This study of the technique of Agatha Christie's detective fiction - sixty-seven novels and more than one hundred short stories - is the first extensive analysis of her accomplishments as a writer. Bargainnier demonstrates that Christie thoroughly understood the conventions of her genre and, with seemingly inexhaustible ingenuity, was able to develop for more than fifty years surprising variations within those conventions.

This study of the technique of Agatha Christie's detective fiction - sixty-seven novels and more than one hundred short stories - is the first extensive analysis of her accomplishments as a writer. Bargainnier demonstrates that Christie thoroughly understood the conventions of her genre and, with seemingly inexhaustible ingenuity, was able to develop for more than fifty years surprising variations within those conventions.