Readers are invited into the story to solve the mystery for themselves
I don’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t aware of Agatha Christie and Poirot.
My dad was always into crime dramas and murder mysteries. I must have been five or six when they first came into my world where they have remained.
Agatha and Poirot have a special quality that gives them longevity. We have so many characters nowadays that are big, buff, action heroes who run around with guns and solve problems with violence. Poirot is not that.
He is unassuming, he could be anyone, but his brilliance comes from his intelligence and ability to piece things together.
What makes him enduring is that people can see themselves in him. You are in his shoes because you are trying to solve that mystery with him.
My favourite Poirot has always been Murder On The Orient Express, but I am working on Poirot monologues from The Affair At The Victory Ball and The Cornish Mystery for the digital Pitlochry Festival Theatre as part of their Winter Ensemble.
Even when we are not doing an Agatha Christie or Poirot theme, they always come up either because a participant will offer up an incredible Agatha Christie twist, or they give Christie-themed team names, or even come dressed as Poirot.
Christie and Poirot are synonymous with murder-mysteries. The whole genre of interactive murder-mystery theatre might never have come to be were it not for the cultural touchstones that Agatha Christie created.