Features

CIS: The best of Ngaio Marsh

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It might be because her name looks hard to pronounce – Ngaio is said nai-0h, though the Marsh part is easy enough. Or perhaps it’s her relatively small body of work – 32 novels is less than half Agatha Christie’s 66. Then again, maybe it’s…
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Features

CIS: The perfect Poirot primer

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Name three famous Belgians… A tough ask, I know, and one that may tax your little grey cells. Wait! There’s a clue! And as a lover of crime fiction, you’ll surely have used it to come up with the world’s number one Belgian. That’s right…
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Features

WhoWunnit? Christie triumphs in CWA poll

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The result is in! And the 600 authors who are members of the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) have given double honours to the Queen of Crime. Agatha Christie has won both the Best Ever Novel and Best Ever Crime Author accolades. At an event at…
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Features

CIS: Dorothy L Sayers and Fenland

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Dorothy L Sayers was one of the greats of The Golden Age of crime fiction. Her two most celebrated characters, Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, inhabit an England that is long dead, and exist in a society whose values, dress and language are museum…
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CIS: A Pocket Full of Rye

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Written by Agatha Christie — Last year, we began Classics in September and it’s fair to say we included plenty of hardboiled and noir material from the 1940s and 50s. Chandler, Jim Thompson, Ross Macdonald and James M Cain all featured alongside the Top Five…
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Features

CIS: The Best of Dorothy L Sayers

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Dorothy L Sayers may not be quite as much of a household name worldwide as Agatha Christie, but is thought by many to be the better writer. Funnier, more nuanced and unafraid to address social issues, Sayers is often cited as an inspiration by authors…
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