While there is so much we hope will be different about 2021 as compared to 2020, our passion and appetite for Christie do not feature on that long, long list. Happy New Year, dear listeners: we hope you enjoy our leisurely ramble from Meadowbrook to Ramat and back again for this late-career “turducken” of a Christie that we quite enjoyed. Also, how did Kemper manage to shoehorn not one but two clips from Jurassic Park into this episode?! Listen, and be amazed….
Jan 01, 2021•1 hr 32 min
Consider this our "Christie for Christmas," an original episode all about what it's like to read Christie in the here and now--in particular, those aspects of the texts that may strike us as seeming "stuck in their time" or otherwise difficult/awkward to negotiate. This is something we've talked about a lot over the years, and we're so grateful to be able to add more voices to the conversation with this episode--YOUR voices, in fact. Thank you again to the listeners who contributed their thought...
Dec 24, 2020•1 hr 36 min
This episode completes our review of The Labours of Hercules collection. We also took the opportunity to comment on the somewhat disappointing--but not entirely disastrous--Suchet adaptation.
Dec 18, 2020•1 hr 5 min
It's been a while since we've had Mark on our show, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to fawn over his new book, Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World. This also gave us as good an excuse as any to chatter on about Poirot for an hour or so.... If you feel so inclined (and we wager you will), go to https://bookshop.org to (pre-)order a copy for yourself, if you don't have one already.
Nov 26, 2020•1 hr 19 min
We are both HUGE Tana French fans, so we suspect many of you are too. This interview was a joy to record; we hope you enjoy it half as much as we did. And if you haven't yet bought Tana's latest book, The Searcher, or any of the titles mentioned in our conversation, we encourage you to check out https://bookshop.org/, which is a safe and streamlined way to buy books online from independent bookstores in both the U.S. and UK. Happy reading!
Nov 21, 2020•1 hr 21 min
We had A LOT to say about this undeniably striking offering in the latter half of the Christie catalogue--not all of it good, but all of it quite heartfelt. Oh, and we also had A LOT to say about the adaptations, too.
Nov 14, 2020•1 hr 32 min
Visit our Patreon site at: http://www.patreon.com/allaboutagatha. We hope you enjoy the episode! (If you've been jonesing after LOTS of Angela Lansbury clips, you should be very pleased.)
Nov 06, 2020•3 min
We're thrilled to have gotten to speak with author/screenwriter/producer Anthony Horowitz, who has brought us so much joy--and not only for the Poirot episodes he adapted in the course of the David Suchet series. Anthony is in the midst of two separate contemporary mystery series, both of which we discussed, with a particular (and spoiler-free!) focus on his most recent novel, Moonflower Murders.
Oct 30, 2020•1 hr 13 min
In a perfect world, we could apply Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” drugs campaign referenced in our first story to the questionable art restoration techniques discussed in the second. Alas--and this is probably not a newsflash--but the world we live in is not perfect. (Don’t worry, this will make a lot more sense after you’ve listened to the episode. Enjoy!)
Oct 24, 2020•1 hr 5 min
Normally we use this space in our anniversary episode to bemoan the passage of time, but when it comes to 2020 we can all probably agree that we'd like to keep things moving right along, yes? At this point we have quite a roster of titles to discuss, and no shortage of opinions about them. As always, we welcome yours too.
Oct 09, 2020•58 min
We apparently couldn't stop talking about what Mrs. McGillicuddy saw! (Especially because this is in some ways still an open question by the end of the novel.) Sometimes the flawed Christies give us more food for thought than the superlative gems, and this was definitely one of those times....
Sep 26, 2020•1 hr 24 min
We encourage you to take a moment to check out not only our three interviews, but all the offerings available starting Tuesday 15 September via the International Agatha Christie Festival's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbc5NjYWmTw6VYlc2R9G3qw. Enjoy!
Sep 13, 2020•11 min
It was a pleasure to revisit our dear old Aunt Jane in short story form... especially in a mystery like this one, which features deceptive appearances, gruesome violence, and a particularly snooty Raymond West (which as we all know by now is *really* saying something).
Sep 12, 2020•54 min
We are truly excited for the opportunity to hear directly from you, our dear listeners, about how you negotiate the "stuck in its time" aspect of reading Christie. Please e-mail us your recorded submissions at [email protected].
Aug 29, 2020•4 min
Reading this Poirot novel was like revisiting an old friend. So come along with us to the riparian oasis of Nasse House (a.k.a. Greenway), where all our analysis of the Christie canon up to this point will serve us well in figuring out whodunit.
