Understanding Agatha Christie

"An excellent introduction to the world of Agatha Christie. Pugh offers an engaging, thoughtful, and well-researched discussion of the Queen of Crime, which will delight both scholars and fans."—Mark Aldridge, author of Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World

"A thoroughly entertaining study of the world's most popular writer. Pugh discusses Christie's personal life—her political views, theater, and incredible body of literature spanning most of the twentieth century. Like one of her own mysteries, Understanding Agatha Christie is a swiftly moving account of the author, written by someone who clearly knows her subject."—Blake Allmendinger, University of California, Los Angeles

"Tison Pugh offers readers an accessible way into the mysteries of Agatha Christie and the paradoxes and conversations around her remarkable body of work. Understanding Agatha Christie shows us why it's important not to underestimate popular writers and gives every reader a foothold to enjoy and discuss the world's best-selling novelist."—J.C. Bernthal, University of Suffolk, author of Queering Agatha Christie

"Do we really need help in understanding Agatha Christie? Tison Pugh begs to suggest that we do. Proposing a seven-paradox series that shapes Christie's deceptively accessible detective fiction, from her constant challenging of the rules associated with the Golden Age models she established to her frequent introduction of serious violence into the pastoral world she created to the successful promotion of her work by screen adaptations she disdained, Pugh makes a convincing case that there's a lot more to Christie than all those unguessable endings."—Thomas Leitch, Kirkpatrick Chair of Writing, University of Delaware