The Pursuit of Crime is an interview given by Agatha Christie which was published in the Pall Mall Gazette on 20 Jan 1922, on the eve of her departure on The Grand Tour. The byline of the article attributes it to Agatha Christie herself.
In this interview, Christie describes how she started out writing poetry and singing, during her "age of innocence" before the fascination and lure of writing about crime attracted her. She would be travelling with the tools of her trade, her typewriter, notebook and lots of paper, and promises that before she returned to England, another story of crime would be published. After those who reproach her for giving up poetry for crime, she admits to having "a sordid mind; there is no money in poetry, and lots in criminals and their ways."
As for those who feel that she, being so young, should refuse to dwell on the "seamy side of life", she feels that so long as right triumphed in the end, and she stresses that in her books it does, then what does it matter? In fact her only twinge of regret is that if young and innocent readers are led to believe that good always wins. They would then find that real life is going to disappoint them.
Christie concludes that "crime is like drugs". A writer of detective stories might stray "into the by-paths of poetry or psychology" but that one would inevitably return.