Looked into an old paperback of Agatha Christie this weekend.....

How did she do it? A character pops up in her story and immediately I see him (or her) standing there, alive - and I think: I know somebody like that! The playboy who only fancies himself, the fat woman who bullies everybody, the shy esoteric spinster, they're all around us!

Even today her plots are still outstanding - her books so entertaining, decades after they have been written! Stunning!