principally because of Hugh Fraser’s performance as Hastings.
The poor fella has directed Chekhov plays, and he’s a Shakespeare specialist, but all he ever says in Poirot is “Good Lord!” Or if he gets adequate screen time, “I say, Poirot: steady on, old chap!” There’s a great compilation on YouTube of his ‘Good Lord!’ moments.
Bargepole says
Yes a superb portrayal – interestingly the character appeared in only 8 Poirot novels but in 43 episodes of the TV adaptations.
Another Will Smith says
Apparently Christie ended up hating writing about Poirot http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/devon/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_9131000/9131482.stm
Another Will Smith says
Some of the later Suchet episodes were written by Mark Gatiss, probably the most enjoyable ones – I saw Cat Amongst the Pigeons recently which I found was an excellent episode with quite a bit more humour than there normally is.
hubert rawlinson says
Aberystwyth Noir.
Malcolm Pryce’s novels set in the Welsh crime spot of Aberystwyth.
Aberystwyth, town of broken hearts and broken cornets
dai says
And Hinterland was (mainly) set in nearby Borth.
hubert rawlinson says
Other ones I enjoy are Christopher Fowler’s Bryant and May detectives.
http://www.christopherfowler.co.uk/blog/the-history-of-bryant-may/
Golden age detectives in the here and now. Lots of arcane London lore in there too.
Oscar Wilde as a detective?
Why not.
https://www.oscarwildemurdermysteries.com/
Gyles Branreth.
Just read one of Paul D Gilbert’s books novellas based on the cases mentioned in Conan Doyle’s books. eg The Dundas Separation Case
Colin H says
Yep. I can recommend both the Fowler and Brandreth series too.
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks, Hubert. Blimey! Some great tips there. Bryant and May sound right up my street. And the covers are splendid.
And Wilde as a crime solver, I’ll go for it!
Let me put a word of praise for Ben Aaronovitch and his Rivers of London novels about Peter Grant, a cop who works with a special department of the Met dealing with crimes with a supernatural element. Ben has an encyclopaedic knowledge of London which makes the novels a joy to read.
slotbadger says
Crikey, if managing Led Zep wasn’t enough he was a supernatural gumshoe as well? You wouldn’t want to be a ghost who got in his bad books, would you
ruff-diamond says
“Give me my money you spectral CAHNT!! Colesy, smash ‘is fackin’ face in!”
Boneshaker says
I read all 77 of Agatha Christie’s crime novels and short story collections when I was a callow youth of around 15 (they were strange days back in the 1970s). I recently picked up one of them (Five Little Pigs) to see if it still held up, and it was the most unreadable tosh. Christie, and the others mentioned above – Sayers, Marsh and Allingham, wrote in a heavily stylized manner about a kind of England that never existed, but Margery Allingham’s Tiger In The Smoke is still a decent novel which expands beyond the usual whodunnit format.
The cover art created by Tom Adams for Fontana’s 1970s Christie paperbacks is still amongst the best ever produced though.
salwarpe says
They were good, weren’t they? My mum had a whole set of them in a bookcase outside my bedroom when I was a pre-teen. I would marvel at the remarkable, enigmatic covers – the china doll on ‘By The Pricing of My Thumbs’ was particularly disturbing. ‘Ordeal By Innocence’, I could never work out if it was a snake or a hooded, headless zombie.
Doing a Google image search just now was remarkably evocative. As image posting is such a faff on here, I might post some on the AW FB page, to see if it triggers anyone else’s memory.
Kaisfatdad says
Tiger in the Smoke was made into a rather successful British film noir starring Donald Sinden in 1956. The villains are a group of teddy boys: a terrifying phenomenon to the law abiding folk of the 50s.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049854/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1
Rather oddly, the central character in the novel, is left out of the film.
Here is a 1980s radio adaptation of the novel for your listening pleasure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfCImSzvpnU
salwarpe says
Here is my FB post in case anyone is interested.
Alias says
A great late 80s dancehall track, appropriate for this and the reggae thread.
Murder She Wrote
Two of my favourite crime fiction characters are Nick Stefanos a private detective in books by George Pelicans. The character, like the author is a big music fan, his books are riddled with musical references from all genres and eras.
The other is Easy Rawlins, another private dick. The author is Walter Mosley. Devil In A Blue Dress was made into a film. I can’t understand why any others haven’t.
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks for the tips, Alias. You made me keen to know more so I googled and this site filled in quite a few gaps about Pelecanos.
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/stefanos.html
I was pleasantly impressed that I took a look at the entry for Walter Mosley
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/easy_rawlins.html
Top notch stuff. Do not let the name put you off! Thrilling Detective is informative and well written and provides a usefulpverview of US crime fiction.
Kaisfatdad says
Pelecanos is a very interesting guy, @Alias, and very hard-working writer. As well as 20 or so novels, in which he has created several different detectives, he has also been a scriptwriter for The Wire and Treme.
