Agatha Christie's writing style -- anyone else as good?

[Ainsley]

Hi! Can anyone suggest an author who wrote in a style similar to Agatha Christie's, but without the murders? I know she wrote other kinds of books, too, but she really was best with the murder mystery.

In my opinion, she was an incredible writer, and her stories are completely engrossing, but the murder aspect may not be the best thing before bed! I'd like to create beautiful dreams, and I do need a good book for relaxation, but no one else seems to come near her!

Thanks!

[LitNetIsGreat]

No the books are fine before bed. The murder thing is not to be taken seriously anyway, they are just a good bit of fun. Get reading.

[Ainsley]

Thanks very much for your response -- I appreciate it. But I've been reading her mysteries for months, and my dream-life was definitely affected the other night -- no doubt about it. (Albeit it was after reading in one of her creepier books.)

Besides, I would run out sooner or later.

Anyone else want to weigh in? I realize it could be a hopeless desire.

[WICKES]

Dylan Thomas once said 'happiness is not writing poetry. Happiness is laying in a hot bubble bath, sucking toffees and reading Agatha Christie novels'

[Ainsley]

Dylan Thomas once said 'happiness is not writing poetry. Happiness is laying in a hot bubble bath, sucking toffees and reading Agatha Christie novels'

Did he really say that, Wickes? I can't tell you how much reading that brightened my day! (Just got done going over the woeful state of my "finances," if you can call them that.) You know, if Dylan Thomas said that, I think it gives me the courage to go on reading the rest of the mysteries before sleep! Thank you so much!

[WICKES]

Did he really say that, Wickes? I can't tell you how much reading that brightened my day! (Just got done going over the woeful state of my "finances," if you can call them that.) You know, if Dylan Thomas said that, I think it gives me the courage to go on reading the rest of the mysteries before sleep! Thank you so much!

Lol...pleasure Ainsley (it's not often that I brighten someone's day!).

[Ainsley]

Lol...pleasure Ainsley (it's not often that I brighten someone's day!).

I'm sure that's not true!

[kasie]

When I had worked my way through most of the Agatha Christie list, I moved on to Ngaio Marsh but I'm not sure if her books are still in print. Then there was Dorothy L Sayers and Margery Allingham who wrote in the same vein and style. That style went out of fashion after the War when a different type of detective became more popular, the professional police officer. You might enjoy moving on to Colin Dexter, P D James, Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine (same writer, different noms de plume and styles). Reginald Hill writes grittier stories. Peter Robinson and Peter James write about contemporary police detectives. Ian Rankin and Grahame Hurley write grittier stories about organised crime (ie not necessarily murder) in Edinburgh and Portsmouth respectively - maybe not bedtime reading but engrossing!

If you are set on staying with a gentler era, may I suggest Andrew Taylor's Inspector Thornhill books set in a fictional town somewhere near the edge of the Forest of Dean in the early 1950s. He catches the sense of the times so well. Or if you enjoy a little comedy and history combined you might like Lindsey Davis' Falco books, set in Imperial Rome. Or there are the Mediaeval Murderers, a group of writers setting their tales in the Middle Ages. Simon Brett, Peter Lovesey and M C Beaton all write light amusing detective stories too.

For stylish writing and skilled plotting, you cannot better Susan Hill's Simon Serailler books, imo. But keep away from her ghost stories at bedtime - The Man in the Picture gave me the heebie-jeebies for weeks...

[LitNetIsGreat]

Some interesting suggestions there Kasie. Susan Hill's The Woman in Black is the only one of hers I read which I came to via the play. Andrew Taylor sounds interesting too. Personally I'm not fussed about Sayers or any of the modern murder stuff, I didn't like Rankin in particular but he does have a following. I also like the sense of period about Christie though and not the modern gritty stuff so it's not my type anyway.


Thanks very much for your response -- I appreciate it. But I've been reading her mysteries for months, and my dream-life was definitely affected the other night -- no doubt about it. (Albeit it was after reading in one of her creepier books.)

Besides, I would run out sooner or later.

Anyone else want to weigh in? I realize it could be a hopeless desire.

Mrs Neely was put about by Endless Night quite a lot and I think there is a sense of mood about Towards Zero and maybe bits of one or two others. They don't have that effect on me though but everybody is different. I remember having strange nightmares for a few days after reading a Red Dwarf book and that's a comedy!

In terms of period character and absolutely delightful reading I can only recommend the James Herriot books, absolute charm, one of the highlights of my year so far!! I'm on the fourth book and reading slowly through them. I also have The Darling Buds of May complete collection to read after, this is also a nostalgic period piece so I'll see how this works out too.

You can also repeat read some Christie. Mrs Neely has started to do that and I've done that with some of the books. You find that you often forget details and that there's still great value in re-reading.

You are right though perhaps it is best not to read them one after the other, I rarely did this either, I would space them out with other things now thinking about it. Why not space them out with the James Herriot books?:smilewinkgrin:

[Hawkman]

You can't go wrong with Edmund Crispin and Michael Innes. Their styles are witty and amusing and sometimes laugh out loud funny.

You might also appreciate John Dickson Carr (who also wrote as Carter Dickson) who delighted in locked room mysteries. All three of these authors have that "period air" of the old-fashioned, English upper classes which persisted before the rise of the really nasty, gritty, psychopathic criminal novel.

[Jackson Richardson]

Colin Watson's Flaxborough novels are very funny crime novels, with a wonderful sense of what English provincial life was like the the 60s and 70s.

The element of an elaborate puzzle is the whole point of and Agatha Christie novel and I can't imagine what an Agatha Christie novel without the murders would be like.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Or maybe PG Wodehouse too.

[Ainsley]

Thanks so much, everybody! So many wonderful ideas -- now my fingers are crossed that my rather limited library system will have a lot of these books -- can't give into temptation to buy anymore -- if it does I should be very happy for some time to come (even though I don't have a bathtub). Love and gratitude to you all!

[wordeater]

Hi! Can anyone suggest an author who wrote in a style similar to Agatha Christie's, but without the murders?

That's like asking for a good wine without the grapes. Perhaps P. G. Wodehouse?

[Ainsley]

That's like asking for a good wine without the grapes. Perhaps P. G. Wodehouse?

I guess that would be English cyder!

: )

[Delta40]

I love the readability of Christie. At one time I had her entire collection and it was always a joy to read her stories over and over again. Now I just have a few collections of short stories but I still read them every now and then (more than the bible!)

[Pen Name]

I guess that would be English cyder!

: )


No cider is made from apples, it would be just water without the grapes.

But Wodehouse is very good and certainly no murders, Jeeves is a fine to read and you will sleep with a smile on your face, and awake as if the Gentleman's Gentleman had given you one of his especially fine bracers.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jeeves-Omnibus-Vol-Wooster-No-1/dp/009173987X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374767004&sr=1-1&keywords=jeeves

There are twelve Jeeves novels, all tip top stuff, and unlike Christie, can be read again and again, one tends to laugh even more the second time around.

[ennison]

Aren't the Irish clever - how they make Magners from potatoes.

[Red Terror]

I read 5 of her Poirot novels when I was a young man and also read the short story "Witness for the Prosecution" (made into a movie by Hollywood) which I don't remember well at all except it had a dramatic ending. The novel Murder of Roger Akroyd is just pure cheating. So is Murder on the Orient Express --- another exercise in cheating her readers and making a sensationalist crappy novel. I won't be reading her books anymore to say the least.