Murder on the Nile — The Continued Influence of Agatha Christie, born this day in 1890

Originally published March 5, 2017; reprinted today, in honor of Dame Agatha’s birthday, September 15, 1890. 

A few weeks ago, I was asked to introduce the Bigfork Community Players’ production of “Murder on the Nile,” Agatha Christie’s stage play based on her book, Death on the Nile. That got me thinking about Dame Agatha’s continued influence on readers and writers. The play is great fun—different from both book and movie—and it was a delight to be a part of the show for a night. My comments:

Thank you.

I’m Leslie Budewitz, author of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in a fictional version of Bigfork, and the Seattle Spice Shop mysteries.

When Karen Koler asked me to join the fun tonight, we chatted a bit about the play, and our amazement at how widely read – and watched – Agatha Christie remains today.

And that got me thinking about Agatha Christie and her continued influence on mystery writers and readers.

For many of us, her books were the gateway into adult literature. When we’d had enough of Nancy Drew, we gravitated naturally to Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and my favorites, Tommy and Tuppence. I still remember buying my first Agatha Christie, a paperback, in a dime store in Burlington, Iowa when I was ten or twelve. With my own money. I read it by the pool and begged my mother to let me go back and buy more.

Agatha Christie was born in 1890 and died in 1976. She wrote 75 novels, not all of them mysteries, 100 short stories, more than a dozen plays – some based on her novels, and two autobiographies. She was also a prolific diarist. I’m pleased to have won two Agatha Awards, named for the great lady herself, for nonfiction and best first novel. [And later a third, for 2018 Best Short Story.] The year I was nominated for Best Nonfiction, one of the other nominees was John Curran, an Irish scholar who’s written two books looking at her secret notebooks, where she sketched out her plots and character ideas, and occasionally wrote the first drafts of her short stories. Her books are still bestsellers, and her plays still draw crowds.

Why?

Because she was first and foremost a tremendous storyteller. John Curran attributes that in part to her unconventional education. She also had a tremendous curiosity about the world. She traveled widely with her mother, with her first husband, an army officer, and with her second, an archaeologist. Those trips inspired several novels, including Murder on the Orient Express. Her trip to Egypt was no doubt the spark for her 1934 short story called “Death on the Nile,” featuring Parker Pyne, one of her lesser-known detectives. She then expanded it into the 1937 novel, featuring Hercule Poirot, and later adapted it for the stage as Murder on the Nile, making significant changes along the way.

She wrote what are typically called traditional or cozy mysteries, where a murder happens in a discrete, defined community, and has a deep ripple effect. The murder disrupts the community, and comes as a surprise – even though one happens in every book. The murder must be solved not only for justice to prevail, but to restore the community, and help the individuals get their lives back on track – something we’ll see in this story.

She also created highly memorable detectives. Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot are instantly recognizable. They’re both intriguing, he for his experiences, and she for her astuteness despite her apparent lack of experience. That nosy village woman lurks in many of us, and she’s the inspiration for so many modern amateur sleuths, including my own.

Both Miss Marple and Poirot were typically outsiders, although Miss Marple did occasionally investigate an incident in her own village, St. Mary Mead, and that outsider status gave them the ability to see things and make connections others – including the police – couldn’t see. That’s very much an element of the modern traditional mystery, as is the counselor or sounding board role that each often played.

Some of her secondary characters feel like cliches now, but I think that’s the result of time and imitation. She did a brilliant job giving her minor characters the telling details that made them come alive. She also used our assumptions about certain types of characters against us, such as our belief in the innocence of a caring doctor or a devoted child.

We also love her intricate plots. She often recycled plots, or wrote variations of them, which the very prolific can do. The mystery writer Robert Barnard wrote that she could use the same trick a second time – and still fool us. She hid clues in plain sight, and she was a master of the red herring. In fact, we’ll see tonight how she used misdirection to make us think one thing while something entirely different was going on.

She was daring, as anyone who’s read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd will remember, but I won’t say anything more, for those of you who haven’t read it yet.

I admire her ability to create a world. Tonight, we’ll feel ourselves part of the group on the cruise, and feel the friendships and tensions that develop. She had an uncanny eye and ear for the subtle conflicts between people, and as one writer friend pointed out, her subtle hints of inappropriate sexual obsession were way ahead of time. Morality is a recurring theme in her work.

She had wit. The same friend recalls her describing a character’s eyes as the color of “boiled gooseberries.” My friend had no idea what a gooseberry was, but the image totally painted a picture.

