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
Jun 22, 2018 • 25min
In re the Perils of Boat Travel: Sing a Song of Sixpence by Agatha Christie
Hoo boy, this one's a bit of a doozy, in that the mystery is unfortunately light and our amateur detective is unfortunately creepy. Join us as we sing a song of sixpence... none the richer, that is. (No, but seriously: what *is* a milky twilight?)
Jun 15, 2018 • 28min
Tea with Tommy & Tuppence: The Unbreakable Alibi by Agatha Christie
It's time to romp once again with our alliterative detective duo, and oh, what a romp we have here. Particularly in the televised adaptation, which we discuss at some length as the "mystery" of this one is rather... simple, shall we say? But not quite as simple as our poor, besotted "victim" Montgomery Jones.
Jun 8, 2018 • 57min
And Then There Were 43: Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie
It is in no way beginning to look a lot like Christmas, either in the real world or inside the pages of this novel. What it *is* looking a lot like is that rare creature, an honest-to-goodness Agatha Christie locked room mystery! Leave your crackers and crowns at home, but perhaps bring along a sponge or paper towel to help absorb the oodles of blood we encounter in one of Christie's more gruesome murder tableaux. Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him...?
Jun 2, 2018 • 53min
Special Episode: Interview with Agatha Christie Scholar John Curran
We were honored to speak with Christie scholar John Curran, whose books we reference so liberally on our podcast! Despite some sound quality issues, we think you’ll enjoy the insights and opinions he shared with us in a wide-ranging conversation about all things Christie.
May 26, 2018 • 31min
A Miss Marple Nightcap: Death by Drowning by Agatha Christie
At long last we complete our baker's dozen of stories within the Thirteen Problems, Christie's first collection of Miss Marple short stories. Get ready to go DEEP on issues of class--not quite as deep as our poor, pregnant (!) victim does in a river snaking through the woods of St. Mary Mead, but deep nonetheless. As we've come to learn by now, nothing is off-limits where Miss Marple is concerned.
May 18, 2018 • 29min
Tea with Tommy & Tuppence: The House of Lurking Death by Agatha Christie
Well this one has a lot of Sturm und Drang for what we've come to expect from the Beresfords! But really, when a story includes *both* a box of poisoned chocolates and a suspected case of ptomaine (t)poisoning, should we really be all that surprised when someone's bed goes up in flames?
May 10, 2018 • 58min
And Then There Were 44: Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie
There are mothers, and then there are MOTHERS. Mrs. Boynton definitely belongs in the latter category, as we explore in our latest novel, another "travelling" Christie--this one set in and around the Holy Lands, including an extended stay in Petra (Indiana Jones and affiliated grail hunting not included). Get out your Freud, your Jung, and of course your little grey cells as Papa Poirot goes deep--and we mean DEEP--into psychology to solve this rather elegant puzzle mystery.
May 4, 2018 • 25min
Getting Happy with Parker Pyne: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
That's right; do not adjust your screens; before she wrote her much more famous Death on the Nile, Christie wrote a short story featuring her "heart specialist" Parker Pyne on a trip up that same (in)famous river.... Join us as we plumb the depths of this neat little puzzle mystery, which features a glancing reference to a substance these two American readers found most intriguing of all: Bovril.
Apr 27, 2018 • 39min
Communing with Mr. Quin: The Shadow on the Glass by Agatha Christie
Harley Quin is ba-ack! But barely; he makes all but a fleeting appearance in this light yet surprisingly robust tale of double homicide rooted in a ghost story dating back to the English Civil War. (If you wanted a refresher on the "Roundheads" versus the "Cavaliers," you are in luck!) So grab some popcorn and watch along with us and Mr. Satterthwaite as the romantic sparks--and bullets--begin to fly....
Apr 19, 2018 • 44min
Tea with Tommy & Tuppence: The Sunningdale Mystery by Agatha Christie
Rejoice, for our favorite (well, only) married detective duo are back! And they have chosen to put their brains together in the early Twentieth Century version of a Denny's restaurant to solve a murder-by-hatpin on the links that has been reported in the newspaper. Okay, sure! Plus we were able to shoehorn The Golden Girls into this episode, so everybody wins. (Except the hatpin murderer, of course.)
