All About Agatha Christie
All About Agatha (Christie)
All About Agatha is a podcast all about, well, Agatha. Agatha Christie, of course: the Queen of Crime, a real-life Dame of the British Empire, and author of sixty-six mystery novels that spanned the Twentieth Century, defining a genre. For five years, Catherine Brobeck and Kemper Donovan revisited these novels in publication order, ranking them according to pre-set criteria (plot, character, etc.). Tragically, Catherine Brobeck passed away at the end of 2021. Since then, Kemper has completed the podcast's ranking project, and now contents himself with celebrating the greatness of Christie by attempting to solve the ultimate mystery where she is concerned. Why Christie--and Christie alone--endures as powerfully as she does.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Feb 15, 2019 • 1h 23min
And Then There Were 35: Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
Well, the last time we posted such a prolix episode it was to gush over what became our highest ranked novel, And Then There Were None. We will leave it to you, dear listener, to discover whether this beloved Poirot novel managed to unseat the champion and become our new #1. We’ll give you this much: it was close! Enjoy. FLP4EVA (Catherine is currently requesting this vanity plate from the California DMV.)
Feb 9, 2019 • 36min
Communing with Mr. Quin: The Voice in the Dark by Agatha Christie
This Harley Quin story has, if not quite everything, then nearly so: a boating catastrophe in the distant past that is neither the Titanic nor the Lusitania; a young Mr. Satterthwaite (!!) snogging (!!!!) a maid (!!!!!!); a man named Bimbo (seriously); and a true rarity for Christie—a bathtub murder. Things always get a little weird in this corner of the Christieverse (the Satterthwerse?), so fasten your seatbelts... (oh yeah--Bette Davis gets a shoutout too).
Feb 1, 2019 • 31min
Getting Happy with Parker Pyne: The Case of the Rich Woman by Agatha Christie
Let's just hope for all our sakes we never get another opportunity to go off on a tangent about body-switch comedies. (One never knows in the Christieverse.) In this, the final story in the "Miss Lonelyhearts"-esque section of the Parker Pyne collection, we perhaps see our "heart specialist" at his most dastardly AND brilliant.
Jan 25, 2019 • 24min
On Scheherezade & Omar Khayyám: Mr Eastwood's Adventure by Agatha Christie
We are discussing another early Christie thriller, so we've got a dippy male protagonist combined with dubious gender politics, sigh. But it also turns out this is a very (classically) Persian episode, who knew? We did, and so will you.
Jan 18, 2019 • 59min
And Then There Were 36: The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie (a.k.a. Miss Marple is BA-ACK!)
Praise be: we have at long last arrived at our second Miss Marple novel! We couldn't be more thrilled to revisit St. Mary Mead and its assorted characters, and boy do we get a lot of them in this alternately breezy/bleak story. So let's join our six investigators (no, really--four professional, two amateur) and find out what happens when people stop being polite, and start getting murder-y.
Jan 11, 2019 • 37min
Communing with Mr. Quin: The Man from the Sea by Agatha Christie
Yes, we are back once more with our spooky friends Messieurs Quin and Satterthwaite, and this time things get extra, extra weird, in ways both problematic and not! Let’s puzzle our way through this non-puzzle mystery together, shall we?
Dec 28, 2018 • 21min
A Run-By Fruiting, Twenties-Style: A Fruitful Sunday by Agatha Christie
We've got another light, flirty Christie adventure on our hands here, and while normally we'd say that hijinks ensue, there is so little going on in this short story that perhaps we have only a single hijink? Maybe two? In any case, this is a pleasant enough tale of automotive and fructiferous tomfoolery. Please enjoy, as the year winds down in these final few days of 2018!
Dec 21, 2018 • 23min
A Very Special Holiday Episode with Parker Pyne: The Case of the City Clerk by Agatha Christie
Well if the Grinch's heart can grow three sizes bigger, why not Mr. Parker Pyne's?? 'Tis the season for such character arcs, after all. Join us as we learn a bit more about Christie's heart specialist of a detective. You just may find a new appreciation for him. (Or, if you are cynical like Catherine… you may not.)
Dec 15, 2018 • 58min
And Then There Were 37: N or M? by Agatha Christie
Rejoice or beware, per your preference, because Tommy & Tuppence, those alliterative lovebirds, are back! And in wartime no less: the spring of 1940, to be exact (and Christie is very exact). Join us as we discuss this mid-career thriller of Christie's, which is in many ways quite typical (poor Tommy and his poor head!), but in others quite unusual....
Dec 9, 2018 • 36min
A Hercule Poirot Amuse-Bouche: Triangle at Rhodes by Agatha Christie
This week we revisit a familiar-seeming love triangle, and while it’s true that this Poirot short story and the Poirot novel we just covered--Evil Under the Sun--share many similarities, they also share some key differences…. Join us for our 100th episode (!!) as we use this little exercise in compare and contrast to marvel yet again at the fecundity of Dame Agatha’s nimble brain.
