One of the most prolific detective writers in the genre, her 80 plus books sell in their hundreds of millions, and have been converted into more foreign tongues than all the writings of William Shakespeare, which is an incredible achievement. Only the work of Disney has passed the number of publications in other languages. She also wrote romance stories by a second writing name, Mary Westmacott, but is of course mostly known for her crime fiction and her many theatre plays in the West End.
Her play written for the stage, The Mousetrap, has the prestigious record for the longest primary run anywhere in the world, debuting at the Ambassadors Theatre, London on 25th November nineteen fifty two, and more than 20,000 performances to it's credit.
Agatha Christie books sales have been estimated at over four billion, a number that has only been exceeded by Bible sales. A few of her notable novels include ' The Secret Adversary ' in 1922, ' The Mysterious Affair at Styles ' in 1920, ' The Man in the Brown Suit ' in 1924 and 'Murder on the Links' in 1923.
The two main fictional characters featured in her stpries have become the iconic crime detectives who use their intellect, instead of muscle power, to foil the killers - in particular Hercule Poirot the eccentric detective from Belgium and Miss Marple. Poirot has two companions in his hunt for the bad men, his secretary Miss Lemon (a delightfully ridiculous title) and his good friend Captain Arthur Hastings. Hastings typifies the stiff upper lipped English upper class gentlemen who is constantly at a loss to comprehend the Belgian sleuth.
Without a doubt, Poirot is highly idiosynchratic, and without doubt he is much brighter than his colleagues and without doubt, he always gets the killer. His kudos is made to be even more prominent by contact with the local police representaive, who is not the most intelligent policeman on the force, which is one way of putting it.
Miss Marple is a woman who never parried and resides in the hamlet of St Mary Mead , and she can unerringly retrieve memories from her own past of a character that she has come across who is exactly like the criminal they are looking for. She is always noting people's behavior, noting their characteristics and motives for seemingly insignificant actions. Although the murderer hides all of the clues, Miss Marple needs only a tiny clue to give imagination what she requires - her knowledge of human frailty and her stickability make sure that the killer has little chance at all to get away with it.
A great number of movies have been made showcasing her books and characters, and especially her two most celebrated creations, Poirot and Marple - films include adaptations of 4.50 From Paddington, Murder on the Orient Express, and Death on the Nile. Additionally, the stories have been made into serials for television in many countries around the globe.