And she’s inspired modern day authors quite literally. There’s a mystery set a conference on Christie’s work, another hypothesizing that she wrote a long-lost play during her mysterious 1926 disappearance, and another involving a Golden Age of Mystery book club, structured like her novels. In my books, I use a Cast of Characters, as she often did, as a way to help readers remember who’s who, but also as another form of storytelling.

Dame Agatha remains popular because her stories still tell us something about human nature, and because they’re fun.

I’ll be in the lobby at intermission and after the show, chatting about mysteries – both Dame Agatha’s and my own. And I do have books and bookmarks available.

Thank you – and enjoy your trip down the Nile.

(Thanks to Art Taylor and his article in the Washington Independent Review of Books for the origins of “Murder on the Nile,” and to my friend Ellen Byron for sharing her memories and observations.)

Festival time!

Time for the annual Bigfork Festival of the Arts, in the heart of the Village of Bigfork, Sat and Sun, Aug 5-6, from 9:00 am to 4:30. Find me on the east side of Electric Avenue, our main street, just south of FOR Fine Art Gallery. I’ll be signing and selling all my books, just for you.

Music, food, and art and craft of all kinds will fill the streets you know on the page as Jewel Bay.

Come celebrate!

Saturday Creativity Quote — on book banning

Leslie's booksehlf
Leslie’s bookshelf

“If books weren’t powerful, they wouldn’t be removed. … Books are hot objects. They belong on shelves. They belong in people’s hands,” says novelist Meg Wolitzer, who has little sympathy for the idea that people need to be protected from books. “Reading things that you’re not ready for,” she said, “gets you ready for things in the world.”

— novelist Meg Wolitzer (Washington Post book newsletter, 5/26/23)

May your words be powerful and true. May they help people see and prepare for “things in the world.”

Writing Wednesday — approaching another author for help

Brass desk lamp with green shade, desk, binder open to a printed manuscript
Leslie’s desk

Recently, I got a polite but generic email from an author with a new book just out, including a short, appealing description of the book and noting that it was available on NetGalley, along with a press release and a review. I do not know her; she does not appear to follow me on any social media, although we do both belong to one large national writers group. I can only assume – because she did not make a specific request – that she hoped I would download and review it. I’m not going to do that — I have enough to read. But I found myself feeling badly for someone who is clearly putting a lot of work into an approach I think is doomed to disappoint her. Ultimately, I decided the best response was to share a few of my thoughts on how newer authors can best approach established authors to ask for reviews, blurbs, guest post spots, and the like.

First, personalize your note. Address the author by name and show that you are familiar with their work. Explain how your books are similar and why you think that author’s readers will be interested in your book. If you’re part of the same group, or you follow the author online, say so.

Tell them what you want. Be specific. Acknowledge that they may not have the time and say you understand.

Do it early. If you want a blurb or a review, ask for it at least 2-3 months before publication – having it in hand in time to put it on your cover, website, or booklisting at least by the pub date is when it will do you the most good, because that’s when your book will get the most attention. Weeks after publication, the impact is diminished. Published authors know this, and if you give them plenty of time, they will be more likely to say yes.

Similarly, if you’re asking for a guest blog or podcast spot, do it early. Do your research – demonstrate that you understand what the blog or podcast does and that you can provide something interesting for readers or listeners.

A friend adds that if someone tells you no, don’t take it personally. They may truly be too busy — this time.

Be brief, be polite, be professional. Be part of the community. The more you engage with and support other authors, the easier it is to ask them for help – and the easier it is for them to say yes.

Writing Wednesday — conferences and conventions

Brass desk lamp with green shade, desk, binder open to a printed manuscript
Leslie’s desk

Later this week, many readers, authors, and others in the mystery community will be gathering in Tucson for Left Coast Crime, the fan convention held in late winter or spring every year, somewhere in the western part of the US or Canada. (Next year, Seattle!)

LCC was the first “con” I ever attended, eons ago. The fan conventions like LCC, Bouchercon, and Malice Domestic are opportunities for readers to meet authors, as well as for authors and aspiring writers to connect with each other and with booksellers, librarians, reviewers, and others in the community. They are distinct from writers’ conferences, which focus on the craft and business of writing. (Some fan conventions do offer a one-day writing workshop the day before the con begins.)

It’s that reader focus that I love. Programming varies, but the schedule is always full of panel discussions on a range of topics and interviews with the guests of honor. Some include “speed dating” (at Malice, it’s called the Malice Go-Round), where teams of authors go from table to table filled with readers, introducing ourselves and our books and sharing bookmarks and other goodies, in less than two minutes!

