. Click here to read book online.
The Monogram Murders: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries) Overview
Since the publication of her first novel in 1920, more than two billion copies of Agatha Christie's books have been sold around the globe. Now, for the first time ever, the guardians of her legacy have approved a brand-new novel featuring Dame Agatha's most beloved creation, Hercule Poirot.
Internationally bestselling author Sophie Hannah breathes new life into the incomparable detective. In this thrilling tale, Poirot plunges into a mystery set in 1920s London—a diabolically clever puzzle that will test his brilliant skills and baffle and delight longtime Christie fans and new generations of readers discovering him for the first time. Authorized by Christie's family, and featuring the most iconic detective of all time, this instant Christie classic is sure to be celebrated by mystery lovers the world over.
S.J. Watson Interviews Sophie Hannah
S.J. Watson is the New York Times bestselling author of Before I Go to Sleep.
SJ: In The Monogram Murders, you channeled the voice of the legendary Hercule Poirot. How was writing a longstanding character invented by someone else different from writing your own?
Sophie: Not as different as you might think. I know Poirot so well, from reading all the Christie Poirot novels lots of times. In a way, writing this book felt similar to writing about a real person I was very familiar with. It was a bit like writing an episode in the biography of someone I greatly admire.
SJ: What is your all-time favorite Agatha Christie mystery?
Sophie: That’s a tough one. Currently, Sparkling Cyanide - so clever and surprising - but I change my mind all the time. My favorite Poirot novel is After The Funeral.
SJ: What kind of research did you do prior to sitting down and writing The Monogram Murders?
Sophie: I reread all the Christie Poirots, and I booked a week's holiday at Greenway, Agatha Christie's former holiday home in Devon. I hoped that inspiration would strike if I went there, and it did. On the first night there, I propped myself up in bed with my laptop, about five metres away from an enormous portrait of Agatha, and starting putting together my plot. By the time I left at the end of the week, I had the whole story in my mind and on my computer - every last detail. If I were a superstitious person, I would say that Agatha helped me...but of course I'm far too sensible and rational to suggest that! (Or am I?)
SJ: What do you think are some of the quintessential traits of an Agatha Christie mystery? Did you try to incorporate any into The Monogram Murders?
Sophie: I tried to incorporate what I think of as all the crucial ingredients of a Christie/Poirot novel: a gleeful delight in storytelling; an outlandish/apparently impossible opening scenario that is later revealed to be eminently possible; the perfect combination of ease and pleasure for the reader with a challenging intellectual puzzle; a profound intelligence that at no point makes the reader feel stupid or condescended to; the centrality of motive and psychology; the combination of a light/feel-good experience for readers with a sophisticated awareness of the dark depravity of human beings. Christie, more than any other crime writer, is able to include polar opposites in her novels - light-dark, easy-difficult - without either ever detracting from the other.
SJ: Do you think Agatha Christie would have been pleased with The Monogram Murders?
Sophie: I can't speak for her. I fervently hope so! Wherever she is, I hope she's pleased!
