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

Agatha Christie (Author)

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 an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Agatha Christie is more than the most popular mystery writer of all time. In a career that spans over half a century, her name is synonymous with brilliant deception, ingenious puzzles, and the surprise denouement. By virtually inventing the modern mystery novel she has earned her title as the Queen of Crime. Curious? Then you're invited to read...MURDER IS EASYIt 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 killed her, too, Fitzwilliam's amusement turns to grave concern. A visit to the isolated village confirms his worst fears. For Wychwood seems to 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.AUTHORBIO: 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 (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #159,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Murder IS Easy!, November 6, 2002

By	Fuzzy Duck (Fuzzyville, Indiana) - See all my reviews

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

Have you ever been murdered? Of course not, but in Murder is Easy, a classic mystery by Agatha Christie, you'll be sucked into the job of solving a murder case. Agatha Christie fills Murder is Easy with misleading clues and suspicious characters. If you've never read an Agatha Christie book, this should definately be your first.
As a mystery lover, I was shocked at this novel when it went far beyond my expectations. Christie uses vivid adjectives and twist the plot incredibly. A downside to the book was its vocabulary. At times the words were very confusing. For example, on page 244 Luke comments, "I decided to accept Mrs. Waynflete's invitation to abide in her house, and I resolved to try to ferret the truth out of her. All in all, I would rate the book four stars and would highly recommend it to any Agatha Christie lover.

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.