Nice snippets of information

Interesting but short chapters made this book a quick read. It was nice to see real-life inspiration for some of Christie's plots and characters. ( )

This book attempts to show the "true-crime" origins of a number of Agatha Christie novels and short stories. To my mind it falls well short of this aim. It feels like a poorly structured and badly written undergraduate thesis.

I remained unconvinced in most chapters of the links that the author attempts to claim between the story named and the "facts" described. For much of the time there is far too much historical detail given and not enough correlation shown. Some of the chapters ramble, and in reality we needed a much closer discussion of the plot of the novel or story and the factual elements claimed.

Sample Chapter Headings:
Jack the Ripper: Cat Among the Pigeons
Lady Nancy Astor: Appointment with Death
Lizzie Borden: After the Funeral
Oscar Wilde: A Woman on No Importance

For example, I could not really see the connection between the ABC murders and Jack the Ripper, despite a throw away line by Hercule Poirot to Captain Hastings. And there is almost no relevance to Cat Among the Pigeons which was an entirely different novel.

Similarly while we might agree that Lady Mary Westholme was modelled on Lady Astor, that is really where the connection with the plot of Appointment with Death ends.

A very disappointing, almost trivial, book that frustrated me beyond measure. ( )

This was rather disappointing. The book did not really focus on the crimes that inspired her novels. Some were mentioned, but not in any depth. There was quite a lot of trivia about events and people who in some way were connected to Christie or her books. The author gives away the murderer in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd so bewarned if you read this and didn't read that. Still worth a look. ( )