Review: Secrets From The Agatha Christie Archives by Jared Cole

Synopsis: Dame Agatha Christie reigns supreme as the ‘Queen of Crime.’ Numerous books have been written about the legendary crime writer, focusing on nearly every aspect of her craft. But until now no one has carried out an in-depth investigation into how she conquered the serial market with her thrilling tales of murder and intrigue.

In the UK and US, Agatha Christie’s work was serialized in the most prestigious magazines and newspapers of the day, often under an array of different titles, prior to being published by Collins and Dodd, Mead and Company. Second serial rights could result in a single title being syndicated to over 40 newspapers. Over the decades, numerous records have been lost or destroyed and keeping track of her literary legacy has proved a major challenge for her publishers, literary agents and others until now.

Jared Cade, author of the ground-breaking biography Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days, has unearthed a huge plethora of hitherto unknown facts about the timeline of her publishing history that will delight her devotees and enable future generations to write about her work with far greater authority and accuracy than ever before, especially when correlating her publications to the parallels in her life.

Illustrated with rare pictures, Secrets from the Agatha Christie Archives is destined to become an essential reference tool for fans, librarians, scholars, antiquarian booksellers, broadcasters and others interested in the making of one of the 20th century's most beloved writers.

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Whilst some may have come to this with their own thoughts on what this book was actually about, the author is quite up-front by letting the reader know that this is "an in-depth investigation into how she conquered the serial market" - ergo, it is a study or a chronology of her books vis a vis their publication history.

This is a discourse on each title - publication, inspiration, historical background - and a history of each tome's serialisation. It is about the book (novel, short story, other volumes) and it's journey from the creative mind of Agatha Christie to the printed page and the book held by the reader.

The author finishes this bibliography of Christie's works with a chapter on the parodies and tributes by other authors (1936 - 2017), and also on the novels in which Christie features as a character (1978 - 2025). There is also a list of non-fiction books on Agatha herself.

This is definitely one for the fans of the great Agatha Christie, of which I count myself as one among the many!