And again... <sigh>

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<wail> I object!

...

Thing is, Agatha Christie is actually not that great a writer, and as a result comes up with impossibly convoluted plots.

Now, now, "Orient Express" is not a fair example. (I'll admit that one is

crap,

although it made a fun movie. I believe she wrote the outrageous solution on

a

dare, anyway.)

Agatha Christie's *detective story* plots, when you break them down, are sometimes unexpectedly simple. The beauty of them is that she is very good

at

distracting you from that fact, so that, no matter how many times Miss Marple or Poirot or whoever says that in cases of murder they generally look to the husband or wife, or look to where the money is going, you forget to do so yourself... And her other talent is for playing against your own expectations of the genre, so that the murderer is often someone not generally considered

to

be on the list of suspects.

Against the admittedly convulted "Death in the Clouds/Air" and its ilk, you have to set the skilful simplicity of, say, "Crooked House," "The Murder of Roger Akroyd," "Murder in Mespopotamia," "Endless Night" or, damn, blanked

out

on it name, the one with the poison pen letters...

As for her writing... I honestly think she's underrated. Her grammar was sometimes a little off, she repeated words, but her writing has a vivid, concise quality that many "better" writers can't achieve, and her dialogue

and

humour is wonderfully observed. I particularly like the way Poirot becomes

more

Gallic whenever he doesn't want people to pay too much close attention to whatver sneaky thing he's doing/saying... And she doesn't roll around gratuituously in violence or police procedure, which are my major quibbles

with

the crime genre.

As for the solutions - it's a cute convention, and highly in accord with Poirot's character. :)

Of course, her thrillers suck...

In a way, Nation's

...

"Occam's Razor" line seems to be almost a way of having a go at that-- a sort of way of saying "only idiots come up with solutions that complex..." :).

But, actually, Christie follows the Occam's Razor approach (which I'm

grateful

for the explanation for) quite often, she's just an expert at red herrings.

ObB7 - um, I *liked* MtD, probably becuase I *am* fond of the genre, although

I

found Avon's interaction with Sara a touch troubling... That's just a vaguely remembered impression, I'd have to see it again to figure out why it rang wanring bells in my mind - there was something, not as blatant as the Pella stuff, but enough to bother me. But then, I'm one of the very few B7 fen who neither fancy nor identify with the anal retentive <swallows rest of sentence in terror at rabid Avon fen.> Give me Vila any day...

Or Soolin, but that goes without saying. :)

XXX Kanna-Ophelia Femmeslash: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/femmeslash The Pokeslash Playground: www.tvheaven.pokemon.com Diversion Tactics: www.geocities.com/diversiontactics

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