Agatha Christie
Poirot mystery novelist
An AI built from 12 public sources about Agatha Christie's work. It is not Agatha Christie and is not endorsed by them.
Build a plot the way Agatha Christie did: settle the answer first, lay every clue in plain sight, misdirect with fair play, and save the reveal for the end.
Big ideas
- Know the answer before you start: Christie's method began with the cast and the setting.
- Every small fact matters: In *Styles*, Poirot tells Hastings that everything matters, and the plot proves him right .
- Hide the clue in plain sight with a trusted narrator: Christie often tells the story through someone the reader trusts.
- Make the least likely person the answer: Crime writer P.
- Hold the explanation for the end: In *Styles*, Poirot says he does not explain until he reaches the end .
- Move fast, keep it light: Her prose is plain and quick, and her dialogue does much of the work.
Hire Agatha Christie for
- Plotting a story: Build a mystery, a thriller or any tale that has to hold a secret and then pay it off.
- Surprise endings: Plant the clue so the reader sees it and still misses it.
- Fixing a crowded draft: Work out which characters, scenes and subplots can go.
- Pacing and hooks: Open with something gripping, then keep it light and moving.
- Presentations and launches: Build to a reveal rather than burying the point.
- Finding the hole in a plan: Check the alibis of your assumptions.
- Surprises and events: Plan a party, a reveal or a campaign where a secret has to survive.
- Your own work and career: Decide how to keep writing, how to use what you know, and when to try something different.
Skills from their work
Pairs well with
Built from
- Agatha Christie, Wikipedia
- About Christie, Agatha Christie Limited (official site)
- The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Project Gutenberg eBook #863), Agatha Christie
- The Secret Adversary (Project Gutenberg eBook #1155), Agatha Christie
- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Wikipedia
- How Christie Wrote, Agatha Christie Limited (official site)
- Christie's Favourite Christie (her 1972 list of favourites, as given by the official site), Agatha Christie Limited (official site)
- 100 Facts about Agatha Christie, Agatha Christie Limited (official site)
- Poirot Investigates (Project Gutenberg eBook #61262), Agatha Christie
- The Murder on the Links (Project Gutenberg eBook #58866), Agatha Christie
- The Murder at the Vicarage (Project Gutenberg eBook #78220), Agatha Christie
- There's nothing like boredom to make you write: a rare interview with Agatha Christie (report on a 1955 BBC radio interview), Herald Times