Everyman's Guide to the Mysteries of Agatha Christie

Book excerpt: Everyman's Guide to the Mysteries of Agatha Christie is a reference book covering Christie's 238 stories. It provides data never before published about both important and trivial facts. Dedications, time periods, and locations have been laboriously researched, and provided with "time warp" explanations. Even trivial data such as newspapers (100 in all), pubs (95) and automobiles (136) are shown as well as each story in which they are listed. English sayings totalling 259 are shown with the book(s) in which they appear, including a brief explanation of their meaning. Yet Guide is much more than a list of facts. It is an informative reference book about Christie's writings. As well, different perspectives on many of the perplexing mysteries within her mysteries are provided. Finally, Guide is not an alphabetical list of stories or characters. Instead, it lists many entrancing "errors" of sketches and text with comments explaining where possible the reasons for their existence. Most importantly, "Guide" does not betray any book's endings nor the identity of the villain, a rule that genuine Christie devotees always try to uphold.