Agatha Christie

Interest in Agatha Christie's works continues unabated 35 years after her death. Curran is an archivist, Christie expert, and literary adviser to the Christie estate who in 2005 discovered 73 of the writer's notebooks in a cupboard in her Devon home while he was advising the National Trust on its restoration. He began to mine the notebooks for insights into Christie's works and published Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks (2009), which included two previously unpublished short stories, excerpts from the notebooks, and Curran's comments placing the excerpts in context for the reader. The present volume follows the same pattern. Excerpts from the notebooks (dashed-off notes, brief plot or character ideas, fragments of writing) are filtered through Curran's extensive knowledge of Christie's works, shedding light on the writer's creative process. Also included are a previously unpublished Miss Marple story and an essay by Christie on her attitude toward her character Hecule Poirot.