Aug 22, 2020•1 hr 12 min
Our dear Hercules is still labo(u)ring his way through the twelve tasks in this standout short story collection, hooray! Appearances can be--and usually are--deceiving in any Christie, but we'd do well to remember this adage in both tales on offer here....
Jul 31, 2020•49 min
Real talk: this was not our favorite Christie. (That may in fact be a massive understatement.) But we will always cherish the opportunity to discuss any Christie text... even one as problematic as this one.
Jul 18, 2020•1 hr 15 min
We have two more enjoyable entries to cover in The Labours of Hercules collection. Join us as we follow Papa Poirot up into the airy heights of the Swiss Alps, and then down into the very deepest and darkest depths, that special place in hell inhabited by [cue organ] the British tabloids!!
Jul 03, 2020•51 min
We can't say we particularly relished reading this mid-career Christie thriller, but we CAN say we relished *discussing* our reading of this mid-career Christie thriller.... Make sure your tray is secure and your seat's in an upright position, because we're leaving on a jet plane for Morocco and things are about to get real bumpy, real fast!
Jun 21, 2020•1 hr 11 min
You get two Poirot short stories in this episode for the price of one--but the bargain gets even better, because the first of these felt very much like a Miss Marple story, while the second felt even more like one of our beloved Quin/Satterthwaite tales....
Jun 05, 2020•49 min
We were delighted to get Ruth Ware on the phone, author of five recent--and already quite beloved--psychological crime thrillers. (This is her preferred term for the books she writes; just one of many topics we discussed!) And we of course couldn't pass up the chance to talk Christie with a fellow aficionado....
May 15, 2020•58 min
We're not sure what to say about the length of this episode except that we seem to have a greater bandwidth for gabbing on about Christie these days.... Fortunately you, dear listener, probably have more time and inclination to listen too. So let's settle in together to discuss this incredibly bitter-tinged mystery novel inhabited by such unpleasant characters, because we nonetheless quite appreciated it!
May 08, 2020•1 hr 18 min
We are making our latest Patreon episode, all about the Anthony Horowitz mystery Magpie Murders, free to download (and distract)! This glorious nerdfest of a novel is VERY much inspired by Christie, so chances are if you listen to this podcast, you will very much enjoy the novel itself, and (we hope!) our discussion. You can find it at http://www.patreon.com/allaboutagatha. Enjoy! And please stay safe. (And sane.)
Apr 25, 2020•7 min
We are so excited to be starting in earnest, at long last, The Labours of Hercules collection. Especially as it begins with such a charming Foreword and an even more charming--and intriguing--opening story. We also threw in some D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths for good measure; why not, right?
Apr 19, 2020•58 min
We both adored this (somewhat) unsung Christie gem... though not without reservations. Fortunately, for purposes of discussion, those reservations turned out to be slightly different. It's a truth universally acknowledged that every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, and that certainly holds true for the various familial arrangements portrayed so vividly in this sprawling novel.
Apr 03, 2020•1 hr 5 min
There is a lot going on in the world at the moment, but there will always be Agatha Christie. Join us as we celebrate our final Christie novella, which just may be more remarkable than it appears at first glance (or read, as it were). We also took this opportunity to clip heavily from the hijinks-riddled Suchet series. So let’s all bask in the lightness together, shall we?
Mar 20, 2020•46 min
While we never do get the mirror the title seems (out of context) to promise, there was so much to adore in this imperfect yet rollicking early ‘50s novel. Take a deep breath, get out your Freud and Jung, and maybe take an umbrella for the trip down memory lane you’re about to embark on with one Miss Jane Marple.
Mar 07, 2020•1 hr 5 min
The love detectives are back--and in a story titled The Love Detectives, no less! Join us as we puzzle over why this perfectly delightful serialization was the only one not to be included in the Mysterious Mr. Quin collection… and potentially figure it out in real time! (Clearly the magic of Mr. Quin, that wily catalyst of problem-solving, was with us.)
Feb 22, 2020•36 min
It's time for another novella, this one full to bursting with characters, incident, and puzzle mystery elements. We also get a guest appearance from Mr. Satterthwaite (!!!!), so you know we were both dementedly pleased....
Feb 01, 2020•1 hr
We couldn’t stop talking about Mrs. McGinty being dead! Mainly good things, though not *all* good things. But what a delight it was to reach, at long last, this first of the “late Poirots” featuring Ariadne Oliver. Come for the drive-by fruiting, stay for the sick Poirot burns as to “feminine intuition.”
Jan 18, 2020•1 hr 14 min
