Agatha Christie A to Z: The Essential Reference to Her Life & Writings (Critical Companion) [Paperback]

Dawn B. Sova (Author), Mathew Prichard (Introduction), David Suchet (Foreword), Matthew Prichard (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Checkmark Books (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816043116
• ISBN-13: 978-0816043118
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,302,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

DAWN SOVA is a strong opponent of censorship in its many forms and has authored Banned Plays, Forbidden Films, Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Social Grounds, and Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Sexual Grounds. Third editions of the latter two books are in progress. She has felt honored to speak on the topic to both library associations and private groups.

She was born in northern New Jersey in 1949 to first-generation Americans of Eastern European descent whose parents came through Ellis Island with great hopes and dreams for the future. Economic disadvantage limited her parents' access to education, but they empowered their daughter to strive and to earn several advanced academic degrees. She taught writing, journalism, and literature for over two decades at both the high school and university level.

More important, their influence propelled her to dream beyond the boundaries of their working class neighborhood. She is the author of 23 books. In 2002, she won the Mystery Writers of America Award for Best Non-fiction Work for her 20th book Edgar Allan Poe A-to-Z. She was nominated by the MWA in the same category several years earlier for her work on Agatha Christie.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars BEWARE!, October 29, 2005

By 

B. Groves (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Agatha Christie A to Z: The Essential Reference to Her Life & Writings (Critical Companion) (Paperback)

This book is very well researched. However potential buyers should be aware of a very glaring flaw. The introduction concludes by saying "And, by the way, none of the solutions of the plots are revealed." As a matter of fact, pretty-much ALL the solutions are revealed in one way or another. Someone using this book while they are reading one of Christie's novels in order to look up a character may inadvertantly have the ending revealed to them. The book's only usefulness is after you've read the works of Christie. That severely diminishes its value as a reference work.