I want to talk for a moment about Agatha Christie, and the brilliance of her novels. Having just finished CROOKED HOUSE about a week ago (shockingly, I guessed the killer correctly; I've never done that with any of her other novels...so maybe I'm getting better at reading mysteries?), I continue to admire her consistency and quality.
In my own YA mystery/thriller that I entered Author Mentor Match with, I was very much conscious of the genre I was writing in, and the greats that have preceded me--Agatha Christie, of course, being one of the biggest. My favorite novel of hers (of those that I've read so far) is DEATH ON THE NILE, though, unsurprisingly, I greatly enjoyed her other hits AND THEN THERE WERE NONE and MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, as well. Currently, I've started to wade into her lesser-known works, like SAD CYPRESS and THE SITTAFORD MYSTERY (as if one could really say any of her works are "lesser known," but I think you understand my point). In fact, I'm currently reading THREE ACT TRAGEDY (great title, right?) and rather enjoying it. I definitely tried to channel my inner Agatha Christie when drafting my own YA mystery/thriller. It was, for one, the first novel I legitimately outlined, because I had to know the ending and work backwards/build the plot around the ending. I also wrote it out of sequence, because I felt like every scene needed written right now, as if I would somehow forget it (where before I typically wrote my novels chronologically). Other mystery authors certainly influenced my book, but this post is about Agatha Christie. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I consider her a remarkable talent, and I'm a huge fan of her books. I hope to read all of them! Haven't read an Agatha Christie book? Definitely give it a try! I'd recommend starting with her big ones, like AND THEN THERE WERE NONE or MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, but from what I can tell, any of them is a great entry point. Of her major characters, Hercule Poirot is a favorite of mine. Perhaps you, too, can successfully employ your "little grey cells" (as Poirot puts it) to solve the crime before the end of the book. I'm on my tenth Christie right now with THREE ACT TRAGEDY, and as I said, I finally solved one before the end!
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Miles McGuinnessYA writer traversing the path to publication. Archives
May 2021
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Photo used under Creative Commons from CarlH_