A closed-door novel on a more or less deserted island, a pretty English village struck by a series of murders but sheltering a curious old lady, a train crossing Europe/the United States with, on board, a string of characters with old animosities… and immediately the comparison arises. Sometimes in the form of a periphrasis slipped into the back cover, “in the style of the queen of crime”, sometimes more directly on a footer banner, “worthy heir to Agatha Christie”. Regardless of the form, detective novels that refer to the legendary Englishwoman abound. Literary columnists specializing in the genre also have a field day, sometimes to the point of excess.
Among the claimed heirs, there is the classical variant, as in Christos Markogiannakis with his Who Killed Lucy Davis? (Plon). In these Hercule Poirot’s Holiday with a Greek twist, it features a detective who, during a few days of relaxation on a paradise island, is forced to immerse himself in solving a murder. Luckily, he has brought some Agatha Christie books, even if he knows, just as well as the little Belgian, how to unearth the secrets that everyone tries to hide. And there is the crazy version. At Sonatine, Benjamin Stevenson has made it his specialty. After All my family members have killed someone.he is back with Everyone on this train is a suspect. Sketch of the compartments in the opening, pitch “Seven writers get on a train. In the end, five will come out alive”, the references are explicit, but the novel plays with Agatha Christie more than it is directly inspired by her.
With the success of the writer who has been dead for nearly fifty years not diminishing, the temptation is great to take advantage of her notoriety as a marketing argument. “We play on the reflex, we tell ourselves that if the reader liked the model, he will like the remake”, notes François Rivière, great connoisseur of detective stories and author of Murder as a Women’s Matter (Calmann Lévy). Since their publication, Agatha Christie’s 66 novels have sold some 2.5 billion copies, 4 million on the French market alone. Prescribed in schools, prominently featured in the libraries of parents and grandparents, readily offered as gifts to teenagers who are encouraged to read, the adventures of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot are more than ever sure bets.
Kenneth Branagh’s recent films reworking two great classics – Death on the Nile And The crime of the Orient Express –the broadcast on Netflix ofAt Knives Out and of Glass Onionfeaturing Benoît Leblanc, a pastiche of Hercule Poirot, also contribute to the longevity of the work. At Lattès/Le Masque, the historic publisher of Agatha Christie with the Livre de Poche, sales have increased by 55% in ten years and have gone from 60,000 copies in 2014 for all titles combined to 93,000 in 2023. “By 2027, for the 100th anniversary of the Masque collection, we will re-release the complete works, which were in high demand,” explains Constance Trapenard, the editorial director.
Unsurpassed master of whodunit?
Beyond the commercial stakes, for authors, claiming to be the queen of crime also means being part of a literary movement, with very specific characters, places and a style of plot. “The 1920s marked the golden age of the mystery novel, with a codified form and the revelation of a solution at the end. It is an anti-novel genre, in which there are no descriptions or psychology. A codification that Agatha Christie masters perfectly”, summarizes Dominique Meyer-Bolzinger, lecturer at the University of Haute-Alsace. She remains the unsurpassed master of whodunit? (who killed?): “She has a lot of technique, she diversified the locations of her crimes. That’s what makes her work original and has gone down in history,” continues François Rivière.
Reading tributes to Agatha Christie is like reconnecting with memories of childhood reading that are more enjoyable than many classics imposed by school or parents. “I grew up in a family of criminal lawyers, so crime was always there at the table. One of the first books I was given was The Murder of Roger Ackroydaround 8 or 9 years old, it was my first adult book. With age, I appreciated not only the plot, the suspense, the reassuring side, but also the timeless characters, the psychology of crime”, continues Christos Markogiannakis. The American Peter Swanson, author of Nine Lives (Gallmeister), a kind ofThere were ten of them widely, read Agatha Christie at the age of 10 or 11: “Many crime writers and readers were introduced to the genre through her clever books. Now they form a kind of universal language for lovers of the genre.”
Taking inspiration from Agatha Christie means giving the reader back the pleasure of riddles, of the Cluedo he played when he was a child. No horror, no blood, a barely visible corpse, everything is in the aftermath, only his little grey cells are put to work. It is also trying to trick him by giving him just the right amount of clues so that he does not guess the outcome before the detective. It is plunging him back into the atmosphere of a slightly outdated England, even totally fictional, but which has permeated his imagination.
Everyone tries to bring that little touch that makes them stand out. “For Nine livesI wanted to write a different version ofThere were ten of thembut taking up his idea of strangers being put together and killed one by one. In Eight Perfect MurdersI am inspired by the concept of the narrator who deceives the reader by not giving him all the elements,” continues Peter Swanson. In The House on the Cliff (Métailié), the Scot Chris Brookmyre plays the closed room, the group, the corpse in the kitchen, but the book then takes side roads. “I don’t copy, I don’t imitate, I take inspiration. What interests me is not only the “Who killed?”, but the why, the psychological aspect”, adds Christos Markogiannakis.
The cozy murder mystery is too soft and not very incisive
In the eyes of readers, mentioning Agatha Christie is not enough to make an author one of her heirs. The most purists refuse, for example, to recognize cozy murder any kind of affiliation, despite their commercial success. Too padded, too lacking in incisiveness in light of the fierce gaze cast by the queen of crime on English society, its family mysteries and its neighbourly relations. “We see parodies, with English villages, but it is a heritage that exaggerates and does not understand the literary dimension of the investigative novel, of the detective who tells a story”, notes Dominique Meyer-Bolzinger.
Conversely, having the imprimatur of the official heirs does not guarantee success, as evidenced by the sales of books by Sophie Hannah, officially commissioned to write sequels based on the character of Hercule Poirot: “They did not live up to our expectations. It was a bit of a ‘product’ idea”, regrets Constance Trapenard. Before adding: “But it allowed us to revalue our content on which there were sales peaks.” Because in reality, the secret is there: reading tributes to Agatha Christie to better return to the original work. To remember a forgotten outcome or find the path that leads to it. To admire the work of Hercule Poirot’s little grey cells or for the pleasure of a tea with Miss Marple. What else?
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