Agatha Christie’s Complete Secret Notebooks

Taken at the Flood (#litres_trial_promo)

Crooked House (#litres_trial_promo)

Part IV: The Fourth Decade (#litres_trial_promo)

A Murder is Announced (#litres_trial_promo)

They Came to Baghdad (#litres_trial_promo)

Mrs McGinty’s Dead (#litres_trial_promo)

They Do It With Mirrors (#litres_trial_promo)

After the Funeral (#litres_trial_promo)

A Pocket Full of Rye (#litres_trial_promo)

Personal Call (#litres_trial_promo)

Destination Unknown (#litres_trial_promo)

Spider’s Web (#litres_trial_promo)

Hickory Dickory Dock (#litres_trial_promo)

Dead Man’s Folly (#litres_trial_promo)

‘Greenshaw’s Folly’ (#litres_trial_promo)

4.50 from Paddington (#litres_trial_promo)

The Unexpected Guest (#litres_trial_promo)

Ordeal by Innocence (#litres_trial_promo)

Cat among the Pigeons (#litres_trial_promo)

Part V: The Fifth Decade (#litres_trial_promo)

The Pale Horse (#litres_trial_promo)

The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side (#litres_trial_promo)

Rule of Three (#litres_trial_promo)

The Clocks (#litres_trial_promo)

A Caribbean Mystery (#litres_trial_promo)

At Bertram’s Hotel (#litres_trial_promo)

Third Girl (#litres_trial_promo)

Endless Night (#litres_trial_promo)

By the Pricking of my Thumbs (#litres_trial_promo)

Hallowe’en Party (#litres_trial_promo)

Part VI: The Sixth Decade (#litres_trial_promo)

Passenger to Frankfurt (#litres_trial_promo)

Nemesis (#litres_trial_promo)

Fiddler’s Three (#litres_trial_promo)

Elephants Can Remember (#litres_trial_promo)

Akhnaton (#litres_trial_promo)

Postern of Fate (#litres_trial_promo)

Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case (#litres_trial_promo)

Sleeping Murder (#litres_trial_promo)

Postscript: Unused Ideas (#litres_trial_promo)

Appendix I: Chronology of Titles (#litres_trial_promo)

Appendix II: Alphabetical List of Titles (#litres_trial_promo)

Endnotes (#litres_trial_promo)

Index of Titles (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Foreword (#ulink_e1888359-ac39-5c29-aba4-381a398c932a)

When John Curran’s book Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks was published in 2009, the reading public was given something very rare: perhaps the most complete document for any author of the notes and sketches of their novels. Reading the book was like studying the preliminary sketches of any great artist, and in doing so we automatically found ourselves searching for clues. It gave us an insight into the workings of Agatha Christie’s mind – plus the gift of two new unpublished Poirot stories!

John Curran not only gives us the facts of what is written in Mrs Christie’s notebooks, but he uses conjecture firmly based upon these facts to show us how her remarkable novels came to be written. He even manages to get into her mind and into her psychology. He studies her life and her relationships (both personal and professional), and places these facts together with what is in her ‘secret’ notebooks to inform us how she wrote and how her writings were influenced by her daily life and the current affairs of the time.

Poirot is often heard to exclaim to Hastings, ‘The facts, Hastings … the facts!’ These for Poirot are the most important matters to ‘arrange’. And now John Curran in his book becomes himself the veritable Hercule – well … almost!