Agatha Christie’s books feature intricately-planned mysteries, and for many years people wondered how she kept track of who was doing what. In 2004 a treasure trove was unearthed at her family home in Greenway, Devon—a vast hoard of notebooks! This was where she made her copious notes, lists and drafts for her many novels, and this book lifts the lid on all these priceless jottings.

As a longtime Christie fan I was fascinated to read at last all about her methods for planning her plots. As well as transcribed notes this book also contains much else to delight the fan, such as discussions about the plots of various books, tantalizing glimpses of those she never wrote, and aborted alternative plots. There is a chapter delineating the appeal of her work (and why many other classic era novelists don’t measure up), descriptions of some of her more obscure efforts and inspirations for characters and stories. There are also two unpublished short Poirot stories, both rejected drafts of published tales which, though a long way from her best work, are interesting for other, discussed reasons. This is obviously not a book to sit down and read in one go but a useful and entertaining companion to her fiction. If you like Agatha Christie’s work and want to delve deeper this is probably the best way of doing so.