Literature is often used to portray some of the most concealed flaws in our society, giving us a vantage point from which to view ourselves. Agatha Christie is one of history's most esteemed authors because she points out these idiosyncrasies with...

Have you ever noticed that no matter what the context, you automatically associate the woods with creepiness and assume that the hero will rescue the damsel in distress? This is because the woods, damsel in distress, and hero are all examples of...

“He choked -- choked badly. His face contorted, turned purple. He gasped for breath -- then slid down off his chair, the glass falling from his hand” (Christie 74). So begins Justice Wargrave’s murderous machinations on Soldier Island. In the...

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. However, that can only go so far before it is criticized as lacking originality; some might even claim it only creates a worse version of something that may have been praised as being the best....

Though Agatha Christie has been enjoyed by millions in the last century since she wrote her widely popular detective novels, little serious scholarship has been written on her works, despite their ingenious craft and subtlety. In fact, there is a...

The revelation of the climax in the book, ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ is jaw dropping- it is so subtle yet so clever. The manner in which Dr. Sheppard is shown as the Hastings-like figure and is so close to the detective makes it almost...

Agatha Christie leaves us, by the end of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, in a state of bewilderment and unknowing – to the extent where right and wrong have become incomprehensible. It seems as though the world in which King’s Abbot is situated has...

According to Auden's essay "The Guilty Vicarage," the typical formula for a detective story is the "occurrence of a murder; then, many are suspected, all but one suspect, who happens to be the murderer, are eliminated; finally the murderer is...

Kings Abbot is described at the beginning of the novel as being “just like any other village”. However, as the plot develops and the reader learns more about the secrets and pasts of the characters who reside in Kings Abbot and, more importantly,...

Although Agatha Christie’s novels are known for their simple and traditional detective formula, ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ explores quite complex themes; most significantly, class. The victim, Roger Ackroyd, is a conventional victim for a...

Whether Poirot is more so a seeker of justice rather than a representative of the law is an interesting concept, as it develops the idea that the law is not doing its job in finding justice, a complex critique that Christie actually explores...

Though Agatha Christie has been enjoyed by millions in the last century since she wrote her widely popular detective novels, little serious scholarship has been written on her works, despite their ingenious craft and subtlety. In fact, there is a...

The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie, is a detective novel that is centered around the murder of a wealthy, estate owning woman. In this novel, as in all detective fiction novels, the innocence at the Styles manor is soiled by a...

According to critics Alistair Rolls and Jesper Gulddal, the genre of detective fiction is “located in a field of binaries: structure versus innovation, stability versus mobility, the one final solution versus the many possibilities of the...