MURDER AND CRIME-SOLVING STRATEGIES IN AGATHA CHRISTIE’S WORKS
MURDER AND CRIME-SOLVING STRATEGIES IN AGATHA CHRISTIE’S WORKS

Summary/Abstract: In Agatha Christie’s literary career, which spanned over more than fifty years, the tally of murdered people approached three hundred. Her job as a nurse during World War I left a lasting mark on her career because during that period she developed a special interest in chemistry, which later influenced her writing style and using poison became her forte. Consequently, many of her literary characters fell victim to some kind of toxin. However, a large part of her works features a wide array of more violent and manual death causes. Most of those crimes are solved by one of Christie’s two most prominent detectives, either a professional Belgian detective Hercule Poirot or a white-haired old lady Jane Marple. Due to their different lifestyles, both their characters and investigation methods largely differ, but they are both successful when tackling a crime. This paper attempts to offer deeper insight into some of the murder methods Christie resorted to in her oeuvre while simultaneously depicting the strategies Monsieur Poirot and Miss Marple employ solving murders. Consequently, the two detectives will be compared based on their crime-solving approach, as well as their overall personas.

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