Agatha Christie A to Z: The Essential Reference to Her Life and Writings is a reader's companion for and encyclopedia of Agatha Christie's works by Dawn Sova published in 1996 by Facts on File Inc. The volume includes a foreword by David Suchet and an introduction by Mathew Prichard. The core of the book is an A to Z list of short encyclopedic entries on various Christie topics, her works and her characters. Also included are various lists, such as lists of her works arranged in chronological order, a list of detectives and their stories, and a list of the means of murder or attempted murder in each work.
The author is adjunct professor of English at Montclair State University in New Jersey and has a PhD. in English Literature. She has written over 22 books including, in the same genre, Critical Companion to Edgar Allen Poe.
Blurb from inside dustjacket[]
"'I regard my work of no importance--I've simply been out to entertain,' said Agatha Christie, the 20th century's most published writer. Only the works of Shakespeare and the Bible have outsold her own. During a writing career that spanned 57 years, this enigmatic author produced 78 mystery novels, 19 plays, and 100 short stories-translated into 44 languages worldwide--as well as three books of poetry, six romance novels, and two nonfiction works.
Thoroughly researched, encyclopedic, and easy-to-use, this essential guide contains over 2,500 entries covering all aspects of the Christie phenomenon, including accounts of the writer's relationships with friends, relatives, and associates; all that is publicly known about Christie's strange 10-day disappearance in 1926; chapter-by-chapter plot synopses of all the mystery stories (omitting, of course, solutions to the crimes); and extensive treatment of film, stage, and television adaptations of her works. You will also find
- A chronology of Christie's works
- Complete cross-referencing of all characters and titles of works
- Publishing and dramatization histories for every novel, play, and short story, including original publication dates for both British and U.S. editions
- Crime notes for each mystery story
- Comprehensive character and cast lists
- Categorical appendices of murders by poison, gunshot, stabbing, strangling. drowning, throat cutting, immolation, suffocation, and more
Dating from 1928, rare archival images accompany the text- photographs from Christie's private life as well as stills from some of the films and TV adaptations of her novels.
From her greatest protagonists fastidious detective Hercule Poirot, the only fictional character ever to be honored with an obituary in The New York Times, and the highly acute Miss Jane Marple, inspiration to elderly women everywhere--to all theother eccentrics, evildoers, and oddballs to have passed from Christie's imagination to the page, stage and screen, author Dawn Sova has faithfully and exhaustively documented Christie's literary personae."