Christie and 1920s

Read Christie 2024

The 1920s – or the ‘Roaring Twenties’ saw the emergence of flamboyant lifestyles, Jazz, nightclubs and cocktail bars, flappers and playboys basking in the glory of the victoriously concluded war. But more importantly, it saw the glorious evolution of the ‘Golden Age of Detective Fiction’.

Leading from the front was my favourite author – the Queen of Crime – Dame Agatha Christie! Considered to be the world’s best-selling fiction novelist and the most translated individual author of all time, her works have sold over two billion copies worldwide.

1920s: My Picks for Read Christie 2024 Challenge

When I started my blog, Worlds Within Words, it was inevitable that I would sooner or later pick up my Christie’s to curate for the posts here. #read_christie_2024 was the nudge I needed to bring this project forward. The challenge seeks to explore Christie’s works through the decades, focusing on the potential sources of influence and inspiration.

In the first two months of 2024, I shall pick up her novels – “The Mysterious Affairs at Styles” and “The Secret of the Chimneys” from the ‘Roaring Twenties’

The 1920s marked a prosperity boom in the British upper societies and a tinge of independence and financial freedom for working-class women. But as the decade progressed, unemployment became profound, and the declining wealth of the populace and market busted the prosperity bubble. It slipped to mark the Great Depression towards the end.

Throughout my earlier reading of Christie novels, the setting, and surroundings have been predominantly in the countryside, with stories centered on well-off families pretty unperturbed by the happenings in the outside world. As part of this challenge, I shall focus on finding the threads connecting to reality as I re-read select novels across decades and delve deeper into her plots and writing styles.

Christie’s Bibliography: 1920s

1920 witnessed the birth of Hercule Poirot, Christie’s little Belgian detective who later became one of the most celebrated fictional sleuths of the century. The egg-headed detective debuted with Christie in ‘The Mysterious Affairs at Styles’. Entering Britain as a refugee of war along with his fellow Belgians, he took residence in the Styles village courtesy of the charitable Emily Inglethorp and, subsequently, paid his debts by solving her murder in the course of the novel. He appeared in three more of her subsequent books and one short story collection, throughout which he builds his trademark ‘order and method’ to solve crimes.

Christie also introduced the young and daring adventurers Tommy and Tuppence with the espionage crime novel – The Secret Adversary. Furthermore, she wrote three standalone adventure and crime mysteries that were well-received then. From crimes of passion and money to espionage and international adventures, the diversity in these stories was incredible. Laying the foundational stones of the Golden Age, she seemingly gave every clue, suspect interview and puzzle all neatly packed for the reader yet subtly hidden like a mirage within those pages. The reader is expected to solve the crime alongside the detective, build their theory and try their best to beat the detective.

I do it every time I read. Yet, even after these many times, Christie has always had the last laugh!

Title	Publication Year	Category	Lead Detective
The Mysterious Affairs at Styles	1920 (US) / 1921 (UK)	Novel	Hercule Poirot
The Secret Adversary	1922	Novel	Tommy & Tuppence
Murder on the Links	1923	Novel	Hercule Poirot
The Man in the Brown Suit	1924	Novel	Colonel Race
Poirot Investigates	1924	Short Story Collection	Hercule Poirot
The Secret of Chimneys	1925	Novel	Supritendent Battle
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd	1926	Novel	Hercule Poirot
The Big Four	1927	Novel	Hercule Poirot
The Mystery of Blue Train	1928	Novel	Hercule Poirot
The Seven Dials Mystery	1929	Novel	Supritendent Battle
Partners in Crime	1929	Short Story Collection	Tommy & Tuppence