We do this every year, and it gets more unwieldy and yet more enjoyable as time goes by. Join us as we fine-tune our rankings of the sixty (!!) Christie novels we've covered thus far. We may even engage in a little horse-trading....

A Very Special Episode: The State of the Rankings

All About Agatha is a podcast all about, well, Agatha. Agatha Christie, of course. The Queen of Crime, a real-life Dame of the British Empire and author of sixty-six mystery novels that spanned the Twentieth Century, defining a genre. For five years, Catherine Brobeck and Kemper Donovan revisited these novels in publication order, ranking them according to pre-set criteria (plot, character, etc.). Tragically, Catherine Brobeck passed away at the end of 2021. Since then, Kemper has completed the podcast's ranking project, and now contents himself with interviewing like-minded obsessives, dissecting new adaptations, and trying to solve the age-old mystery of why Christie--and Christie alone--endures as powerfully as she does. Call it a Christie-fest, as together we revisit Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, and, oh, so much more...!

Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

TV & Film

Books

Film Reviews

Andrew Winans is the director of a new off-Broadway production of Christie's theatrical adaptation of her superb novel, The Hollow. I loved getting to speak with someone who has been in the trenches with his cast of actors and crew of professionals over the past few months, bringing this Agatha Christie play to life.... To purchase tickets for this run of The Hollow (13-21 April) at The Players Theatre in downtown New York, click here. Come visit me on my ongoing book tour for my mystery novel, The Busy Body! Click here for details. The Busy Body is available to purchase in the United States, the  United Kingdom (where it is available via Kindle for £0.99 for all of April!), and  Australia and New Zealand. Please visit and subscribe to the podcast's Patreon page here. Click here to purchase tickets for my upcoming panel at the Agatha Christie Festival in September.

Interview with Andrew Winans, Director of The Hollow by Agatha Christie

Next week's episode will be a discussion with Andrew Winans, the director of an upcoming Off-Broadway production of The Hollow, a play written by Agatha Christie, based on her novel. If you are interested in attending this production, which runs from 13-21 April in New York, go ahead and click here. And my East Coast/Midwest tour of the United States for The Busy Body is about to begin! Click here for more details. I hope to see some of you very soon--in person!

*Special Announcement* re Next Episode

If you're a longtime listener of this podcast, you'll know never to trust an actor in a Christie story. So what happens when not one but two actors feature among the rather small cast of suspects? A lot, as it turns out, in this early short story that showcases Christie's unique ability to spin seemingly endless variations on a single puzzle.... In addition to the titular story, the following Christies are spoiled in the course of this episode: "Miss Marple Tells a Story” "The Affair at the Bungalow” "Murder in the Mews” Cat Among the Pigeons Three Act Tragedy Death in the Clouds And Then There Were None The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Lord Edgware Dies Evil Under the Sun To purchase tickets for my panel at the upcoming Agatha Christie Festival, click here. To visit the Festival website and check out all the other fantastic panels on offer, click here. For details on my upcoming book tour in the Northeast and Midwest of the U.S., click here. Please visit and subscribe to the podcast's Patreon page here. You can purchase my debut mystery novel, The Busy Body, in the United States, the  United Kingdom, and  Australia and New Zealand.  

Klaxon Bell Bonanza: The Actress by Agatha Christie

Quick: what is the best Joan Hickson adaptation of a Miss Marple novel? Or how about your least favorite Suchet episode? If you like pondering such questions, then this is the episode for you! Just beware of spoilers; I list all the novels Teresa and I spoil in the course of this wide-ranging conversation at the top of the episode. To buy tickets to the All About Agatha Live! Panel at the upcoming Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay in September, click here. To check out all the splendid events at this year's Agatha Christie Festival, click here. Go wild perusing all that Teresa and Bill at Peschel Press have to offer here. Come visit me in mid-April while I’m on tour in the Northeast and Midwest of the United States! Click here for details. You can buy my debut mystery novel, The Busy Body, in the United States, the  United Kingdom and  Australia and New Zealand. You can visit and subscribe to the podcast’s Patreon page here.

Ranking Some (But Not All!) of the Various Screen Adaptations of Agatha Christie (with Teresa Peschel)

Sarah Hinlicky Wilson is back! And with this episode, she’s officially earned her title as All About Agatha’s resident expert on Christian theology. I leaned heavily on her expertise for this episode, which involves a lot of parsing of Biblical and even apocryphal references, as we discussed this curious, fascinatingly revealing short story from the Star Over Bethlehem and Other Stories collection. To read Sarah’s newly published article “Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Christian,” click  here. To visit Sarah’s website, click here. To visit my website to check out upcoming dates and locations for my book tour, click here. You can buy my debut mystery novel, The Busy Body, in the United States, the  United Kingdom, and  Australia and New Zealand. Please visit and subscribe to the podcast’s Patreon page here.

A Very Special Episode: The State of the Rankings

Download our free app to listen on your phone