A couple of interviews with him. From 2000.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/jul/16/crimebooks.euanferguson
Here is a more recent one.
https://freshairarchive.org/segments/dc-author-george-pelecanos-writes-what-he-knows-martini-shot
Charlie Barley says
Agatha Christie vs Hercule Poirot
I saw this on Sky Arts a few years ago, it’s a French documentary with sub-titles. Its premise is that Agatha Christie had grown tired of the adulation that Poirot had been getting and within The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, she had hidden clues indicating that he may have got this one wrong, reminding her readership that either, he is only human and can make mistakes or to show that she is cleverer than her creation.
I haven’t read the book, but enjoyed the programme.
https://www.sky.com/watch/title/programme/9a98a4dd-4b23-4075-8561-527fcc2176b1
salwarpe says
It’s not this book, is it?
Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?: The Mystery Behind the Agatha Christie Mystery by Pierre Bayard
It is entertaining – in the style of Rosancrantz and Guildenstein inhabiting the world of Hamlet, or the Back to the Future sequels feeding off the original, the author revisits the story and describes an alternative ending that fits the logic of the known facts.
Such a multiple viewpoints/unreliable narrator approach is appealing – though I’ve never seen the famous Rashomon, the Iain Pears novel ‘An Instance of the Fingerpost’ does this well.
Kaisfatdad says
That is the one, Sal.
I agree with you about Fingerpost. A wonderfully enjoyable novel.
I googled Rashomon and Fingerpost and got to this page.
https://ask.metafilter.com/205599/Rashomonstyle-novels
You have just opened a whole new can of fascinating worms for a future thread!
Rashomon-like books and films
salwarpe says
I’d be up for that. I do like getting lost in a good book. Or film. The Draughtsman’s Contract is another example of there being more than immediately meets the eye in the plot.
I note one of the books listed in your linked page (apart from the appropriately-titled Shriek: An Afterword) is the devilish Quincunx – 800 pages to the end and the last sentence sends you back to the start in a complete state of genealogical turmoil – I’ve never reread it as I really enjoyed the narrative rush through the filthy streets of Victorian England the first time, but faced with the prospect of restarting and re-examining every scene with new information just disheartened me.
Kaisfatdad says
Excellent discovery, Charlie!
Pierre Bayard, the academic whose book the film is based on, sounds like a right wag.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bayard
His most well-known books are How to talk about books you haven’t read and How to talk about places you haven’t visited.
https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/how-talk-about-books-you-havent-read-pierre-bayard
Kaisfatdad says
Stumbled across this piece on William McIlvanney, “the father of Tartan noir.” A new name for me
https://fika-online.com/2017/08/16/nordic-noirs-scottish-rival-tartan-noir/
Tartan Noir. Nordic Noir. Are there any noirs we have forgotten?
Norwich noir? Nigeria Noir? Nuuk Noir? Nantucket Noir? Nancy Noir?
Thanks to Hubert, we now know about Pryce and Welsh crime fiction. Time for a remake of that Hollywood classic?
How noir was my valley!
Alias says
I don’t know if Norwich noir exists, but they do have an annual crime writers festival. Called, of course Noirwich.
http://Www.Noirwich.co.uk
If she hasn’t already been mentioned, Val McDermid should definitely be included in the Tartan noir category.
Kaisfatdad says
Val is a wonderful writer. I’m surprised that, other than The Wire in the Blood, so few of her books have been filmed.
Noirwich!! Thanks @Alias. That made my day.
Interestingly, the term film noir, does not seem to have come into use in the English-speaking world until the 1970s. All those classic 50s film noirs were known as “melodramas”.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir
Kaisfatdad says
The Skåne Tourist Board are very aware of the popularity of Henning Mankell’s DCI Kurt Wellander
https://visitsweden.com/wallanders-ystad/
And quite rightly so. Mankell’s novels are keenly-observed portraits of life in contemporary Sweden.
Kaisfatdad says
Ngaio Marsh a major literary icon from New Zealand has been mentioned.
https://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writer/marsh-ngaio/
But so far we have had no crime fiction from Australia.
Norwegian, Jo Nesbo, effectively uses an Australian setting for his first Harry Hole novel, The Bat.
But what about other NZ and Australian crime writers?
Mike_H says
Jane Harper seems to have set out her stall as Australia’s current Crime Queen.
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks Mike. I had not heard of her. Must put that right.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/weekend-australian-magazine/jane-harper-murder-she-wrote/news-story/e0ec1f86f1144119bb67317e6c209d23
Sniffity says
I’m not a fan of crime fiction, but to represent the antipodean contingent I would suggest:
a) Carter Brown, nom-de-plume of UK-born Oz scribe Arthur Yates…I recall a few of these on the family bookshelf when I were but youngster – the Robert McGinnis ladies on the covers were enough to make me feel self-conscious about reading them.
b) Boney, the half-Aboriginal star of 29 books written by Arthur Upfield between 1929 and 1964; a TV adaptation in the 1970s caused some upset when New Zealander James Laurenson was cast as the title character.
c) Peter Corris, who died only last year, wrote a swag of novels starring Sydney gumshoe Cliff Hardy.
