Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Crime Writers Choose Their Favorite Agatha Christies

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/agatha-christie-genius-or-hack-crime-writers-pass-judgment-and-pick-favourites-1.2351699
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10 comments:

mybillcrider said...

John Banville seems like a swell guy.

9:32 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...

Good article, and most of the writers pick from among the same group I'd pick if I did a Christie top 10, starting with the first one I read, AND THEN THERE WERE NONE.

As for John Banville's comment, I suggest he takes the stick out of his @ss. I find his books uninteresting, even unreadable (though I know some have praised them), something you could never say of Christie.


Jeff M.

9:33 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...

I see Bill agrees with me.

9:34 AM
Ed Gorman said...

My favorite Christie is The Body In The Library. Not only one of her best dazzle dazzle plots but also her most realistic set of characters, the low rent show biz ones not her usual tut tut old boy figures.

9:49 AM
pattinase (abbott) said...

Aren't you glad he writes mysteries, Bill. Someone with so much love of the genre.

10:47 AM
George said...

Ed Gorman is right about THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY. Top-notch!

10:50 AM
Deb said...

Oh you guys beat me to it re Banville. What a snob! And a snob with no reason to be: his mysteries are unreadable IMHO.

Elizabeth George, a writer who is hit-or-miss for me, wrote an interesting essay about people who ask her advice about writing mysteries and who claim they're going to write a few mysteries before writing a "real" novel. She was both amused and puzzled by that attitude. Perhaps we should call it "Ban-ville-itis."

Finally, I'm glad a couple if writers mentioned ENDLESS NIGHT, my very favorite Christie.

12:54 PM
mybillcrider said...

Okay, here's today's coincidence. After writing the comment above, I left for a booking excursion with a friend. We went to a Half-Price Books, and I immediately headed (as I always do) for the Clearance section. Down on the bottom shelf were three unread hardcover copies of "Benjamin Black"'s Philip Marlowe novel. I thought of the poem "The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered," even though Banville isn't my enemy. I never even met the guy. I did pick up the book, and I read the first paragraph, which was enough to let me know that whatever kind of writer he is, he's no Raymond Chandler. Not that he'd want to be. I guess he doesn't mind slumming for the money now and then, however.

2:03 PM
pattinase (abbott) said...

There's some poetry there, Bill. But not the kind he would like.

3:03 PM
Jeff Meyerson said...

The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered.

Love it.


Jeff M.

3:18 PM

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