Summer Reading List: Agatha Christie

My Mother is most likely who I got the avid reader gene from. As a school principal she preaches the benefits of reading and the power of books September through June and during her Summer months devours book after book at the Cottage. More often than not, her book of choice is a British mystery, my Father jokes that after all the murder mysteries she's read she could off us all and get away with it.

Agatha Christie is undoubtedly the Queen of Mystery and one of my Mother's favourites, I began reading her works as a teenager, having grown out of my beloved Nancy Drews, and since then I have been an avid reader of her's.

My favourite series of Christie's, and there are many, are those featuring Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Poirot is a bit of a snob, very particular and a keen observer of human behaviour. The mysteries are delightful in many of the expeted ways, excellent characters, remarkable settings, but what I love most about them is how refelctive of their time they are. Written during the mid 20th century the mysteries are that much more mysterious than if they were set during our current day internet and smart phone saturated world. Leaving that much more to the unknown and in need of the clever deductions of Poirot whom is often in the shadows observing and taking note of the smallest idiosyncracies that reveal the culprit.

Again, these are easy reads and there are so many wonderful novels taht I recommend any of them. Some of her most notable works are And Then There Were None, The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Curtain. Some of my favourite Poirot mysteries are, A Cat Among Pigeons, Murder in Mesopotamia and Hickory Dickory Dock. All of them take place in a variety of settings and are excellent character studies of human behaviour.

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