All About Agatha Christie

"Agatha Christie,
1890.09.15~1976/1/12,
Crime of Queen"

When we think of those famous crime novelists, we will never omit Agatha Christie, whose novels has been translated into at least 103 languages, and were adapted for so many movies. Since her sister read some stories of Sherlock Holmes for her when she was little, she had long been a fan of detective novels. And she was inspired by those detective novels to write her own ones. Although, her sister didn't back her up to write this kind of topic, however, this situation pushed Christie to write detective novels and she would never glance back.







The two main characters in her novels are Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. 

David Suchet,
who was cast as Hercule Poirot in
television series since 1989 until
in June,2013. 

Poirot was a long-running character in many of Christie's works, and appeared in 33 novels and 54 short stories. Poirot was a retired policeman from Belgium. He came to United Kingdom as a refugee during WWI and started his second job: a private detective. He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he had a mustache which he is very proud of and take good care of. Also, he had green eyes that were repeatedly described as shining "like a cat's". The neatness of his attire was almost incredible and a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. In addition, among Poirot's most significant personal attributes is the sensitivity of his stomach. Poirot operated as a fairly conventional, clue-based and logical detective and it reflected in his vocabulary by two common phrases: his use of "the little grey cells" and "order and method".

Joan Hickson, 

who played the character in 

all twelve Miss Marple novels, 

and was nominated for 

two BAFTA awards for 

her accurate and charming portrayal

Miss (Jane) Marple was introduced in the short stories The Thirteen Problems in 1927 and was based on Christie's grandmother and her "Ealing cronies". Miss Marple appeared in 12 of Christie's novels. She was an elderly spinster who lived in the village of St.Mary Mead and acted as a consulting detective. The early version of Miss Marple was a gleeful gossip and not an especially nice woman. The citizens of St. Mary Mead liked her but were often tired by her nosy nature and how she seemed to expect the worst of everyone. In later books she became more modern and a kinder person.Miss Marple solved difficult crimes because of her shrewd intelligence, and St. Mary Mead, over her lifetime, has given her seemingly infinite examples of the negative side of human nature. She also has a remarkable ability to latch onto a casual comment and connect it to the case at hand. In several stories, she was able to rely on her acquaintance with Sir Henry Clithering, a retired commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, for official information when required. Miss Marple never married and has no close living relatives. 









The reason why I love her detective novels are that: the stories are very meticulous; you will never know who is the murderer if you don't read until the end. Among her detective novels, I like "And Then There Were None", also named "Ten Little Indians" the most. This novel is widely considered Christie's masterpiece and described by her as the most difficult of her books to have written. It was first published in the United Kingdom on 6 November 1939.


In the novel, ten people are enticed into coming to an island under different pretexts, for example offers of employment or to enjoy a late summer holiday, or to meet with old friends. All of them have been complicit in the death(s) of other human beings but either escaped justice or committed an act that was not subject to legal sanction. The guests are charged with their respective "crimes" by a gramophone recording after dinner the first night and informed that they have been brought to the island to pay for their actions. They are the only people on the island, and cannot escape due to the distance from the mainland and the inclement weather, yet gradually all ten are killed in turn, in a manner that seems to parallel the ten deaths in the nursery rhyme. Nobody else seems to be left alive on the island by the apparently last death. A confession in the form of a postscript to the novel, unveils how the killings took place and who was responsible.


This is the nursery rhyme, which sounds a little bit creepy:


Ten little Indian Boys went out to dine;
One choked his little self and then there were nine.

Nine little Indian Boys sat up very late;
One overslept himself and then there were eight.

Eight little Indian Boys travelling in Devon;
One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.

Seven little Indian Boys chopping up sticks;
One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.

Six little Indian Boys playing with a hive;
A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.

Five little Indian Boys going in for law;
One got in Chancery and then there were four.

Four little Indian Boys going out to sea;
A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.

Three little Indian Boys walking in the zoo;
A big bear hugged one and then there were two.

Two little Indian Boys sitting in the sun;
One got frizzled up and then there was one.

One little Indian Boy left all alone;

He went out and hanged himself and then there were none.






Read this novel and you will definitely be charmed into Christie's detective world! 

Galileo ガリレオ

This time, I want to introduce another Japanese television drama, which is named Galileo. This drama is based on a novel, Detective Galileo, which is written by a famous mystery writer,東野圭吾. There are two seasons of this drama and there were also two movies related to the story released in 2008 and 2013. I think this drama is a little bit different from the common detective dramas that we usually think. In this drama, there is no detective in it; in contrast, the two main characters are a rookie police, 岸谷美砂 and an associate professor in Physics Department, 湯川学.

Some interesting parts in season two of this drama.

The main character, 湯川学, is a handsome professor who teaches Physics in 帝都大学. He is a brilliant but eccentric person who is not interested in anything but Physics. He helps the police, 岸谷美砂, to solve the cases only when he thinks that there are somethings interesting. He has some pet phrases such as "さっぱり分からない", which means that it doesn't ring any bells; also "実におもしろい", which means that he thinks it is very interesting; the most important one is "現象には必ず理由がある", which means that everything comes for a reason. He doesn't believe there are supernatural phenomenon 
and impossible things in the world and he thinks that he can use his knowledge from Physics to solve all of them.








The heroine in this drama in season two is 岸谷美砂. She is a rookie police who is very confident in herself and she is sometimes very rude to seniors, such as the assistant of Professor 湯川, who is older than her. When she encounter some difficult and mysterious cases, she will come to Professor 湯川's laboratory to ask for help. However, Professor 湯川 is only interested in what the criminal tactic is, therefore 岸谷 always has to find who is the murderer by herself.









In this drama, there is one funny scene appearing in every episode. When Professor 湯川 thinks of the physical methods that can solve the case, he will gesture his left hand like Fleming's left-handed material in front of his face, and use anything he can get to write Physics formula somewhere around him.

His funny pose

The Physics formula

The reasons why I think this drama worth watching are that each episode talks about different and interesting topics; using Physical method to solve the cases which seem like supernatural
phenomenon at first is quite an innovative idea. In addition, because Professor 湯川 is an odd and rational person and 美砂 is quite perceptual and a little bit noisy, when they get along with each other, their conversations are always very interesting. It is really a great drama that you will totally fall in love with it.