Agatha Christie was born on September 15, 1890 in Torquay, Devon, England. That is a place that I wouldn’t mind visiting some day (though not likely.)

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections in her own name, as well as many others using her pseudonym, Mary Westmacott.  Her best known stories were about detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, although I also like the ones featuring Tommy and Tuppence. Agatha also wrote the world’s longest-running play, The Mousetrap, which has been performed in London’s West End since 1952.

I believe that Agatha Christie novels were among the first “grown-up” books that I ever read, and the same is true of my daughter, who started borrowing books from me at about age 9 or 10.

Agatha Christie had a very interesting life, including her service during the First World War, at which time she became familiar with poisons while serving as an apothecary’s assistant in Torquay’s Town Hall Red Cross Hospital, poison being a recurring method of murder in her mysteries, including the first – The Mysterious Affair at Styles, published in 1920.

Following her divorce from Archibald Christie, in 1928 Agatha took the Orient Express to Istanbul and then to Baghdad. In Iraq, she became friends with archaeologist Leonard Woolley and his wife, who invited her to return to their dig in February 1930. On that second trip, she met archaeologist Max Mallowan, 13 years her junior. They married seven months later, and remained married for the rest of her life. She accompanied Max on his archaeological expeditions, and her travels with him contributed settings for several of her novels set in the Middle East.

I think perhaps my favorite Christie novel is Sleeping Murder, which was published soon after her death in 1976. This novel featuring Miss Jane Marple was actually written during WWII but was put in a vault along with Curtains – featuring Poirot – for release after her death. Both were willed to her daughter as a sort of insurance policy. I admit to being partial to the Miss Marple stories, although I enjoy the exploits of Hercule Poirot as well.

Many of my favorites have been made into movies and television dramas. Examples are Murder at the Vicarage, Murder on The Orient Express, And Then There Were None, Death On The Nile, A Murder Is Announced, and the famous Poirot series on PBS. There are so many more!