Agatha Christie and the ‘Golden Age’ of crime

Abstract This chapter explores Agatha Christie’s life, her emergence as a writer and her phenomenal success. It also puts her work into context, mapping the history of the clue-puzzle formula within which she excelled. The significant social and political changes that shaped Christie’s long life are noted and their impact upon her writing examined, illustrating her ability to mirror cultural anxieties while maintaining mass appeal. The chapter analyses her early influences, career breakthroughs, and changing preoccupations and seeks to provide a nuanced view of her evolution as a writer. It also introduces her pseudonymous self, Mary Westmacott. Key debates in and around the ‘Golden Age’ of crime are discussed, looking at the rules of the formula, writers’ responses to such constraints, and early critical commentary on the genre. Christie’s innovations and enduring impact are placed within this tradition, alongside commentary on her adaptability, popularity, and the wide range of sub-genres in which she wrote.