Agatha Christie Portal - Books & Reviews

Thursday, December 07, 2006

The Mysterious Mr. Quin by Agatha Christie





"Mr. Satterthwaite was sixty two-a little bent, dried up man with a peering face oddly elflike, and an intense and inordinate interest in other people lives. All his life, so to speak, he had sat in the front row of the stalls watching various dramas of human nature unfold before him. His role had always been that of the onlooker. Only now, with old age holding him in its clutch, he found himself increasingly critical to the drama submitted to him. He demanded now something a little out of the common."

Mr. Satterthwaite was a guest of the New Year's Eve house party at Royston. The elder members of the party assembled in the big hall and young people had gone to bed. Then he had a sensation that something interesting was happening or going to happen.

That was a wild night.

"The wind rose in another terrific wail, and as it died away there came three loud knocks on the big nailed doorway.

Framed in the doorway stood a man's figure, tall and slender."

The stranger named Mr. Harley Quin was no ordinary guest. He had come to unmask a murderer.

With the help of Mr. Quin, Mr. Satterthwaite solved many unsolved problem thus participating in the dramas of human nature.

Towards Zero by Agatha Christie




"I like a good detective story," he said. "But, you know, they begin in the wrong place! They begin with the murder. But the murder is the end. The story begins long beforethat- years before sometimes- with all the causes and events that bring certain people to a certain place at a certain time on a certain day............."

He nodded his head gently:

"All converging towards a given spot.....And then, when the times comes- over the top! Zero hour. Yes, all of them converging towards zero......"

He repeated, :Towards zero......."

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Agatha Christie's quotes

Here are few quotes by Dame Agatha Christie:

"An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her."

"Any woman can fool a man if she wants to and if he's in love with her."

"But surely for everything you have to love you have to pay some price. "
"Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions."

"An ugly voice repels me where an ugly face would not."

"Curious things, habits. People themselves never knew they had them."

"Every murderer is probably somebody's old friend."

"I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness - to save oneself trouble."

"I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing."

"I specialize in murders of quiet, domestic interest."

"Evil is not something superhuman, it's something less than human."

"I've always believed in writing without a collaborator, because where two people are writing the same book, each believes he gets all the worry and only half the royalties."

"If one sticks too rigidly to one's principles, one would hardly see anybody."

"It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them."

"It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story."

"Most successes are unhappy. That's why they are successes - they have to reassure themselves about themselves by achieving something that the world will notice."

"Never do anything yourself that others can do for you."

"Oh dear, I never realized what a terrible lot of explaining one has to do in a murder!"

"One doesn't recognize the really important moments in one's life until it's too late."

"One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one."

"The best time to plan a book is while you're doing the dishes."

"The happy people are failures because they are on such good terms with themselves they don't give a damn."

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."

"There is nothing more thrilling in this world, I think, than having a child that is yours, and yet is mysteriously a stranger."

"There is nothing so dangerous for anyone who has something to hide as conversation! A human being, Hastings, cannot resist the opportunity to reveal himself and express his personality which conversation gives him. Every time he will give himself away."

"Too much mercy... often resulted in further crimes which were fatal to innocent victims who need not have been victims if justice had been put first and mercy second. "

"Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody."