All About Agatha Christie
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. She will be forever missed. Since then, Kemper has completed the podcast's ranking project, and continues to celebrate 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
Mar 30, 2019 • 22min
Getting Happy with Parker Pyne: Have You Got Everything You Want? by Agatha Christie
All aboard the... Orient Express?! That's right: heart specialist Parker Pyne is going abroad, and while we've already covered one of his travels in Christie's other Death on the Nile, here he untangles a jewel heist (or is it?) aboard that infamous train right around the same time Monsieur Poirot was taking it in the opposite direction. (Maybe one day someone will find an alternate And Then There Were None in the basement at Greenway, in which Pyne finds himself on an island being hunted down by a murderer, only to solve the murderer's problems by means of an elaborate theatrical ruse....) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Mar 23, 2019 • 59min
And Then There Were 34: The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie
It may surprise some listeners to learn how mixed we were on our third Miss Marple novel, given what fans we are (yes, even Catherine) of our dear spinster sleuth. But that just means we had lots and lots to discuss, so get out your gluestick and sharpen a skewer because we've got more than a few moving fingers to account for in the seemingly sweet (read: not at all sweet) village of Lymstock. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Mar 10, 2019 • 30min
The Name's Bond. James Bond. Just Not *That* James Bond: The Rajah's Emerald by Agatha Christie
No, really: the protagonist of this story is "James Bond," who appears more than a quarter century before Ian Fleming's slightly more famous character. And our poor James Bond is suffering through a vacation (er, holiday) so wretched, it has to be one of the worst Christie ever depicted--which as we've discussed in previous episodes is definitely saying something, given Poirot's various ill-advised vacances sur la plage.... Let's take the plunge in the icy English waters together, shall we? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Mar 1, 2019 • 28min
Manic Pixie Monster a.k.a. Never Go to the Second Location: The Golden Ball by Agatha Christie
We have been here before, and we will almost certainly be here again. It's time for another kookily "romantic" story in which two young things banter their little hearts out to what seems to be to them--if not us--a satisfying conclusion. It's Listerdale Mystery time, and good God but this one hinges on a piece of fruit, too. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Feb 24, 2019 • 59min
A Hercule Poirot Amuse-Bouche: The Double Clue & The Capture of Cerberus by Agatha Christie
We've heard tell that two hearts are better than one, so we figured we'd take that approach to our exploration of a character within the Christieverse replete with both passion and flair: the Countess Vera Rossakoff. Behold a double episode showcasing the two stories in which she appears, along with a general discussion of who this so-called Countess is and what she may or may not mean to our dear Monsieur Poirot. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Feb 15, 2019 • 1h 23min
And Then There Were 35: Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
Well, the last time we posted such a prolix episode it was to gush over what became our highest ranked novel, And Then There Were None. We will leave it to you, dear listener, to discover whether this beloved Poirot novel managed to unseat the champion and become our new #1. We'll give you this much: it was close! Enjoy. FLP4EVA (Catherine is currently requesting this vanity plate from the California DMV.) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Feb 9, 2019 • 36min
Communing with Mr. Quin: The Voice in the Dark by Agatha Christie
This Harley Quin story has, if not quite everything, then nearly so: a boating catastrophe in the distant past that is neither the Titanic nor the Lusitania; a young Mr. Satterthwaite (!!) snogging (!!!!) a maid (!!!!!!); a man named Bimbo (seriously); and a true rarity for Christie—a bathtub murder. Things always get a little weird in this corner of the Christieverse (the Satterthwerse?), so fasten your seatbelts... (oh yeah--Bette Davis gets a shoutout too). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Feb 1, 2019 • 31min
Getting Happy with Parker Pyne: The Case of the Rich Woman by Agatha Christie
Let's just hope for all our sakes we never get another opportunity to go off on a tangent about body-switch comedies. (One never knows in the Christieverse.) In this, the final story in the "Miss Lonelyhearts"-esque section of the Parker Pyne collection, we perhaps see our "heart specialist" at his most dastardly AND brilliant. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jan 25, 2019 • 24min
On Scheherezade & Omar Khayyám: Mr Eastwood's Adventure by Agatha Christie
We are discussing another early Christie thriller, so we've got a dippy male protagonist combined with dubious gender politics, sigh. But it also turns out this is a very (classically) Persian episode, who knew? We did, and so will you. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jan 18, 2019 • 59min
And Then There Were 36: The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie (a.k.a. Miss Marple is BA-ACK!)
Praise be: we have at long last arrived at our second Miss Marple novel! We couldn't be more thrilled to revisit St. Mary Mead and its assorted characters, and boy do we get a lot of them in this alternately breezy/bleak story. So let's join our six investigators (no, really--four professional, two amateur) and find out what happens when people stop being polite, and start getting murder-y. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
