I have always been an enormous Agatha Christie nerd, so I finally decided to do something about it, and created a podcast with a friend of mine, the inimitable Catherine Brobeck.
In the beginning, the general purpose of All About Agatha was to geek out over Christie and the detective/mystery genre overall. Catherine and I applied a rigorous literary analysis to Christie’s work—one that it tends not to receive, despite (or more likely because of) its overwhelming popularity…. Our more specific purpose was to read/analyze/critique/adore all 66 of Christie’s mystery novels, and to rank them according to certain pre-set criteria. Not because our opinion is in any way controlling, but because imposing objective standards on a subjective experience like reading a novel is the kind of flawed/maddening exercise that leads to further, more fruitful evaluation and discussion. Together, Catherine and I created not just a fully-ranked master list of Christie’s books–check it out directly below!–but managed to provide a robust and convincing answer to the age-old question of why Agatha Christie is as enduringly popular as she is.
Tragically, Catherine passed away at the end of 2021, so I am now hosting the podcast on my own. There is always something new to celebrate about Christie, and mysteries in general, so I have every intention of continuing on with this endeavor, which I also like to think of as a way to continue honoring Catherine, and what we built together. Please click on the link below to have a listen. And if you do, let me know what you think by rating and/or reviewing the show. I’d love to hear from you.
