Always Agatha

Superfan predicts a special year for the Queen of Crime

- BY SUSAN LEE

QUEEN of Crime Agatha Christie's crown is showing no sign of slipping even half a century since she laid down her pen for the final time.

This month, 50 years after the prolific writer's death, a version of her country house murder mystery, The Seven Dials Mystery, is out on Netflix.

Mia McKenna-Bruce becomes the latest star to take up the celebrated mantle of a Christie supersleuth.

And she has some big shoes to fill. Christie's 66 detective novels have sold in their millions and been adapted for TV and numerous films.

Many stars have played her detectives Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, most notably Joan Hickson and David Suchet.

There have been at least four film versions of Murder on the Orient Express, including one in 2017 starring Dame Judi Dench, Olivia Colman, Michelle Pfeiffer and Kenneth Branagh as Poirot.

Little wonder then that a major festival to honour the world's bestselling fiction writer is planned for spring and a British Library exhibition is scheduled for October.

Lifelong fan Tina Hodgkinson predicts a big year for Christie, whose breakthrough novel came out 100 years ago.

She says: "She has such enduring appeal because in terms of crime fiction, she was a pioneer. A lot of the plot devices we read and take for granted today - the narrator as murderer, crimes in a remote place or the use of a serial killer - were invented by Agatha.

"Plus, she was a gifted storyteller - the twists and turns in her plots still catch us out today." Tina, 57, has written Agatha Christie's London, a book looking at her grip on our imagination and the role of the capital in her life and work.

Writing the book was a labour of love for Tina, who has run Agatha Christie tours around London.

But despite her extensive knowledge, she had to turn detective to get under the skin of her subject and explore archives to build a picture of London in Christie's time.