Some of the best moments have been chance conversations in the book dealers’ room, the bar, or the coffee shop line. I’ve begun long friendships in the airport shuttle, asked a woman I didn’t know to snug up the back zipper of my dress in the elevator and ended up chatting for an hour, heard about books that were new to me, met fans I didn’t know I had, and so much more.

Writers not yet published may wonder if the fan cons are useful. They are. You may not meet editors or agents — they attend, but are meeting with their own clients, not holding scheduled pitch sessions, although you may strike up a lovely conversation that leads to a connection later. You’ll learn a tremendous amount in the panels about writing and publishing. You’ll begin creating a network, getting to know the community. You’ll come home with ideas for your WIP and six more and a stack of books as tall as you are. All good, right?

Each con has its own flavor. LCC is casual. Malice focuses on the traditional mystery (including the cozy, but not limited to it). Bouchercon is the “world mystery convention” and it’s huge. All are volunteer organizations. Malice stays put in Bethesda, MD; LCC and Bouchercon, usually held in September or October, move around. I love helping stuff book bags if I arrive a day early or volunteering some other way — it’s a great way to meet people and keep the wheels moving.

Whether you’re a reader, writer, or both, consider it. And I promise, you don’t have to be an extravert to have a good time!

Going to Left Coast Crime in Tucson next week? Let’s talk! I’ll be participating in Author Speed Dating Thursday morning, on the food and drink panel Friday at 4:00 (wrapping up just in time for happy hour!), and moderating a discussion of political and social issues in crime fiction at 10:15 Saturday morning. Cozy author Emmeline Duncan and I are co-hosting a banquet table that evening, and we’d love to have you join us!

A Good Year for Reading

2022 was, well, I think we can all agree it was a challenge for the world, in so many ways. Upsides for me: a fabulous trip to Switzerland and Italy with my husband, brother, and sister-in-law, two books out (Peppermint Barked, the 6th Spice Shop mystery, and Blind Faith, written as Alicia Beckman), and a return to in-person events, where I relished in the opportunity to reconnect with readers and meet new ones. And, reading. I read 59 books, including a few audios. Nearly 2/3 were crime fiction! Seventeen were by writers of color (including 4 nonfiction books that were part of my research for Between a Wok and a Dead Place, aka Spice Shop #7, coming in July) and seven were by LGBTQ+ authors. I’m delighted to see a more diverse pool of authors getting shelf and review space, awards and nominations, and general buzz. No matter how we categorize ourselves, we’re better off as readers and writers when the community widens.

My two favorite debut mysteries were both published this year: Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies by Misha Popp and The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra, a historical mystery. .

The rest of my list – all recent, though none new in 2022, in order read:
Harlem Shuffle, Colson Whitehead
Clark & Division, Naomi Hirahara
The Midnight Library, Matt Haig
This is What Happened, Mick Herron
The Dutch House, Ann Patchett,
The Turn of the Key, Ruth Ware

And two years in a row, my favorite read of the year was the last, literally finished at the 11th hour, on New Year’s Eve:
Beneath a Scarlet Sky, Mark Sullivan

Wishing you a year filled with deep joy of a life you love — and lots of good books!

Writing Wednesday — All the Scentses

Leslie’s desk

When I was writing Blind Faith, my second stand-alone suspense novel, I quickly knew that a secondary character named Irene Danich was very fond of roses. Irene was a strong-willed woman, born in 1919 in a small Montana mining town. Irene lost both her husband and her daughter early, leaving her to raise two young granddaughters—one of whom, Carrie, is a major character with her own story line and POV. Beautiful and with a strong personal sense of style, but without a lot of money, Irene loved pretty things but was rarely able to indulge in them.

What, I wondered, was Irene’s signature scent? My own mother, a little younger than Irene, was not able to help me, and the only department store in the area with a perfume counter had closed. I remembered that a Sister in Crime, Angela Saunders, had once posted on the group message board about her love of perfume. I tracked her down and peppered her with questions.

Angie helped me focus on identifying something simple, romantic and floral that would have been available in small-town drugstores in the 1930s to 50s. Drugstore perfumes flourished in that era and some, I learned, were knock-offs of pricey Parisian scents. We settled on an eau de cologne, Yardley’s Red Roses, a good brand but not fancy, also available in soap and bath powder. She might have flirted with other brands over the years, but always returned to this one.

