Fascinating Facts About Agatha Christie

Here are five fascinating facts about Agatha Christie that you may not have known.

She ate apples in the bath for inspiration. Christie would dream up the plots of her novels while soaking in her large Victorian bath, eating apples. Unfortunately she had to put a stop to the practice once she became dissatisfied with the modern baths available to her. “Nowadays they don’t build baths like that. I’ve rather given up the practice.”

She tried and failed to take up smoking. Christie tried to make herself like cigarettes by smoking one after lunch and one after dinner each day, but was disappointed when the habit wouldn’t take.

She once disappeared for 11 days. Although it may sound like nothing more than a plot from one of her novels, Christie disappeared for 11 days in 1926. Some suspected she was abducted by aliens, but a likelier explanation was built up stress due to her mother’s death and her husband’s cheating, and a need to escape for a time.

She started writing mysteries because her sister said she couldn’t. Christie’s older sister thought the plots and details would be too complicated for her younger sister, so she went ahead and wrote them anyway to prove her wrong.

She once called herself a sausage machine. The comment was in reference to her impressive output, which at one point was two books a year. She referred to herself as “a sausage machine, a perfect sausage machine.”

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Thrilling Private Detectives You’ll Want to Read Up On

Looking for your next thrilling mystery? Consider reading up on these two fictional private detectives.

Easy Rawlins. An African American World War II veteran turned private detective living in Los Angeles, Ezekiel “Easy” Porterhouse Rawlins didn’t pursue detective work but fell into it after losing his job at an aircraft manufacturer. The creation of American crime fiction novelist Walter Mosley, Easy Rawlins first appeared in Mosley’s 1990 novel Devil in a Blue Dress, which was adapted for the big screen in 1995. Set in the 1940s-1960s, Easy Rawlins finds himself not just investigating crimes but doing so while navigating the social injustices and race politics of America, all while avoiding police intervention due to the fact that his detective work is unlicensed.

Pete Fernandez. A reporter turned private detective, in Alex Segura’s Silent City fans were first introduced to a Pete Fernandex facing a failing career, an ended engagement, and the sudden death of his father. After returning to his hometown of Miami he’s convinced to help a man investigate the disappearance of his daughter, and through subsequent novels Fernandez finds himself following a path of private investigation, one which he had never expected. Pete Fernandez has now been featured in 7 stories to much critical acclaim, and he’s without a doubt one of the most interesting fictional detectives in modern literature.

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Thrilling and Suspenseful Books That Are Well Worth the Read

Here are three great books to consider when looking for your next thrilling read.

Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson. Suffering from anterograde amnesia, a disease that causes her to lose all her memories after she goes to bed, Christine Lucas wakes up every morning with more questions than answers. Not recognizing the bedroom she wakes up in every morning or the man sleeping beside her who identifies herself as he husband Ben, Christine keeps a personal diary in which one day she finds three words written in her own handwriting: "Don't trust Ben."

Bird Box by Josh Malerman. An apocalyptic attack leaves survivors struggling as a creature stalks them, leading them to violence and fatal madness with a mere glimpse. Malorie, one of the few survivors, leads her two small children on a dangerous voyage down the river while blindfolded, in an attempt to find sanctuary. Now a Netflix motion picture starring Sandra Bullock, Bird Box is nothing short of edge-of-your-seat suspense both in novel form and on the screen.

Sphere by Michael Crichton. When an alien spacecraft is discovered on the ocean floor, US Navy psychologist Norman Johnson joins a team of scientists assembled to examine it and quickly finds himself with far more to deal with than he bargained for. Adapted into a major motion picture in 1998, and the type of non-stop thriller we’ve come to expect from Crichton.

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How to Write a Thrilling Mystery

When aspiring to write a thrilling mystery, you may want to keep these tips and tricks in mind:

Murder! Murder! Murder! A heist can certainly make for a good read, but it’s always more exciting when lives are on the line! Start with a murder and take it from there, it’ll certainly make for a thrilling ride.

One is fun, but there’s always room for more! Why stop at just one murder? The kills can keep coming until the case is solved, and the extra pressure on your detective certainly raises the stakes and makes for a compelling read.

Every good murder needs a good motive. It can’t all be senseless killing, although there could certainly be a bit of that too. An intriguing motive for the murder makes for a compelling read, and certainly adds some thrill to the tale.

Creativity makes for a good killer. Anyone can fire a gun, a poison pill is so passé, and running someone over with a car is just plain clumsy. The best villains are the ones who take some time to do some plotting and scheming before executing the perfect execution.

Nobody’s perfect, and that applies to your detective. Making your detective a damaged human being who makes mistakes is bound to make for some more exciting action than a perfect hero who swoops in and saves the day.

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Thrillers About Killers

When looking for a thrilling read a good old fashioned murder mystery is always an excellent choice, and with new authors taking a crack at the genre there’s never been a better time to find a wealth of diversity within it. Here are two thrilling murder mysteries than are bound to get the blood pumping and the heart racing.

The Secret Place by Tana French. Named one of the best books of 2014 in the mystery, thriller and suspense category by Amazon, The Secret Place tells the tale of murder in an unlikely place, the St. Kilda's, a girls' boarding school in Dublin. When Chris Harper, a teenage boy, is found dead on the boarding school grounds, the only clue Detective Stephen Moran has is a note on a bulletin board that says, “I know who killed him.” Alternating between the perspective of the detective and the memories of a teenage girl, French’s murder mystery is as unique as it is compelling.

The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith. If you think The Cuckoo’s Calling may show some similarities to something you’ve already read and love, you’re not alone. Robert Galbraith is in fact the pen name of none other than beloved Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. The first in her Cormoran Strike series, The Cuckoo’s Calling brings us into the world of war veteran and private investigator Cormoran Strike as he investigates the suicide of famous actress Lula Landry.

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