Agatha Christie (1890-1976), British detective novelist and playwright, known as the queen of detective fiction, one of the world's three great masters of speculative literature, and the best-selling writer after Shakespeare.
In 1920, Agatha's first detective novel, The Strange Case of Styles Manor, was published, celebrating its 100th anniversary. Throughout her life, Agatha has written 66 popular detective novels, 14 short story collections, plays, poems and other works. Her works have been translated into more than 100 languages and sold more than 2 billion copies worldwide.
Agatha's masterpieces "Murder on the Orient Express", "Massacre on the Nile", "No One Survived" and so on are all familiar stories, many of which have been adapted to the big screen, and the images of Detective Poirot and Miss Marple are deeply rooted in people's hearts.
<h1 toutiao-origin="h1" > Miss Marple, played by Geraldine McEwan</h1>
Poirot, played by David Souchet
Agatha's classic mystery structure is that after the murder is discovered, multiple suspects each hide their secrets, and as the detectives gradually approach the truth, the story becomes larger and more complex, until a big reversal of decryption is surprising.
Someone summed up Grandma's two major techniques:
A classic trick is the red herring.
Red Herring means to conceal information. Agatha often adds drama to many suspects, making them do some misleading actions to mistakenly think that they are the real culprits or to exclude his/her suspicions.
A related subterfuge is the “double bluff.”
Double bluff refers to the double trap. Tell you the truth in a lying narrative tone, and when a suspect is too obvious, the reader often abandons speculation in order to determine that it is not the real murderer.
So how exactly does Agatha decide who is the real culprit? Sometimes Agatha herself is not sure after the beginning of the story.
Agatha's novel plot twists and turns, suspense is endless, and the ending is unexpected, making people unable to put it down as soon as they open it. The killing process she describes is not terrible, the motives are not complicated, and the story always ends in light and justice, which is very suitable for middle school students.
Reading English novels can greatly improve english, but after all, Agatha uses the English of 100 years ago, and the original detective Poirot often speaks in French, and the language of the original book is obscure even for today's British teenagers.
The "Agatha Christie Classic Detective Collection" shared with you today is specially designed for non-native English speakers, carefully adapted by British linguists and literary artists, retaining a gripping storyline, simplifying vocabulary and grammar, making the language concise and easy to understand, close to today's language expression habits.
The original edition of this set of books was published by the Harper Collins Publishing Group in the United Kingdom, and the Commercial Press introduced and published Chinese annotated editions, and provided readers with two choices: hardcover and paperback.
The Commercial Press paperback, hardcover,
List of original Collins covers
Language: Carefully rewritten by English Chinese experts, suitable for intermediate and advanced English learners;
Vocabulary: Key vocabulary with the text annotation, click reading sound;
Culture: characters and background notes to learn About British History and Culture;
Listening: Listen to the beautiful English pronunciation, scan the QR code in the book, or use it with a reading pen to read paragraph by paragraph.
Book Series Table of Contents (Click on the blue title to jump to the audition page)
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Cat among the Pigeons
Death in the Cloud
"Witness to Murder" (4.50 from Paddington)
Appointment with Death
"Hickory Dickory Dock"
《Furuya Doubts》 (Peril at End House)
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Murder on the Orient Express
The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories
Death on the Nile
The Man in the Brown Suit
Why Didn't They Ask Evans
《书房命案》（The Body in the Library）
《魔手》（The Moving Finger）
《寓所谜案》（The Murder at the Vicarage）
Crooked House
Sparkling Cyanide
After the Funeral
Dead Man's Folly
They Do It with Mirrors
《黑麦奇案》（A Pocket Full of Rye）
The Code (N or M?) ）
Destination Unknown
Hardcover book shadow (partial)
Paperback book shadow (partial)