Whodunit? 50 years after her death, crime queen Agatha Christie still rules

New Delhi: It has been 50 years since she died. Agatha Christie, the author who made murder comforting and conjured up images of idyllic England and exotic foreign locales, is as popular as ever, her books adapting to the times through podcasts, films, shows and audiobooks.

Walk into any bookshop and the collected works of Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot and latest editions of her 66 novels and 14 short story collections still occupy pride of place. Online demand stays strong and viewers are constantly tuning into the many iterations of her characters.

The most famous of her creations are Poirot, the fussy Belgian detective with an egg shaped head who exercises his "little grey cells" to nab killers, and Miss Marple, the almost grandmotherly woman from St Mead's village who solves murders over teacakes and conversations, are familiar to readers old and young.

Born on September 15, 1890, Christie died on January 12, 1976 at the age of 85. According to agathachristie.com, she is the bestselling novelist of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare.

"While readers often gravitate towards a curated selection of her most iconic works, the overall market for classic mystery fiction, particularly Christie’s, remains robust and stable. Her writing is truly timeless, appealing equally to long-time admirers and to new readers discovering the genre for the first time," Swagat Sengupta, CEO, Oxford Bookstores, told PTI.

Titles by Agatha Christie continue to enjoy strong and steady demand at Oxford Bookstores and book fairs, especially from young adults. Whodunit? Christie is the soul behind the term. That the stories not just belong to but also recall an era gone by and still captivate with their sometimes formulaic structures and dated concepts is evidence of the power of her pen.

"I like the fragmented narrative that she builds, throwing clues around like breadcrumbs and it all comes together in the end," said 26-year-old Aryama Bhattacharya.

Called the 'Queen of Crime' in her lifetime and one of the most celebrated authors ever, Christie's magic has clearly not dimmed.

In Oxford Bookstores, "And Then There Were None", "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" and "Murder on the Orient Express" consistently rank among the bestsellers. "We also see healthy demand across formats, including both hardcover and paperback editions, reaffirming Christie’s continued relevance and enduring place in contemporary reading culture,” said Sengupta.

Among Christie's many admirers is Ruskin Bond who termed her long writing career a source of inspiration.

"Well into her eighties, Agatha Christie was inventing crimes for her detective Hercule Poirot to investigate and solve... The human brain is at its most fertile in our later years, when there's a lifetime of experience at our creative disposal," the eminent author, now 91 years old, told PTI in an interview in 2023.

Christie's books have been endlessly adapted in films and shows, right from the black and white era, ("Witness for the Prosecution" in 1957) to "Death on the Nile" (Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot in a glossy remake of the whodunit in 2022.) "Agatha Christie is a master storyteller with an amazing gift for characterisation," Branagh has been quoted as saying about the author and her fictional detective he has played in numerous films.

It doesn't really matter if you know who the murderer is. Agatha Christie's works make for great re-reads and great visual watches.

Christie has also been adapted by Indian filmmakers, the most recent being Vishal Bhardwaj's adaptation of her novel "The Sittaford Mystery" in the SonyLiv show "Charlie Chopra & the Mystery of Solang Valley" and the popular 1965 Hindi thriller "Gumnaam", which was inspired by "And Then There Were None".

Bengali film "Shubho Mahurat", where Rakhee plays a Miss Marple like amateur detective, and Malayalam movie "Grandmaster" were also inspired by Christie's writings. Whether it is the sleight of hand by the author in "Roger Ackroyd", the sheer atmosphere of "They Came to Baghdad" and the inventiveness of "A Pocket Full of Rye", Sudeshna Shome Ghosh, executive publisher at Speaking Tiger Books, just can't get enough of them.

"I have been reading Agatha Christies since I was an 11-year-old, and they are still, truly, some of my favourite books to read. Whenever I am stuck in a reading rut, or life becomes hard, I turn to Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and Tommy and Tuppence. In the midst of the pandemic, when the world seemed to be ending, these were the books I could get lost in, and for hours grapple with murder mysteries, conspiracies, and locked room puzzles," Ghosh told PTI.

While some dismiss Christie as an anachronism and often too simplistic, Ghosh is of the view that the books remain unmatched for the way they can entertain and keep the reader rivetted.

"Even now, when I recommend these books to young readers, I see them getting instantly hooked to them, despite there being a plethora of much more contemporary stories being available to them. Long live Agatha Christie’s ‘little grey cells’!" Screenwriter Anjum Rajabali, who worked on "Charlie Chopra..." alongside Jyotsna Hariharan and Bhardwaj, said the first novel he read was "The ABC Murders", but his favourite is "Murder on the Orient Express".

"There was simplicity in this plot but it was perhaps her most emotional novel as the motive of the crime is emotional and unusual," he told PTI.

Rajabali said such are Christie's stories that one is tempted to adapt them.

"She is a mystery and crime writer and she has to keep you guessing, the plot takes twists and turns in such a way that the needle of suspicion keeps moving from one suspect to other," he said, calling her a "class apart".

Maryann Taylor, 41, started reading Christie in her school days and is still a huge fan.

"Her plotting genius is unmatched, captivating readers even today. The eccentric Poirot is a particular favourite of mine. Currently, I’m listening to the BBC dramatised version of 'Murder on the Orient Express' which is so well done. Christie still endures because basic human nature like greed, vanity and jealousy hasn’t changed. Her psychological insights and intricate puzzles speak to every generation, proving that great storytelling transcends time," Taylor told PTI.

The Christie imprint is strong and long-lasting, her form of storytelling finding ever new avatars. The most recent instances being the "Knives Out" series on Netflix with Daniel Craig playing the detective Benoit Blanc and the popular "Only Murders in the Building" where a team of amateurs set about solving murders