And oh, those lovely bottles! I remembered how much I loved my own mother’s collection, watching her choose one to wear, and being allowed to dab on a precious drop or two myself. They changed over time, and Carrie keeps three of them, each different, on a display shelf in her bungalow.

The point of the cologne was not just to characterize Irene, whom we see in action just twice, but also to characterize Carrie’s memory of Irene and of their relationship, which is pivotal. Readers can’t smell the pages, of course, and they may not have any association with a classic mid-century scent. But my hope is that the mention of it, and the reference to the bottles, will help readers create their own sense of this woman, even if the scent that emerges from their memories is nothing like what arises in mine.

Maybe you can do something similar with one of your characters. A man who wears Gray Flannel is very different from one who wears Old Spice, just as a woman who dabs on a scent created at a custom perfumerie in Paris is very different from one who gives off waves of lavender and lemon grass essential oils.

BLIND FAITH, written as Alicia Beckman, is out this week in hardcover, ebook, and audio.

Long-buried secrets come back with a vengeance in a cold case gone red-hot in Agatha Award-winning author Alicia Beckman’s second novel, perfect for fans of Laura Lippman and Greer Hendricks.

A photograph. A memory. A murdered priest.

A passion for justice.

A vow never to return.

Two women whose paths crossed in Montana years ago discover they share keys to a deadly secret that exposes a killer—and changes everything they thought they knew about themselves.

Find it here: Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Books-A-Million
Bookshop.org
Indie Bound
And your local booksellers!

Read an excerpt and early reviews on my website.

Saturday Creativity Quote

In my view, as a writer, lawyer, and former bookseller, there are no bad books*. Every book serves a purpose and should spark a conversation. The American Library Association has designated September 18-24, 2022 as National Banned Books Week. Learn more about challenges to books and advocacy from the ALA.

“Schools provide safe spaces to talk about controversial issues, and literature presents characters portraying human experience in all its richness and contradictoriness. Reading is a way to take in the difficult situations and understand them.”

— novelist Julia Alvarez

* There are some badly written books, of course, but that’s a different thing altogether!

The Saturday Creativity Quote — making sense of the senseless

Like many of you, I’m finding it difficult to write right now, after the shootings in Uvalde, TX, and Buffalo, NY, and so many others. After those tragedies, reminded once again of our failures as a society to protect the innocent and to deal with conflict without violence, writing, painting, and other creative work can feel impossible. As pointless as the tragedies themselves. But it is not.

Editor, writer, and teacher Tiffany Yates Martin wrote a deeply heartfelt, practical essay earlier this week titled How Can Writing Matter in the Face of Suffering, including several ways to use our creative work to process pain, find a way into action, to connect, to give voice, and to write for hope. Read it. Here’s one paragraph that struck me.

Story illuminates the world, a lens through which others may find some measure of understanding of their own tragedies, their own pain. Working through difficult and painful things in our writing may offer insight and aid to others amid their own struggles.

Martin ends by quoting another writer, editor Susan De Freitas, that also struck me when I read it in a piece on Jane Friedman’s blog: “Wherever you are, if you’ve been struggling with this question, Why write when the world is on fire?, remember: Your words are water.”

And if you’re thinking what can any of us do to change the laws or public policy or diminish hatred, remember Margaret Mead’s words. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

“Be water, my friend,” as the late Bruce Lee wrote, reminding us that flow is our natural and most powerful state. Let your tears flow, and the words will follow.

(Illustration: photo of an unattributed quote and collage I spotted online months ago, printed out, and keep on my desk. It reads: Do what you can with what you have where you are.”)

Books so good, it’s criminal — the mystery award winners

It’s award season in the mystery and crime fiction world, with the Leftys and Agathas given at the Left Coast Crime and Malice Domestic fan conventions earlier this month, and Thursday evening, the Edgars, awarded by the Mystery Writers of America. All events were held in person, for the first time since LCC was shut down in March 2020, just a few hours in. MWA also live-streamed its ceremony, and you can catch it on YouTube.

Copying the lists of nominees and winners would make this post way too long, but I do want to share the links: Lefties, Agathas, and Edgars. The first two are voted on by fans attending the convention; the Edgars are judged by panels of MWA members. Each is a genuine honor. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners — and a huge thanks to the judges.

Check out the lists. I’m sure that, like me, you’ll find books and authors that are new to you, even if you’re an avid reader who tries to stay current. It’s the nature of lists to differ, though some appear on multiple lists, a particularly good sign.

A sign of good reading ahead!