Partners in Crime: Agatha Christie 100th Anniversary Collection

by Agatha Christie

222 pages, Paperback

Published May 7, 2025

About the author

Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.

Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)

Reviews

[Tim Deforest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tommy and Tuppence were introduced in one of Dame Agatha's early books--"The Secret Adversary"--which is a spy thriller with a mystery element. Now married, the constantly bantering couple become private eyes.

Well, sort of. They are asked to take over an established private eye office which is being used by enemy agents for espionage purposes. Once there, when contacted by enemy spies, they can arrange for their capture. In the meantime, they take other cases.

A few of the short stories in this collection have Tommy and Tuppence dealing with this. But most of them involve them investigating cases as private detectives. Christie has fun with these stories, using each one to gently parody different fictional detectives who were popular at the time. The mysteries are good and both Tommy & Tuppence get opportunities to be the one who figures everything out, with them deliberately chosing WHICH fictional detective to emulate. The mysteries are still good, but each tale also drips with humor. These tales really are fun to read.

There is one oddity that I think adds to the fun when discussed. In "The Secret Adversary," Inspector Japp is mentioned as being a real person. Japp is Hercule Poirot's regular police contact. That implies that Tommy/Tuppence & Poirot exist in a shared universe. (The Christie-verse?)

But in the story in which Christie is making fun of her own popular detective, Tommy very heavily implies that Poirot is another fictional character. So do they share the same reality or not? I like to think that Tommy knows about Poirot from Captain Hastings' published memoirs and they DO share a universe, but Christie gives us conflicting information about this. DISCUSS!

[Isabella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yayy good entertaining wholesome; we love Agatha Christie!