John Curran returns to his study of Agatha Christie’s unpublished notebooks with the U.S. release of Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making (HarperCollins: Nov. 22, 2011). Discovered in 1975 at Greenway House, Christie’s home in Devon, these 73 notebooks contain Christie’s thoughts on her current and future works.
Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making covers 60 years of Christie's publications and expands on Curran’s Anthony, Macavity and Agatha award-winning text, Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks (2009). Curran’s new work explores the genesis of over twenty of Christie’s novels, comparing them to notes she wrote prior to their creation. Curran, a Christie expert and archivist, also uses information from Christie’s personal papers and letters.
Christie enthusiasts will be pleased at the unique items contained within Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making. Curran includes the courtroom chapter from Christie’s first Hercule Poirot series novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), which Christie later deleted at her publisher’s request. Also present are her notes for a final novel which was never written.
Readers get a new glimpse into the mind of Christie’s famed Belgian detective in "How I Created Hercule Poiot," a newspaper essay that Christie wrote in 1938. Curran also adds an early draft of Christie’s 1942 Jane Marple story, "The Case of the Caretaker's Wife," that later provided the basis for her novel Endless Night. Present, too, is "The Man Who Knew," an unpublished story Christie later expanded into her 1924 work, "The Red Signal."
Since Curran’s work often references Christie’s 1977 Autobiography, it is fortunate that HarperCollins will also release a new hardcover edition of this work on Nov. 22. This edition contains a compact disc with a recording of Christie's own voice as she dictates material to be included in the autobiography.
Another HarperCollins release scheduled for Nov. 22 is an e-book, Clues to Christie: The Definitive Guide to Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Tommy & Tuppence, and all of Agatha Christie’s Mysteries. John Curran provided the introduction to this text, which is, as of Nov. 19, 2011, available free in a Kindle edition.
HarperCollins' increased output of Christie-related titles reflects its current position as the exclusive worldwide English language publisher of the author's works. It is currently reissuing many Christie classics both in trade paperback editions and as e-books.
FTC Full Disclosure: Review copies of Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making and Agatha Christie’s Autobiography were provided by HarperCollins.
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