Murder is Easy (St. Martin's Minotaur Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

Agatha Christie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 19, 2001 | Series: St. Martin's Minotaur Mysteries

It was just Luke Fitzwilliam's luck to be stuck next to a dotty old woman like Miss Fullerton on the London-bound train--although he found himself quite entertained with her tall tales about a series of perfect murders in the quaint village of Wychwood. But when he reads the next day of the freak accident that killer her, too, Fitzwilliam's amusement turns to grave concern. A visit to the isolated village confirms his worst fears. For Wychwood seems to be divided by an eccentric lot of locals: those who are in on a dark and dangerous secret--and those who don't live long enough to share it.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Suspense, mystery, romance and an agreeable touch of the macabre.' Guardian Contains some clever plotting and enough casting of suspicion to keep you guessing like mad.' Books 'One of Agatha Christie's best mystery novels, a story fascinating in its plot, clever and lively in its characters and brilliant in its technique.' New York Times --This text refers to the Unknown Binding edition.

About the Author

AGATHA CHRISTIE is the world's best known mystery writer. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in 44 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare.

Her writing career spanned more than half a century, during which she wrote 80 novels and short story collections, as well as 14 plays, one of which, The Mousetrap, is the longest-running play in history. Two of the characters she created, the brilliant little Belgian Hercule Poirot and the irrepressible and relentless Miss Marple, went on to become world-famous detectives. Both have been widely dramatized in feature films and made-for-TV movies.

Agatha Christie also wrote under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. As well, she wrote four non-fiction books including an autobiography and an entertaining account of the many expeditions she shared with her archaeologist husband, Sir Max Mallowan.

Agatha Christie died in 1976.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books (November 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312979827
• ISBN-13: 978-0312979829
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #341,802 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #17 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( C ) > Christie, Agatha

More About the Author

Agatha Christie was born in 1890 and created the detective Hercule Poirot in her debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920). She achieved wide popularity with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) and produced a total of eighty novels and short-story collections over six decades.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic Christie, refreshingly solvable., November 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Murder Is Easy (Mass Market Paperback)

I hardly need speak about Agatha Christie, deservedly the best-selling mystery novel author of all time. Murder is Easy is one of her best novels, being typically easy to read, obviously contrived and yet filled with plot twists and misdirections. During the exposition of the plot the reader cannot help but be seduced by the unravelling of the mystery, and it all seems, indeed, a little too easy... but with a breathtaking twist in the tail everything is turned around more than once. In retrospect it seems so simple, and all the clues are there. And yet the reader is almost guaranteed not to guess the ending. The only thing to add is that this is one of the few Christies where the pleasure of detection and mystery is leavened with the tension of personal risk to the main characters. The final few chapters in particular took my breath away when I first read the book. Written in the 1930s and yet still as accessible today as it ever was, this is a book well worth reading for both the Christie fan and the generalist reader of detective fiction. Read it and see why Christie is the Queen of Crime.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is why your mother told you not to talk to strangers, May 9, 2004

By 

Jeanne Tassotto (Trapped in the Midwest) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murder is Easy (St. Martin's Minotaur Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Luke Fitzwilliam has just returned home to England after several years working in the East. As he settles into a train compartment on the way to London he strikes up a conversation with an elderly woman who reminds him of one of his aunts. She tells him a strange story of murders in her village, giving him details of the crimes and relating how she is on her way to Scotland Yard to try and stop the murderer before there is another death. Luke listens to her with half an ear and then forgets the incident after his arrival in London. He is reminded though when he sees that his traveling companion was killed in a street accident shortly after they parted company. He is further surprised to hear that the person named as the next victim has in fact died suddenly.

He decides to investigate further, travels to the village and begins become involved in the village life. While there Luke meets the usual village ensemble, the old maids, local doctor and family, local lord of the manor and his household and others. Luke begins to find certain disturbing aspects on the local scene that convince him that the outrageous stories he had been told just might be the truth after all.

This is a departure from Christie's usual work, there are no appearances by Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple however Sgt. Battle does make an appearance at the very end of the story. Luke Fitzwilliam is one of Dame Agatha's one appearance only heroes which is a pity. He and his romantic interest quite charming, it would be nice to meet them again.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoy This Great Cozy Village Mystery from Agatha Christie, April 30, 2001

By 

Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murder Is Easy (Library Binding)

Miss Lavinia Fullerton is a typical English spinster. In fact, she is very reminiscent of Miss Marple and the charming elderly ladies that inhabited the cozy villages of England in the time between the two World Wars. While travelling on a train to London, she chats with Luke Fitzwilliam, a young policeman, about all the murders that have been taking place in her village of Wychwood under Ashe. Her subsequent death in London traffic involves Luke in this cozy village mystery.

The novel is populated with the basic village characters: doctor, lawyer, vicar, several elderly ladies, a retired military man, and one precocious young boy. Luke will suspect just about all of them at one point or another in the story, but in a tense and thrilling ending, all is revealed.

This entertaining book became a 1982 made-for-tv movie starring Bill Bixby as Luke and Helen Hayes as Lavinia.