Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in 100 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.

"The denoument will probably come as a surprise to nine readers out of ten" New York Times "SPARKLING CYANIDE is the one ! which I should take with me to a desert island; for I find in it a seriousness and a psychological insight unparalleled in the author's other works.' Times Literary Supplement