For many years in Melbourne there was a bookshop called Kill City which sold nothing but crime fiction…someone here must like it (for example She For Whom I Cook).
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks for that very comprehensive overview, Sniffity.
I had not heard of Carter Brown and thus wanted to know what those covers looked like.
http://suspenseandmystery.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-alphabet-2013-letter_24.html
Phew! Scorchio! Femmes do not get more fatale. I can understand your reluctance about reading them I’d be afraid of burning my fingers just picking them up. Makes me think of the very pulpy noir fiction of Mickey Spillane.
The Boney books sound very tempting. What I enjoy most from detective fiction are the descriptions of people and places and they seem to deliver that rather well.
Googled. Upfield definitely put Australia on the crime fiction map.
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/turning-pages-why-its-time-to-give-arthur-upfield-another-crack-of-the-whip-20150712-gi9vww.html
I will look out for Corris too. He ticks all the boxes for me.
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/peter-corris-the-godfather-of-australian-crime-fiction-has-died-20180830-h14qj6.html
Another extremely hard-working writer!
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/sydney-author-peter-corris-who-died-last-week-created-one-of-the-worlds-great-crime-fiction-characters-2018-9
Thanks to your tips, I stumbled across this essay covering 200 years of Aussie crime fiction!!
https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-from-convicts-to-contemporary-convictions-200-years-of-australian-crime-fiction-98845
That should keep me and She For Whom You Cook busy for a while.
I really am enjoying discovering all these new names.
Incidentally, there was something of a to-do a few years back when foreign novels in translation were winning the prestigious Golden Dagger Award a bit too often.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/nov/16/comment.features11
Novels in translation became a separate category.
The list of winners over the years is illuminating. A lot of writers we have mentioned here, such as Jane Harper, have won.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Dagger
Kaisfatdad says
According to this very informative podcast
https://shedunnitshow.com/tag/ngaio-marsh/
Ngaio is still NZ’s best selling author. That is surprising, if it’s true.
Fascinating woman though.
Kaisfatdad says
A sub-genre of crime fiction is murder mysteries with an historical background. Here is an excellent overview.
https://crimefictionlover.com/2018/03/era-by-era-10-of-the-best-historical-crime-novels-with-barry-forshaw/
A lot of new names, but I can thoroughly recommend Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith set in Stalinist Russia.
And it is not the only detective novel in that setting! Irish writer, William Ryan, has a Russian cop. Alexei Korolev, solving mysteries in 1930s Russia.
https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/review-thriller-the-bloody-meadow-by-william-ryan-26777584.html
hubert rawlinson says
I’m sure these have been recommended before but…
You need a Texan Jewish Country and Western singing detective in your life.
Mr Kinky Friedman for it is he is the detective in his own series of books.
Kaisfatdad says
That must be a first, Hubert.
He goes his own way!! Always!
Kaisfatdad says
Crime fiction cover art would make a thread in its own right. Boneshaker mentioned Tom Adams’s work on Agatha Christie novels. Remarkable
http://thepassingtramp.blogspot.com/2015/10/murder-as-fine-art-tom-adams-and-agatha.html
Thanks to Sniffity, Robert McGinnis is now seriously on my map.
https://crimereads.com/robert-mcginnis-a-life-in-paperback-art/
Hours of fun to be had at the chazzas, discovering pulp fiction classics.
https://crimereads.com/12-cover-artists-every-vintage-crime-lover-should-know/
Those Penguin covers do seem rather staid and prim by contrast.
Not uninteresting to see all the different ways n which Poirot and other AG novels have been presented.
https://www.pinterest.se/marinasmum/agatha-christie-book-covers/
Ainsley says
Two recommendations for anyone into murder/mystery as long as you can enjoy them being set some centuries ago.
Paul Doherty – the main series are Bother Athelstan, set in the 14th century and weaving the hisory of the period into some pretty gruesome serial killer style mysteries. Also, the Corbett series, set a little earlier.
Edward Marston – multiple series of books set in different time periods from post-1066 invasion right up to the Home Front detective. Start with the Nicholas Bracewell series and work out from there.
I can’t stress my love for these enough, these two can really write and they both have the knack of delivering characters you come very quickly to like with historical details that make the worlds they populate utterly believable.
They also both compete for hardest-working writer title as their output over the years has been phenomenal, which is great, of course, if you get into them.
Kaisfatdad says
Crikey! As you say, Ainsley, two astonishingly productive chaps. I want to know more.
Marston sounds fascinating.
http://www.edwardmarston.com/
Paul Doherty has not only written mountains of books. He is also a successful headmaster.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_C._Doherty
And now, a good overview of the history of crime fiction.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/1999/oct/29/crimebooks
Kaisfatdad says
This amazing site offers an overview of the artwork for all Agatha Christie’s novels. A treat!
http://www.deliciousdeath.com/#