Scariest book by Agatha Christie, IMO? "And Then There Were None".

[Jacksmama]

I love Agatha Christie. Have read nearly every one of her books and am currently working my way through the ones I'd missed. I love the suspense in her stories, and also the fact that nothing she writes (at least, that I have read) is ever over-the-top gruesome or horrific (a la Stephen King, for example - and I just want to mention that before I had DS, I was a huge SK fan).

There was a short story in "Surprise, Surprise" that I read recently which gave me chills as I was reading it, and I was lad to finish it and go on to something else that was a little less, well, really frightening. I'm not used to reading AG in bed at night and being afraid to turn out the light!!

"And Then There Were None" was like that for me. It was like a train wreck - I couldn't not look - had to keep reading, and last night, when I finished it around midnight I was so frightened by how the narrative at the end of the story where the murderer confesses to the deeds and how he did it, I couldn't sleep for hours!! I had to get DS and snuggle him in bed with me, with the light on, before I could doze off.

Anybody else find that story particularly disturbing?

[lottiejenkins]

The film Agatha about the days when she disapeared (sp) in the 1920's is worth seeing too. Vanessa Redgrave and Dustin Hoffman.
www.imdb.com/title/tt0078736/

[nymphadora]

I have just got into AC again and am working my way through loads of second hand ones I got in Hay-on-Wye on holiday.

I used to prefer Miss Marple but lately I have been re-reading Poirot and got quite into them. I have noticed loads of overlapping places/people which I haven't in the past.

[RustyBear]

Vintagegardenia - it was a corn knife - ie a knife for cutting off corns from your feet, not a corn on the cob knife - unless they changed it in a later edition because they didn't think modern readers would know what a corn knife was.

Actually, talking about things being changed in later editions, I was rereading 'Destination Unknown' the other day & in the original edition there was a scene where a woman was eating her dinner in a hotel 'with a Penguin book propped up in front of her' - in this edition, it has been changed to 'a Fontana paperback' (guess who published this edition?)

It doesn't sound right somehow.

I love her autobiography - have you read 'Come tell me how you live' which is about the years she and her second husband spent on archaeological digs in Syria in the 30s.

[VintageGardenia]

what???

[Tidey]

I read ATTWN on holiday, reminds me of blazing hot sunshine but feeling cold and goose-pimply all over when I got to the end. Great read.

[VintageGardenia]

Well I had to google the corn knife so here's one result, a quiz, you'll all get one question right now anyway, pit your wits.

[Spacehoppa]

I rather like the ending of Endless Night for creepy.

In films I have a soft spot for the old Margaret Rutherford films of Marple-just how many liberties?

[RustyBear]

10/10!

[Spacehoppa]

4/10. In my defence I did go go through my trying to read everything Christe Phase 20 years ago. Guess this means I will have to start all over again.
With ABC perhaps?

[hocuspontas]

I only got 5/10. And I call myself an AC buff. I will have to re-read them. Although I don't really like the short stories so I was never going to get 10!

[steamedtreaclesponge]

9/10! That quiz made me realise that there are a couple of her books I haven't read in a while, will have to go on a hunt for them...

[hocuspontas]

Cat among the Pigeons just started on ITV1...

[nymphadora]

5/10 some I couldn't even remember

[Ceasnake]

Talking of And Then There Were None's original title, I have an amusing anecdote of when my partner (who is black)found some Agatha Christie books for sale at a car boot:

Ceasnake's P: Oh my girlfriend loves Agatha Christie, I'll take them all. How much?
Carboot man: A fiver. Oh, and I've got a special edition here, it's the original title and cover... I just keep it in this box here.
CP: Great, which one is that?
CBM: (penny dropping) Oh - um -
CP: Sorry, which one?
CBM: (panicking slightly)I don't agree with it, or anything!
CP: What? Can I buy it?
CBM: Oh - um - well...

Needless to say, he bought it (probably for a knock down price!)

To make matters even worse, it has a golliwog on the front cover

[dizzysteph]

Agree with all the scary Agatha Christies mentioned here but noone has mentioned Crooked House.... no other book has made me shudder like that. Very creepy!!

[UnquietDad]

Isn't it funny how we all dance round that original title? Would mumsnet explode if someone actually used the word? (It gets played on Radio 2 every time "Oliver's Army" is on...)

[steamedtreaclesponge]

But Ceasnake, surely the golliwogs are an integral part of the plot? Not that I agree with them or anything, but I suppose it would have made sense to have a picture of one on the front.

And UQD, I did use the original title in my first post (purely because it's quicker to type than ATTWN and that's what my edition is called) and Mumsnet hasn't exploded yet, although I wait with bated breath...

[Ceasnake]

Actually, I think the little statues in the ATTWN are 'Indians' (ie. Native Americans). That was the next, slightly less un-PC title before it became And Then There Were None.

[UnquietDad]

So you did, steamedtreaclesponge - missed that!

[edam]

Enjoy Poirot but Miss Marple is just wonderful. Love the sweet facade and the entirely realistic appraisal of human nature behind it - think Christie says at some point all the Victorians had minds like sewers.

ITV Marple is just horrid. Dropping the Miss is extremely rude and G McEwen is not J Hicks. No-one should play Poirot after Suchet and no-one should play Miss Marple after J Hicks.

I like the one where Miss Marple clears Jason Rafiel's son - in his will, Rafiel sends her on a coach tour without any instructions at all apart from 'here's the ticket'. Very eery.

[LaDiDaDi]

That's Nemesis I think, edam.

This thread has made me want to reread a lot of them though I think I may have carbooted them when I left home for Uni. (Don't think I met your dp though Ceasnake!).

[edam]

Ah, I had it in my head Nemesis was the first Jason Rafiel one, but maybe that was A Carribean Mystery?

[ZZZenAgain]

No, Caribbean Mystery is where he is an old man but Nemesis is the one where he has his lawyers send off a letter to MM after his death and she goes on the country house tour. Doesn't she tell him in the Caribbean Mystery that she is Nemesis though when she is about to solve it and turns up all pink and fluffy and makes him chortle?

[Rhian82]

I think Endless Night is the creepiest, but Crooked House is pretty bad too.