Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was an English novelist, short-story writer, and playwright whose mastery of plotting, misdirection, and character made her one of the defining figures of Golden Age detective fiction. Over a career spanning more than five decades, she created two of the genre's most enduring detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, and became one of the most widely read authors in the world.Christie published her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in 1920, introducing Hercule Poirot. She went on to write more than sixty detective novels as well as numerous short-story collections and plays. Her fiction helped establish many of the conventions associated with the traditional mystery while repeatedly finding ingenious ways to overturn readers' expectations. Her best-known works include The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, The ABC Murders, and And Then There Were None.Her work is distinguished by tightly controlled structure, carefully planted clues, memorable settings, and an extraordinary ability to conceal solutions in plain sight. Christie was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1971 for her contribution to literature. Her books have been translated into scores of languages and adapted repeatedly for stage, film, radio, and television. Her influence on detective fiction remains immense, and Hercule Poirot continues to rank among the most recognizable fictional detectives ever created.
