Agatha Christie: First Lady of Crime
Edited by H.R.F. Keating. (Pegasus Crime, 272 pages, $26.95.)
It's easy to guess why this 1977 collection of essays about the great mystery writer has been republished with a new introduction by Sophie Hannah. A mystery writer herself, she was selected by Agatha Christie's estate to write new novels featuring detective Hercule Poirot, so she's obviously an admirer — a big-time admirer.
In her delightful intro, Hannah argues not just that Christie is one of the mystery-writing greats but that she's one of the giants of literature who belongs alongside Shakespeare and Jane Austen on the Mount Rushmore of books. That's a useful corrective for the rest of the essays, originally published shortly after Christie's death, many of which take a condescending tone. Editor H.R.F. Keating refers to Christie as "a circus clown" and "the least intellectual of writers," and this is in what's supposed to be a tribute!
Throughout the collection, Christie's writing is dismissed as "simple," even "simplistic," a notion Hannah counters by asking, essentially, "What if, like an artist such as Picasso, we give Christie credit for writing this way because it's how she chose to practice her art not because it's a shortcoming?" There's lots of juicy info in the essays, some widely known (Christie wrote in the bathtub while eating apples, a career turning point occurred when she disappeared for 11 days after her first husband ditched her) and some not (she cured writer's block by checking into shabby hotels where she knew there would be no distractions).
The best essays are by Emma Lathen, who is insightful on Christie's enduring appeal, and Christianna Brand, who ably deconstructs Christie's other key detective, Miss Marple. Both are crime writers and, not for nothing, women, whereas the dismissers in "First Lady of Crime" are all dudes whose reputations have only dimmed since "First Lady of Crime" was published. Those are clues and you probably don't need a crack detective to put them together for you.
