Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None

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If this had been an old house, with creaking wood, and dark shadows, and heavily panelled walls, there might have been an eerie feeling. But this house was the essence of modernity. There were no dark corners – no possible sliding panels – … Continue reading →

And Zen There Were None

(Well, if H. R. F. Keating can get away with Zen There Was Murder…) News just in from the Agatha Christie Newsletter of another new adaptation of Christie’s classic – this time from Japan. The adaptation is set in the … Continue reading →

‘The admiration that existed for all things American’: 1959 books

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Every month on Past Offences I gather together blog posts about crime fiction written or filmed in a particular year. I’ve called it Crimes of the Century. Regular player Bernadette of Reactions to Reading chose us 1959 for January. Here’s … Continue reading →

BBC’s The Witness for the Prosecution

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The BBC’s flagship Christie adaptation aired last night. They promised us dark and sexy – but did they deliver? We are certainly a long way from Marple. It doesn’t look like an adaptation of a Golden Age story, and, for example, you … Continue reading →

‘I like young men. I like their company.’ The Witness for the Prosecution

After yesterday’s trailer for Maigret, here’s another Christmas televisual treat – the BBC’s The Witness for the Prosecution, clearly going for ‘brooding and dark’. Nice touch with the cat…

Crooked House movie update

I noticed some news items recently about the forthcoming Neil LaBute film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1949 standalone novel Crooked House, which reminded me of reporting a similar story back in 2012. Amazingly that was the same film, which goes … Continue reading →

Agatha Christie: The Mysterious Mr Quin

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After I turned from poetry and ghost stories to crime, Harlequin finally reappeared; a figure invisible except when he chose, not quite human, yet concerned with the affairs of human beings and particularly of lovers. He is also the advocate … Continue reading →

Whom do you suspect, and why?

I thought it was high time for another Solv-a-Crime. Usual thing – the best answer gets to choose next month’s year for Crimes of the Century, or, at the judge’s discretion, a cash prize of £100,000 in used bank notes … Continue reading →

Augmented Christie

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You’ve probably all picked up on the new Agatha Christie stamps from the Royal Mail (and they are very clever designs) – but have you seen they come with Pokemon Go-style extra augmented reality? +1 for the terrible corporate music.

More Christie adaptations on their way…

            Following the success of And Then There Were None last Christmas, the BBC will be screening eight more Agatha Christie adaptations. This year we will be getting The Witness For The Prosecution, adapted by Sarah … Continue reading →