Introduction

Abstract

No one needs to study Agatha Christie, one might think. Christie is not a difficult writer. People do not have to be taught to enjoy her, to trace subtle and elusive patterns of imagery, erudite references or complex ideological stances. She is a popular writer, and she is popular because her writing is readily intelligible to the overwhelming majority of people, at least in the developed world. Anyone who sets out to write a book about her risks seeming either to say the obvious or to perversely invent aspects of the novels overlooked by immense numbers of previous readers.